Salesforce hits software sales slump, bets on AI adoption to boost business
Summary
“What were seeing is not only the installation and integration and implementation of the platforms that weve sold in the last four years, but the layering in of this new capability.” Software spending is a perennial pain point in the ongoing push to modernize the enterprise. “You’ve got companies spending millions of dollars a year who haven’t adopted all of the things that they pay for and it’s very hard for Salesforce to grow those accounts.” Broader macroeconomic factors have an impact as well, particularly as enterprise customers reorganize workforce and consider layoffs, Herbert added. Creating premium bundles and shifting to consumption-based pricing models are two additional levers software providers have leaned on to buoy business, Scott Bickley, advisory practice lead at Info-Tech Research Group, said. SaaS vendors are also leaning on generative AI add-ons, including coding assistants and other built-in productivity and summarization tools, to lure customers. Salesforce added low-code developer capabilities to its Einstein Copilot, bundled AI and data governance tools and introduced a healthcare natural-language assistant in the last several months.