As AI slashes white-collar jobs, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says almost no one is being hired—except in sales

Legions of students pursued engineering in college in hopes of hitting the hiring market as a hot commodity. But now, their prospects are falling flat among some major employers. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently revealed that the $145 billion cloud-based platform is keeping its engineering headcount unchanged as AI generates bounds of productivity. And the recruitment freeze extends to many layers across the tech giant—except for sales.

“We’re not hiring more engineers, we’re not hiring more GA [general and administrative roles], we’re mostly expanding only in one area,” Benioff recently said during a quarterly earnings call this Wednesday, adding that the company is “mostly growing in Miguel’s area: in sales.”

Benioff noted that the number of engineers at Salesforce has stagnated for around two years, holding steady at around 15,000 staffers; last year, the CEO even announced the company would not hire any more engineers in 2025 due to AI gains. And yet Salesforce’s headcount has still ticked up thanks ...