**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In a development generating significant discussion within the global technology and business sectors, Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff has issued a formal statement regarding the company’s strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence integration, a move he characterizes as an “urgent necessity” for enterprise software.

Who: Marc Benioff, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Salesforce.

What: Announced a company-wide restructuring and substantial investment reallocation, prioritizing the development and deployment of Salesforce’s proprietary AI platform, Einstein 2.0. The decision includes the elimination of approximately 700 positions in legacy sales and marketing divisions to fund the hiring of 1,000 new engineering roles focused exclusively on generative AI.

Where: The announcement was made via an internal memo circulated to all 73,000 employees, with the primary operational impact centered on Salesforce headquarters in San Francisco and major development hubs in Hyderabad, India, and Dublin, Ireland.

When: The memo was distributed at 8:00 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, with workforce transitions scheduled to commence within the next 30 days.

Why: Benioff cited a 27% decline in new customer acquisition for legacy cloud software products and a 340% surge in enterprise demand for AI-driven customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. He stated that failure to adapt to what he termed “the Fourth Industrial Revolution of CRM” would render the company obsolete within five years.

How: The restructuring involves a three-phase plan: immediate workforce reduction in non-core areas, an accelerated hiring sprint for AI specialists, and the integration of the new Einstein 2.0 system into all existing Salesforce products by Q2 of the next fiscal year. Benioff has personally committed to overseeing the AI division and will report directly to the Board of Directors on quarterly progress metrics, a departure from standard operating procedure.

This strategic shift