Salesforce just laid off 1,000 people — including its own AI team. Here's what it means for you.

You've probably seen the "AI is taking everyone's jobs" headlines this week. Salesforce quietly let go of nearly 1,000 employees — and the list of affected teams tells a story worth paying attention to.

But it might not be the story you think.

What actually happened

On Monday, Salesforce cut roles across marketing, product management, data analytics, and its own Agentforce AI team.

The people building the AI tools designed to automate work were themselves laid off.

This follows CEO Marc Benioff's move last year to cut the company's customer support team from roughly 9,000 to about 5,000, which he openly attributed to AI agents handling those tasks. Benioff has repeatedly said the company needs "less heads" because AI can do the work.

And Salesforce isn't alone. In 2025, companies directly pointed to AI when announcing 55,000 job cuts — that's 12 times the number attributed to AI just two years earlier, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Amazon cut 16,000 corporate roles in January, Pinterest slashed 15% of its workforce, Workday cut 400, and Dow is eliminating 4,500 positions.

The narrative in many places is that AI means companies need fewer people.

But here's what the headlines aren't telling you

Harvard Business Review just published a piece on the real reasons companies are making these layoffs: "Companies Are Laying Off Workers Because of AI's Potential — Not Its Performance."

The argument from researchers at Babson College and the Return on AI Institute: CEOs from Ford, Amazon, Salesforce, and JP Morgan Chase are cutting jobs in anticipation of what AI will do, not because it's actually doing it yet.

An analyst at Oxford Economics put it even more bluntly — suggesting some firms are "dressing up layoffs as a good news story" by pointing to AI rather than admitting to past overhiring or financial pressure.

The numbers back this up. A Deloitte study found that while 30% of organizations are exploring AI agents and 38% are piloting solutions, only 14% have anything actually deployed in production. Salesforce's own Agentforce customers have reported reliability issues — agents struggling with long instructions and losing focus on multi-step tasks.

Sound familiar? If you've tried using AI agent mode for anything that takes more than 5-10 minutes (as I shared in my Atlas review), you know the gap between the demo and the daily reality.

What this means for event professionals

I started this newsletter with the tagline "Do More With Less" because that's the reality of our industry — shrinking budgets, growing expectations, and the constant pressure to deliver exceptional experiences with fewer resources.

So when you see headlines about AI replacing entire teams, it's natural to wonder: is that coming for me next?

Here's my honest take after talking to 100+ event professionals and testing these tools extensively:

The jobs being cut right now are mostly in areas where work is highly structured, repetitive, and digital. Customer support tickets, data entry, routine marketing copy, and report generation. These are tasks where AI genuinely performs well today.

The jobs that are safe are the ones you're already doing. Client relationships, creative problem-solving, and on-site crisis management when the truck breaks down at 3am. Reading the room during a keynote and adjusting on the fly. Negotiating with a venue manager who's being difficult. These score 0-3 on my AI Readiness Framework for a reason.

The real risk is still someone using AI taking your job. There are still real risks letting AI run off on its own with tools like Openclaw, and corporations are still very nervous about potential security risks and need someone who’s responsible. That means that humans still very much need to be in the loop, whether it’s doing a 4-hour signage task in 30 minutes (like Wylie from ConferenceDirect), building comprehensive event timelines, or running contract audits that catch the clause buried on page 23.

Here's how I recommend approaching the progress in AI:

1. Don't panic, but don't ignore it either. The Salesforce story is not a death sentence. AI is changing how companies think about headcount, and understanding that shift is better than being surprised by it.

2. Identify your "structured and repetitive" tasks. Those are the ones most likely to be automated across every industry. If you're spending hours on tasks that follow the same pattern every time — research, data formatting, first-draft communications — that's where AI helps you today. Use it to accomplish more and level up your work, instead of letting someone else use it as a reason to cut your role.

3. Double down on the human stuff. Every conversation I've had with event leaders confirms the same thing: the irreplaceable value is in judgment, relationships, and creative problem-solving. The more you position yourself as the person who handles what AI can't, the more secure you are.

4. Consider starting your own business. The only time you can’t be let go is when you are your own boss. AI is making it easier than ever to start a business, and there are so many new opportunities to use your skillset as a freelancer or agency.

5. Stay skeptical of the hype — in both directions. AI isn't as capable as Benioff's press releases suggest. But it's also not something you can afford to ignore. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

The Salesforce story isn't really about Salesforce. It's about every industry — including ours — trying to figure out the line between AI's promise and AI's reality.

The companies cutting thousands of jobs based on AI's potential are making a bet. Some of those bets will pay off. Some won't. Salesforce laying off its own AI team in the same breath as claiming AI is the future tells you even they aren't sure where the line is.

For event professionals, the play is clear: use AI where it works today, keep building the skills that make you irreplaceable, and don't let anyone — including a CEO trying to boost their stock price — convince you that a chatbot can replace what you do.

Till next time,

Noah Cheyer

Do More With Less Using AI

PS: What's your take on AI-driven layoffs? Are you seeing this pressure in your organization? Reply to this email — I read every response, and your perspective might shape a future edition.