AI Agent · China · CNBC Technology
Op-ed: Salesforce just revealed the next battleground in AI, and it's not the models
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Analysts and pundits in finance have an endless supply of clever, simplistic explanations for complex market movements.
Key facts
- As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said on CNBC with Jim Cramer following the earnings report Wednesday, amid the stock soaring 20% and more, "The 'SaaSpocalypse' narrative has been such nonsense
- Agents cannot work without data, so the data keeps flooding in: Salesforce's Data 360 ingested a staggering 104 trillion customer records this quarter, up 355% year over year
- For the past year, markets have vaporized roughly $2 trillion in software value by asking the wrong question about AI
- Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is Lester Crown Professor in Leadership Practice at Yale School of Management and president and founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute
Summary
For the past year, markets have vaporized roughly $2 trillion in software value by asking the wrong question about AI. The right question, and the clearest test they know of for separating AI's winners from its roadkill, is different: Does this company own something AI agents cannot operate without? Salesforce's recent blowout earnings show why the balance of power may be shifting away from frontier models and back toward software companies that investors had prematurely left for dead. For months, analysts have assumed that frontier large language models will accrue an ever-greater share of the value created by AI, with the valuations of those companies soaring commensurately.