Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, a company that has invested heavily in artificial intelligence tools for its portfolio, has called Microsoft’s Copilot AI a “huge disservice” to the industry.
In a recent interview on the Quick response podcast, Benioff compared Copilot to Microsoft’s early office assistant, Clippy, and suggested the service is disappointing and doesn’t deliver meaningful value.
The comments come despite Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI several months ago, and the subsequent injection of what is considered one of the best AI models available into its products.
Salesforce CEO criticizes Microsoft’s Copilot AI
Benioff even went so far as to suggest that Redmond’s extensive AI efforts may not last long, predicting fading hype and a declining user base.
In the podcast he added: “It’s not working. It spreads data across our floors, but delivers no value. I haven’t found a customer doing transformational work with Copilot. Copilot is simply the new Microsoft Clippy.”
Eager to separate Microsoft’s efforts from Salesforce’s, the CEO praised the company’s new Agentforce tool for helping transform businesses by delivering tangible value. Agentforce reportedly already processes “a few trillion AI transactions per week,” leading to happy customers.
Looking ahead, Benioff hinted at an AI landscape dominated by enterprise AI agents, suggesting the demise of Microsoft Copilot, which promises to deliver productivity and efficiency improvements for workers.
Despite the CEO’s criticism, Microsoft’s influence in the field of AI remains strong. Its relative early entry, combined with its affiliation with OpenAI, put it high on the leaderboard of companies choosing to deploy AI. Next, Microsoft plans to continue investing in its data centers to support future expansion.
Microsoft became the second company to reach a market cap of $3 trillion, already well into its AI journey, and analysts predict it could be the most valuable company in the world in the coming years. Apple currently holds that title, but chipmaker Nvidia, responsible for supplying those all-important data center chips, has also been strongly in the race.