Salesforce’s Innovative Approach to Workforce Transformation in the Age of AI

In the wake of significant layoffs across major tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce, a new narrative is emerging about how organizations are adapting their workforces for the future. While many observers have been surprised to see prosperous tech giants reducing headcount despite continued growth, Salesforce stands out for its strategic approach to workforce transformation. Rather than simply downsizing, Salesforce is implementing a comprehensive employee retraining strategy, even as CEO Marc Benioff publicly acknowledges reduced hiring for junior engineers and decreased need for customer service staff. “Salesforce firmly believes that an AI transformation is really fundamentally human, and we need to help our talent and our business to keep up with the pace of change,” explains Ruth Hickin, vice president of workforce innovation at Salesforce.

At the heart of Salesforce’s approach is Career Connect, an internal platform launched in late 2022 and expanded through their July 2023 Workforce Innovation Playbook. This platform represents a paradigm shift in how employees can envision their professional development. “We launched it with this concept of career mosaics…don’t just think of your career as this upward trajectory in your one specific vertical,” Hickin notes. The platform does far more than just post internal job openings—it actively assesses employees’ skills and experience to provide personalized career guidance “in a more meaningful way.” Through Career Connect, Salesforce is facilitating remarkable career pivots, such as a talent lead who successfully transitioned to cybersecurity by leveraging existing project management skills while developing new technical competencies. This internal mobility approach is complemented by Salesforce’s Trailhead program, which provides free online Salesforce administration training to anyone, including those outside the company.

In departments most affected by AI and automation, Salesforce has taken a more hands-on approach to workforce transformation. Customer service, identified by leadership as an area experiencing significant transition due to AI implementation, has become a focus for strategic intervention. “Customer support is where we have seen probably the biggest change in jobs in the short term, just simply because the agent takes on a lot of the case management for our support team,” Hickin explains. Rather than simply reducing headcount in this department, Salesforce developed formal training programs to help customer service representatives find new career tracks within the company, including a newly created “customer service architect” position. Jenny Simmons, vice president of enterprise learning, describes this as a very hands-on approach: “They were basically one-day trainings with the technical support engineers, they all qualified to be architects, and they were able to apply for those roles directly.”

Similarly, the sales development representative (SDR) role—a popular entry point for many early-career professionals—is evolving rather than disappearing at Salesforce. The company has developed AI agents that “really augment a lot of the work that an SDR can do,” according to Hickin. “We still need SDRs, but the capacity that they have is significantly increasing.” This represents a fundamental shift in how companies might approach workforce planning in the AI era—not necessarily eliminating roles but transforming them to leverage the combined strengths of human employees and AI technologies. By augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them wholesale, Salesforce is modeling a more nuanced approach to technological integration.

To prepare all employees for this AI-powered future, Salesforce has identified ten essential skills that blend business acumen, human capabilities, and AI proficiency. “Through the platform, we pushed those skills out to everyone to assess where they are and also give them tailored learning pathways to upskill in those core ten skills,” Simmons explains. This universal approach ensures that employees across all levels and departments have access to the development resources they need to remain relevant and valuable in a rapidly changing technological landscape. By democratizing access to these learning opportunities, Salesforce is helping to mitigate anxiety about job security while empowering employees to take an active role in their professional evolution.

The results of these initiatives have been promising, with Salesforce reporting that 76 percent of employees are now using the Career Connect platform for internal mobility, skill development, project opportunities, and professional networking. Perhaps more significantly, the company has observed a marked increase in employees reporting awareness of career opportunities available to them. “We know that the demand is there, and we saw our scores in our internal survey go up immediately in terms of people understanding where their career opportunities are,” Hickin shares. “We’ve also seen a massive amount of internal hiring.” As the tech industry continues to navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by AI and automation, Salesforce’s human-centered approach to workforce transformation offers valuable insights for other organizations. By investing in employee development rather than simply reducing headcount, companies may find more sustainable paths to adapt to technological change while preserving institutional knowledge and fostering employee loyalty.