Salesforce CEO Dismisses SaaSpocalypse Fears
Marc Benioff rejects concerns that AI agents could undermine the SaaS model as Salesforce posts $10.7 billion in quarterly revenue.
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The rise of autonomous AI agents is forcing a new question in enterprise software: could the technology undercut the very software-as-a-service (SaaS) model it runs on?
Salesforce Chief Executive Marc Benioff used the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call this week to dispel fears of a coming “SaaSpocalypse.”
“You’ve heard about the SaaSpocalypse? And it isn’t our first. We’ve had a few of them,” Benioff said, referring to periodic predictions that new technologies would erode the subscription software model.
He later added, “If there is a SaaSpocalypse, it may be eaten by the Sasquatch because there are a lot of companies using a lot of SaaS because it just got better with agents.”
The term SaaSpocalypse has gained traction among investors who worry that AI agents capable of executing tasks autonomously could reduce the need for traditional per-seat licenses, potentially challenging the economics of enterprise platforms.
Benioff argued instead that agents enhance existing software rather than replace it, embedding automation within established workflows and increasing the value of SaaS systems.
Salesforce reported fourth-quarter revenue of $10.7 billion, up 13% from a year ago, while full-year revenue rose 10% to $41.5 billion. Net income totaled $7.46 billion. Remaining performance obligation, a measure of contracted but unrecognized revenue, exceeded $72 billion.
The company has embedded AI features across its product suite and introduced a metric called agentic work units, or AWU, to track whether AI systems complete defined tasks such as updating records rather than generating text.
Salesforce said it processed 19 trillion tokens during the quarter.
The debate comes as Microsoft Corp. and ServiceNow expand agent-based capabilities within their own enterprise platforms, raising questions about whether AI will reinforce subscription software or compress demand for traditional licenses.
Salesforce forecast revenue of $45.8 billion to $46.2 billion for the coming fiscal year, implying growth of 10% to 11%.
