AI agents will be like Iron Man’s Jarvis – Computerworld

Companies, he said, have to invest in reskilling workers, rather than just “making promises” there won’t be layoffs. Salesforce, he said, is investing in reskilling, but he also stressed the importance of corporate responsibility for helping to advance public education. “You can’t just talk about it; you have to fund it,” he said.

“Our biggest grantee is our San Francisco and Oakland public schools, because I think that it’s all about education that we’re going to need to make sure people are well trained, well educated, they can reskill,” he said. “And reskilling is another area that we put a huge amount of money into the last 20 years, and this is important. And yes, we’re all going to have to think about this.”

Despite its size, Benioff sees Salesforce as a startup at heart that’s focused on emerging tech and driven by vision, values, and innovation. He recalled the early days — bootstrapping with angel investors like IDG founder Pat McGovern, and how industry events like IDG’s DEMO shaped the company’s beginnings. Notable products introduced at DEMO include Salesforce.com itself, TiVo, VMware, Evernote, E*Trade, WebEx, and Fusion-io. (Until last month, Foundry was owned by IDG.)