The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

SaaStr 801: AI, M&A, and the Future of SaaS: Lessons from Marc Benioff, Chair, CEO & Co-Founder of Salesforce

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May 2, 2025

Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, shares insights on the transformative role of AI in B2B. He discusses major acquisitions like Tableau and Slack, and their impact on merging data with AI. Benioff highlights the competitive landscape against giants like Microsoft, and emphasizes the need for effective AI integration within companies. He also explores the importance of data management and Salesforce's innovative products like Agent Force, all while promoting philanthropy in entrepreneurship through the 1% model.

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ANECDOTE

Tableau Acquisition and Innovation

Salesforce admired Tableau and bought it to enhance their analytics capabilities.
They developed a new AI-powered platform inspired by Tableau's founders to improve data apps and agents.

INSIGHT

Slack as Meta Agent

Slack is becoming deeply integrated with AI at Salesforce, evolving beyond its original form.
Slack is envisioned as the "meta agent" connecting users across Salesforce products.

ADVICE

Encourage Rapid AI Deployment

Deploy AI agents swiftly to create significant value and financial impact.
Encourage customers to experiment with AI to accelerate their innovation cycles.

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SaaStr 801: AI, M&A, and the Future of SaaS: Lessons from Marc Benioff, Chair, CEO & Co-Founder of Salesforce

Join us for as SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin sits down for a conversation with Mark Benioff, the CEO, Chair and Co-Founder of Salesforce. Together, we delve into the practical applications of AI in the B2B space. With 40 billion under Salesforce's belt, this discussion sheds light on how AI is transforming enterprise software. Learn about Salesforce's major acquisitions like Tableau and Slack, the evolution of their product offerings, and how they seamlessly integrate AI with business intelligence and analytics. Mark also shares insights on the strategic direction of Salesforce, the significance of data management, and the role of AI assistants in revolutionizing customer service and product development. Tune in for a glimpse into the future of enterprise software and the impactful initiatives driven by Salesforce.

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Hey everybody. SaaStr Annual is almost here. It's May 13th to the 15th, right here in the SF Bay, the heart of the AI Revolution, and you've gotta be part of it in B2B and be it SaaStr 2025. We'll have an incredible line above speakers, the best in SaaS and AI. From HubSpot and Perplexity from Anthropic, to OpenAI, from Snowflake to Cursor, to Google Coud, to Box to IBM and more.

We'll have AI matchmaking for founders and investors for the first time, and we'll have over 1,000+ C-level executives at our VIP summits. It's gonna be great. So we'll see you there. If you want to come in person, use my code Jason20 before tickets sell out.

And we'll see anyone that can't make it in person on our live streams. It'll be all over my Twitter and LinkedIn and everywhere. May 13th to the 15th 2025.

It's gonna rock.

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