Salesforce, Inc. (CRM.US) "AI Grand Vision" released! May kick off a brand new revenue model for the SaaS industry.

Cloud software giant Salesforce, Inc. (CRM.US), focusing on customer relationship management (CRM) software, announced a significant turning point in its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy at its annual Dreamforce conference this week. The company now claims that its AI tools can efficiently handle multiple complex tasks without human supervision and are changing its software product portfolio pricing model in the context of AI technology integration. This model is likely to become a new mainstream pricing model for SaaS companies in the AI era. Known globally for pioneering the software as a service (SaaS) era, Salesforce, Inc. offers access to computer software applications through a subscription model. Now, with the launch of ChatGPT, human society is gradually entering the long-awaited AI era, and Salesforce, Inc. is poised to kickstart a new revenue model in the SaaS industry. In recent years, as generative AI has shaken up the entire software industry, Salesforce, Inc. management is rethinking its business models with emerging technologies. The software industry giant will charge $2 for every interaction conducted by its new AI "agents," which are embedded in generative AI-based chatbots. These "agents" are used for quickly and efficiently accessing complex technical modules, handling customer service, or scheduling sales meetings for tasks within an enterprise, all without human supervision. If widespread adoption of AI leads to an increase in unemployment in the future, and the scale of purchases of traditional software subscription services by the company's business clients may decrease, the company's new AI agent technology and pricing strategy will protect Salesforce, Inc.'s profits to the maximum extent. Salesforce, Inc. even leans towards leveraging the potential of "employee replacement" with the new technology. CEO Marc Benioff stated during the annual Dreamforce conference on Tuesday that their new AI agents will enable the company to quickly increase labor supply during peak business periods without hiring additional full-time employees or freelancers. Although AI has been a focal point for global investors since early 2023, application software providers like Salesforce, Inc., Workday Inc., and ServiceNow Inc. have shown little improvement in revenue and stock valuation due to AI technology. Revenue and stock valuation benefits from AI have mostly gone to AI infrastructure hardware giants like NVIDIA Corporation or cloud computing infrastructure providers like Oracle Corporation and Microsoft Corporation. Since 2023, many software vendors globally have introduced generative AI assistants that can summarize or draft written content, with the most famous one being Microsoft Corporation's Copilot. This AI assistant is fully integrated into Microsoft Corporation's flagship software, such as the Office suite. However, customers do not seem ready to pay extra for these additional AI features. "I think investors' expectations for Microsoft Corporation's Copilot have not met the results they anticipated," stated Salesforce, Inc. COO Brian Millham in an interview in late August. "I think the market hype has been a bit ahead of the results brought by Copilot alone." Regarding Salesforce, Inc.'s latest AI product, the company stated in a release that their new generation of AI products will run without human supervision, contrasting with the outdated AI assistants or chatbots used in the past that relied on human-command requests or struggled with complex or multi-step tasks. For example, renowned publisher John Wiley & Sons stated that by using Salesforce, Inc.'s "AI agents," the publisher was able to increase the number of customer service claims or other services resolved without human intervention. This represents a significant shift for Salesforce, Inc., which previously focused on building AI tools based on human-assisted generative AI. "We have a principle called 'humans in the loop' - because we don't yet understand enough to introduce fully autonomous technology," said company executive Patrick Stokes in September 2023. This week at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, the company will further outline its new AI strategy. It is expected to have 45,000 attendees at this important tech conference. Their venture capital division also announced a new fund of approximately $500 million for AI startups. Benioff stated on Tuesday local time that Salesforce, Inc.'s new AI products will have high accuracy and security due to the company's secure and precise handling of a large amount of customer data. This contrasts sharply with what he refers to as "those inefficient and annoying AI assistants." Salesforce, Inc.'s new AI strategy acknowledges that AI will replace some jobs. FurthermoreSoftware providers like Salesforce, Inc. have solved another concern for investors by undergoing a comprehensive transformation into the field of artificial intelligence, that is, the potential increase in unemployment rates caused by AI may harm the profit margins of Software as a Service (SaaS) business models.There is no doubt that one of the main selling points of the new AI strategy of industry leaders like Salesforce, Inc. is the improvement in labor efficiency provided by artificial intelligence tools, and the new additional fees can almost avoid the negative impact of employee layoffs. For example, a company using AI tools for customer service will need fewer human resources to serve the same number of customers. However, the rapid slowdown in the expansion of the workforce may significantly affect the revenue growth rate of SaaS software companies, as these companies typically charge based on the number of employees authorized to use the software. As a result, Wall Street analysts have engaged in debates with software company management on this potential risk in recent earnings conference calls. Salesforce, Inc.'s new artificial intelligence strategy acknowledges that AI will replace some of the jobs that were originally done by humans. Therefore, by pricing its new AI features based on specific results rather than the number of enterprise customer employees using it, Salesforce, Inc. is working hard to protect itself from the negative impact of customer layoffs. Salesforce, Inc.'s Chief Operating Officer, Milhaim, gave a practical example, saying that a call center with up to 5000 employees might need to reduce its workforce by 30% over the next five years as evidence. He added that other companies may simply choose to reduce hiring in the future. "We like to think, for example: let's retrain skills, let people upgrade the skills they need to do more complex work," Milhaim said. "But for sure there are some companies looking through the lens - 'Hey, I think AI can do most of the work that humans do today.'" Since 2023, Salesforce, Inc. has been investing continuously in the field of AI, and Wall Street is optimistic about its future stock price performance. In addition to the latest AI layout strategies and software transformation plans announced at the annual Dreamforce conference, including additional AI agent charges, Salesforce, Inc. has been stepping up its investments in generative AI technology since 2023 in order to integrate almost all cloud software businesses under Salesforce, Inc. with generative AI. In order to stay ahead in the AI era against tech giants like Microsoft Corporation, Amazon.com, Inc., and Alphabet Inc. Class C, Salesforce, Inc. and other leaders in the enterprise software field are increasing their efforts in AI. They are striving to attract more users to their software by embedding versatile generative AI tools similar to ChatGPT in their proprietary software products, thereby boosting revenue. However, for these software companies, unlike software giant Microsoft Corporation directly controlling OpenAI, a leader in the industry, and Alphabet Inc. Class C's huge first-mover advantage in the field of AI, the huge investments made by Salesforce, Inc. and other software companies in AI in the short term, such as investing heavily in purchasing NVIDIA Corporation AI GPU, may not necessarily be reflected in performance. Salesforce, Inc. has already embedded AI technology into its cloud computing solutions to provide more intelligent and personalized customer relationship management (CRM) and business applications. For example, Salesforce, Inc. has launched an AI software platform called "Einstein" to add AI functionality to enterprise CRM and business applications. Einstein uses technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing to help companies predict customer behavior, provide personalized recommendations, automate tasks, etc. Among them, Einstein Bot, a generative AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT, enables customers to access technical support and various resources from the AI cloud platform through a simple chat interface. Einstein Bot, by integrating natural language understanding and generative AI functions, supports more complex conversations, low-threshold access to major AI platform functions, automated handling of complex multi-tasks for customers, and comprehensive integration of cross-platform customer service. Similar to GPT-3/4, it can generate more natural conversations and provide a higher level of customer support. According to the latest forecast from the well-known research firm IDC's "Global AI and Generative AI Spending Guide," the organization predicts that global spending related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) will at least double by 2028 compared to the current level, reaching approximately $632 billion. Artificial intelligence, especially generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), is rapidly integrating into various end devices and products, and IDC predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.0% for AI spending from 2024 to 2028. IDC points out that software or applications will be the largest category of AI technology expenditures, accounting for more than half of the entire AI market in most forecasts. IDC predicts that the five-year compound annual growth rate of AI software will reach 33.9%. IDC forecasts that spending on AI-related hardware (including servers, storage devices, and infrastructure as a service) will be the second-largest category of technology spending. The well-known investment firm Baird on Wall Street recognizes Salesforce, Inc.'s focus on Data Cloud solutions and AI layout, maintaining a "running" rating on the stock."Winning the market" rating, with a target stock price of 315 US dollars within 12 months. Wall Street giant Bank of America Corp maintains a "buy" rating, with a target stock price of 325 US dollars for Salesforce, Inc. Another investment institution, Needham, gives a target price of 345 US dollars. As of the close of the US stock market on Tuesday, Salesforce, Inc. closed at $255.19."Je t'aime beaucoup"