In September 2025, CEO Marc Benioff reduced Salesforce's support workforce from 9,000 to approximately 5,000 employees, stating he 'needed less heads.' Salesforce reported that AI agents now handle half of all customer interactions and have reduced support costs by 17% since early 2025. This came just three weeks after Benioff publicly insisted that Salesforce's AI would not lead to mass layoffs, drawing criticism for the contradiction.
On March 5, 2025, Salesforce filed its annual report removing all references to DEI, diversity hiring targets, and language about diversity being a 'core value'. The section was renamed 'Equality' and now only discusses legal compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Previously, Salesforce had goals to increase underrepresented minority leadership by 50% and achieve 40% women/non-binary representation by 2026.
In 2024, Salesforce employees performing similar jobs were paid on par across genders globally and race in the US. The company, which pioneered equal pay audits in 2015, offers gender affirmation benefits including four weeks paid leave, medical reimbursement for surgeries, hormonal therapy, and legal fee reimbursements. Nine Ohana employee resource groups serve one in three employees, including Outforce for LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Salesforce established robust DEI programs centered around Equality Groups, with more than 50% of employees and contingent workers participating as members or allies, and membership growing 20% year-over-year. The company launched a Supplier Diversity Academy, a six-month accelerator for small businesses owned by underrepresented minorities, women, veterans, disabled, or LGBTQ+ individuals. Its Warmline employee advocacy program for underrepresented groups reduced attrition by 80% since 2020 and was named a DEI Lighthouse by the World Economic Forum in 2023.
In January 2023, CEO Marc Benioff announced the dismissal of approximately 7,000 employees, roughly 10% of Salesforce's workforce. The announcement was made via a two-hour all-hands meeting over a video call, a method Benioff later admitted had been a 'bad idea.' Benioff attributed the layoffs to over-hiring during the pandemic, stating 'I hired too many people leading into this economic downturn.'
Salesforce committed $100 million over 10 years toward climate justice, funding innovative nature-based solutions and supporting nonprofits advancing equitable clean energy transitions. In FY2024, the company provided $10 million in climate justice grants supporting 18 organizations globally. Salesforce also achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across global operations and committed to 100% renewable energy, offering a carbon-neutral cloud to customers.
Salesforce maintained its contract with U.S. Customs and Border Protection despite protests at Dreamforce 2018, employee petitions, and opposition from advocacy organizations including RAICES (which rejected a $250,000 Salesforce donation). CEO Benioff defended the contract, saying the technology was not used for family separations. Critics argued Salesforce was providing the technology infrastructure that enabled CBP's border enforcement operations.
Salesforce created its Office of Ethical and Humane Use, which developed the company's first set of trusted AI principles in 2018. The company established an Ethical Use Advisory Council composed of external experts from academia and civil society, customer-facing employees, and internal executives. Salesforce adopted 'consequence scanning' across all product teams to envision unintended outcomes of new features. In 2023, it augmented its principles with five guidelines for responsible generative AI development.
$12.0M
Beginning in 2015, Salesforce conducted annual company-wide pay audits and spent over $12 million adjusting salaries to close gender and racial pay gaps. CEO Marc Benioff championed the initiative after being challenged by Chief People Officer Cindy Robbins. Salesforce was among the first major tech companies to publish annual equal pay updates and commit to ongoing audits. By 2022, the company reported achieving statistical pay parity across gender and race.
Since its founding in 1999, Salesforce has committed 1% of its equity, 1% of its product, and 1% of employees' time to charitable causes. Over 20+ years, this has resulted in over $240 million in grants, 3.5 million hours of community service, and product donations to 39,000 nonprofits and education institutions. The model inspired the Pledge 1% movement, with over 18,000 companies participating.