Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff dismissed concerns that AI would erode demand for traditional software subscriptions, telling CNBC's Jim Cramer that top AI firms actually rely heavily on Salesforce tools. He cited a 435% year-over-year jump in usage of Salesforce and Slack among nine of the ten leading AI companies, framing this as proof that AI complements rather than replaces CRM software. The comments came after Salesforce posted strong quarterly results and guidance, sending shares up more than 12%.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-26
Salesforce's fiscal second-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates, with revenue up 11% to $11.35 billion and net income jumping 87% to $3.53 billion, partly fueled by a $2.6 billion gain on its investment in Anthropic. The company also raised its full-year revenue outlook to $46.1-$46.4 billion and unveiled Claudeforce, a Claude-powered plugin that automates sales tasks like email drafting and record updates.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-26
Salesforce and Anthropic expanded their partnership by unveiling Claudeforce, a plugin embedding 37 pre-built sales skills directly into Anthropic's Claude chatbot, letting users draft emails, update records and perform other CRM tasks. It's the first time Salesforce has attached its 'force' branding to another company's product, with more integrations across Claude, Salesforce and Slack planned. The news came alongside Salesforce's fiscal second-quarter earnings, which beat Wall Street estimates.
cnbc.com
· 2026-08-26
Salesforce and Anthropic unveiled an expanded partnership called Claudeforce, centered on a new plugin, Salesforce in Claude, that lets sales teams query and update live CRM records directly from Claude's CoWork interface. The tool ships with 37 built-in sales skills for tasks like meeting prep and pipeline reviews, is rolling out to pilot customers now, and will reach open beta in September with more business-function skills arriving later in the year.
venturebeat.com
· 2026-08-26
Arga, a startup led by CEO Philip Li, announced a $10 million seed round led by General Catalyst, with Box Group, Emergence, Gradient and SV Angel also participating. The company builds full replicas of enterprise tools like Salesforce, Workday and email clients, complete with permissions and web hooks, so AI agents can be trained and tested repeatedly without disrupting live systems.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-26
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