SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2026, 11:07 PDT
- Business Insider reported that job cuts are affecting roles at Agentforce, MuleSoft, and Marketing Cloud.
- Salesforce is pushing further into AI agents while some investors question its traditional software-seat approach.
- The stock dropped in New York, extending a tough year for the Dow software company.
Salesforce laid off more workers, with staff linked to Agentforce, its main AI product, among those let go, Business Insider reported Tuesday. The outlet cited sources and a regulatory notice in California. The notice showed 86 jobs cut across sales, general administration, tech, and product, according to the report.
The timing is key. Salesforce is betting that AI agents, which tackle jobs like updating records or handling customer cases with little human help, can bring in new sales faster than they hurt its older business model of per-seat licenses.
Salesforce shares slid 4.6% to $174.13 early afternoon in New York. The stock is already off more than 30% this year, per Business Insider and market data.
Business Insider reported one source said the new Salesforce layoffs hit staff on Agentforce, MuleSoft, and Marketing Cloud, as well as its IT integration tool. Another person confirmed cuts, but didn’t say where. Salesforce didn’t comment when asked by Business Insider.
Salesforce last month announced Agentforce ARR topped $1 billion, coming in at $1.2 billion. Combined AI and data ARR was $3.4 billion. Salesforce also said Agentforce and Slack generated 3.8 billion “agentic work units”—its way to count completed AI agent tasks in production. Salesforce Investor Relations
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called agentic AI the company’s “biggest growth opportunity” in the May 27 earnings release. President and CFO Robin Washington said Salesforce is looking for “organic revenue acceleration” in the second half of fiscal 2027, pushed by Sales, Service, Slack, Agentforce and Data 360. Salesforce Investor Relations
But investors want to know how quickly Salesforce can turn on new revenue streams. The company guided fiscal Q2 revenue to $11.27 billion to $11.35 billion, which came in a touch under the $11.36 billion analyst average from LSEG, Reuters said. “The next few quarters will be critical to Salesforce,” Valoir CEO Rebecca Wettemann told Reuters, pointing to pressure for results from both seat licenses and Agentforce. Reuters
Software stocks have traded unevenly while investors try to figure out which names come out ahead and which get hurt as AI takes hold. Reuters said last week that fund managers are buying into companies such as Oracle and Microsoft that could adapt to AI or adjust their pricing. Daniel Morgan at Synovus Trust said AI is “remapping the industry” instead of wiping it out. Reuters
More signs of strain in the jobs market. Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that U.S. employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May. AI factored into 38,579 of those cuts, making up 40% of all announced layoffs for the month. Tech posted 38,242 cuts, the most for the sector since August 2024.
Salesforce faces risk beyond just headcount. If AI agents start cutting into per-seat subscription demand faster than Agentforce can ramp up stable usage-based revenue, the company could be forced to keep making cuts while also working to support growth. Striking that balance is tough, and the latest layoffs make it an issue again.
