"Microsoft has disappointed everybody with how they've approached this AI world," indicated Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff in a recent The Bartlett Show episode. "And today, when we look at Copilot and what they've done. They've repackaged OpenAI and dropped it into Excel."
The CEO added that based on feedback he received from clients who'd interacted with the product (via @tsarnick on X), customers aren't finding themselves transformed with Microsoft Copilot AI. Benioff further indicated that customers "barely" use Copilot, "and that's when they don't have a ChatGPT license or something like that in front of them."
This isn't the first time Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized Microsoft's AI and Copilot efforts. In October 2024, the executive claimed Microsoft's AI efforts are a "tremendous disservice" to the industry while referring to Copilot as the new Microsoft Clippy, further suggesting it doesn't work or deliver value. Coincidentally, Microsoft announced its plan to add support for creating autonomous agents to Copilot Studio, potentially giving Salesforce's Agentforce a run for its money following Benioff's comments.
Benioff had touted Salesforce as the largest AI enterprise supplier in the world, with the capability of doing "a couple of trillion AI transactions per week." He added that the company's Agentforce offering is what AI was meant to be, while gloating over feedback from clients:
"This must be witchcraft, this is crazy with what's happening with my customers right now."
The executive indicated Microsoft's Copilot agents' announcement illustrates panic mode, further highlighting that Copilot is a flop because Microsoft lacks the data to create real corporate intelligence while touting Agentforce's excellence in the field.
Microsoft rebranding Copilot as ‘agents’? That’s panic mode. Let’s be real—Copilot’s a flop because Microsoft lacks the data, metadata, and enterprise security models to create real corporate intelligence. That is why Copilot is inaccurate, spills corporate data, and forces customers to build their own LLMs. Clippy 2.0, anyone?
Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff
Microsoft's struggles with Copilot and AI
Interestingly, Benioff might be on to something if recent Microsoft insider woes about the company's AI and Copilot struggles are anything to go by. According to a damning report, Microsoft depends on third-party vendors to make Copilot work across its Microsoft 365 apps. An employee at the company indicated:
"There's a gap between the ambitious vision and what users are actually experiencing. Internally, we're calling it growing pains. We are building the plane as we fly it."
Interestingly, a high-ranking Microsoft executive described most Copilot AI tools as "gimmicky" while describing their functionality. Another employee highlighted the security and privacy concerns riddling Copilot, indicating the tool "works really darn well at sharing information that the customer doesn't want to share or didn't think it had made available to its employee, such as salary info." Perhaps more concerning, the employees indicated that the issue wasn't an easy fix, it could take years.
RELATED: Microsoft staffers say Copilot's latest update is a step backward
To this end, Microsoft won't slow down its AI efforts. A separate report revealed that employees in the firm's AI division are handsomely compensated compared to their counterparts in Azure and Cloud. Interestingly, the company reportedly uses employees' AI contributions when evaluating performance and requesting retention bonuses for indispensable employees.
