This Tech Giant Now Claims Artificial Intelligence Is Doing Up to 50% of Its Work

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize companies and industries across the board

And one marketing company that has been heavily into AI agents is Salesforce (CRM 1

CEO Marc Benioff is extremely excited the potential for its Agentforce platform to automate tasks and help add efficiency for es, making it easier for them to connect with their customers through AI

While that's an impressive statement to make, here's why I'd hold off on in the stock

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Benioff makes a big claim, but will the results back it up

And that's what investors should be looking for when Salesforce reports its earnings numbers, which should be around late August or early September

While Benioff says this added efficiency now allows workers to focus on "higher-value work," then at the very least, the company's growth rate should accelerate if that's the case

By doing more meaningful work, that should presumably mean that it may be winning over more customers in the cess; otherwise, what would it be all for

Investors should exercise some skepticism with these types of claims because they can be convenient to make and sound impressive, but if they aren't backed up by stronger financials, then it can be hard to really substantiate them

And the blem is Benioff in the past has often been dismissive of other companies' AI capabilities while boasting his own company's Agentforce platform

In the past, for example, he has referred to Microsoft's Copilot as the iteration of its Clippy assistant, which drew the ire of many users decades ago

Benioff has been a great moter and marketer of Salesforce, but CEOs can sometimes hype up their es a bit too much

Investors aren't buying the hype For all the excitement Benioff has his company and Agentforce, investors don't appear to be sharing that same enthusiasm

If the economy slows down, companies may scale back on marketing expenditures and investments into AI

Benioff's claim also may set high expectations for the when it goes to report earnings

The stock already trades at more than 40 times its trailing earnings, and a growth rate in the single digits ly isn't going to impress investors

For Salesforce to ve that AI is really transforming its, investors should expect to see a drastically imved top or bottom line, or at least a very strong guidance

A wait-and-see apach makes sense with Salesforce Salesforce's CEO talks a good game but until the company backs it up with some stronger financials to help make its valuation look more justifiable, I'd hold off on in the stock today

The danger is that when expectations are set so high, it can make it difficult for the to meet them

I'm always wary of CEOs who pump up their es so much, as that can set their stocks up for declines later on, especially if reality doesn't line up with those rosy claims and jections

David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned

The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft and Salesforce

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.