Davos AI Showdown: Salesforce and Microsoft Clash over AI Dominance
Davos, Switzerland - Amidst the frigid temperatures of Davos, Salesforce (CRM) CEO Marc Benioff has reignited his criticism of AI rival Microsoft (MSFT).
"Microsoft's Copilot has underwhelmed the world. It's essentially a rebranded ChatGPT," Benioff told Yahoo Finance at the World Economic Forum.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently dismissed business applications as "CRUD databases with business logic."
A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on Benioff's remarks.
Salesforce's AI bots, capable of customer service and product descriptions, compete with Microsoft's Copilot for workplace leadership. Salesforce closed 200 Agentforce deals in Q3, including with FedEx (FDX), IBM (IBM), and Accenture (ACN).
Benioff declined to disclose updated Agentforce figures but noted that consumption has been strong, with Salesforce charging $2 per conversation.
Wall Street has embraced the AI agent narrative, boosting Salesforce's stock by over 25% since the introduction of Agentforce at Dreamforce.
However, skepticism remains. Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci downgraded Salesforce to Sell, arguing that "Salesforce cannot meaningfully monetize Agentforce without acquiring assets it aspires to."
Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor Brian Sozzi moderates in-depth conversations on the Opening Bid podcast.
Relevant stock symbols
* AMZN
* FDX
* AAPL
* NVDA
* IBM