Microsoft and Salesforce have been in a back-and-forth over the generative AI race, with CEO Marc Benioff occasionally throwing jabs at the tech giant’s efforts in the landscape. Last week, the executive claimed Microsoft had disappointed everyone based on how it has handled AI, further indicating:
“And today, when we look at Copilot and what they’ve done. They’ve repackaged OpenAI and dropped it into Excel.”
Microsoft has seemingly clapped back at Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s comments downplaying its AI efforts. Marc Benioff recently highlighted a section from a post by Market Watch touting Salesforce’s success in the AI landscape with agents:
“While Microsoft’s Copilot has become the standard-bearer for the first generation of generative AI software, Salesforce Inc. has beaten Microsoft to market on agents. Agentforce 2.0 is rolling out now, and Chief Executive Marc Benioff has been doing the media rounds promising that it is a multitrillion-dollar market.”
“While Microsoft Copilot has become the standard-bearer for the first generation of generative-AI software, Salesforce has beaten Microsoft to market on agents.” 🤖https://t.co/ARe7RKFnuO Listen to the MarketWatch podcast: https://t.co/Lojn3iAQC0January 17, 2025
The post also analyzed AI trends and the impact of agents on stocks and the market in general. Charles Lamanna, Microsoft CVP of Business & Industry Copilot and former Metrics Hub founder responded to Benioff’s post on X, indicating:
“We are all excited about agents! And Microsoft has been at it for a while. We launched autonomous agents back in May 2024, and 100,000 organizations had used Copilot Studio to create agents by October 2024. Copilot + agents are the combo to watch.”
We are all excited about agents! And Microsoft has been at it for a while. We launched autonomous agents back in May 2024, and 100,000 organizations had used Copilot Studio to create agents by October 2024. Copilot + agents are the combo to watch. https://t.co/Dps20sXMOXJanuary 18, 2025
Benioff has shared interesting consumer feedback about Copilot’s user experience, claiming customers aren’t finding themselves transformed while leveraging the tool’s capabilities. He added that customers barely use the tool, “and that’s when they don’t have a ChatGPT license or something like that in front of them.”
Last year, Salesforce’s CEO claimed Microsoft’s AI efforts are a “tremendous disservice” to the industry while referring to Copilot as the new Microsoft Clippy because it reportedly doesn’t work or deliver value.
As the AI agent race becomes more fierce, Microsoft has seemingly positioned itself in a unique position to compete on a level playing field with key players like Salesforce Agentforce, especially after launching autonomous agents and integrating them into Copilot Studio.
Microsoft claims over 100,000 organizations had used Copilot Studio to create agents by October 2024. However, Benioff claimed Microsoft’s Copilot agents illustrated panic mode, majorly due to the stiff competition in the category.
Microsoft rebranding Copilot as ‘agents’? That’s panic mode. Let’s be real—Copilot’s a flop because Microsoft lacks the data, metadata, and enterprise security models to create real corporate intelligence. That is why Copilot is inaccurate, spills corporate data, and forces customers to build their own LLMs. Clippy 2.0, anyone?
Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff
To that end, organizations are quickly hopping onto the AI agents bandwagon with plans to integrate the sophisticated systems into their workflows. For instance, Meta CEO Zuckerberg indicated his vision for the company with mid-level AI engineers taking over software engineering jobs in 2025. The same is also true for Salesforce. CEO Marc Benioff says the company is seriously debating hiring software engineers in 2025.
