<\/p>\n
Salesforce (CRM) wants to sell AI agents to everyone, including companies that may never log into Salesforce.<\/p>\n
This is a strategy the company has been pushing all year, and it could reshape how the software giant makes money for the next decade.<\/p>\n
The plan rests on one idea: <\/p>\n
Instead of charging businesses for every employee who uses its software, Salesforce wants to charge for the work its AI agents actually do.<\/p>\n
Investors are not sold yet. Salesforce (CRM) stock trades near $165, down more than 8% over the past five days and off roughly 33% so far in 2026.<\/p>\n
Why Salesforce is moving beyond charging per user<\/p>\n
For 25 years, Salesforce sold software the same way: one license, one seat, one human.<\/p>\n
That model breaks if AI agents start doing the work humans used to do. Fewer workers can mean fewer seats, which can mean slower revenue growth.<\/p>\n
So Salesforce is building new ways to earn money that do not depend on adding more people.<\/p>\n
More AI Stocks:<\/p>\n
Wall Street sees something in Micron that could reshape the AI tradeMicrosoft has bad news for a key AI partnerSalesforce just beat estimates, one analyst still sees more pain<\/p>\n
The spotlight falls on something Salesforce calls Headless 360, a way to plug its AI agents and data into software customers already use, even outside Salesforce\u2019s own apps.<\/p>\n
In plain terms, \u201cheadless\u201d means giving access to Salesforce\u2019s engine without needing the dashboard. A company can run Salesforce agents within its own tools and never touch the familiar Salesforce screen.<\/p>\n
Alongside it is Flex Credits, a consumption model in which the usage bill grows based on the volume of tasks agents complete, not the number of employees logged in.<\/p>\n
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is steering the company toward consumption pricing as AI agents reshape how enterprise software gets sold.<\/p>\n
Gary Hershorn / Getty Images<\/p>\n
The usage numbers Salesforce keeps pointing to<\/p>\n
To prove demand is real, Salesforce leans on a metric it created called Agentic Work Units, or AWUs. One AWU is a single task that an AI agent completes.<\/p>\n
The company has delivered 3.8 billion AWUs across Agentforce and Slack, up 111% quarter over quarter, according to its first-quarter fiscal 2027 results.<\/p>\n
Usage inside Slack jumped even faster. Slack AI grew 347% quarter over quarter, driven by Slackbot, Salesforce reported on its Agentforce page.<\/p>\n
The company also processed 28.6 trillion tokens in the quarter, up 152%. A token is the basic unit of data an AI model uses to process, understand, and generate information. <\/p>\n
Agentic AI is the biggest growth opportunity for our customers<\/p>\n
So, when Salesforce says it processed 28.6 trillion tokens, that\u2019s a raw measure of total data volume the models churned through.<\/p>\n
What the market punished, and why<\/p>\n
Strong usage did not prevent a slide. <\/p>\n
The stock fell about 8.89% over the past week, according to Yahoo Finance data.<\/p>\n
The disconnect comes down to a gap between activity and durable revenue.<\/p>\n
Related: Salesforce CEO delivers blunt message on AI agents<\/p>\n
Agentforce annual recurring revenue has crossed $1.2 billion. <\/p>\n
That is real money, but small inside a revenue base above $45 billion, which makes it hard to move the overall growth rate for now.<\/p>\n
Salesforce also guided second-quarter revenue to a range that landed below Wall Street\u2019s consensus, Reuters reported, giving sellers a reason to short the stock.<\/p>\n
Then there is the fear of competitors: <\/p>\n
Investors worry that AI platforms from OpenAI and Anthropic could chip away at demand for Salesforce\u2019s traditional CRM seats before the new model scales.<\/p>\n
How the pricing shift connects to layoffs and a billing deal<\/p>\n
Salesforce acquired m3ter, a usage-based billing platform, on June 8, according to an article by EBC Financial Group. <\/p>\n
You cannot charge by consumption at scale without the necessary infrastructure to meter and invoice it, and m3ter supplies that.<\/p>\n
In early June, Salesforce cut 86 roles across MuleSoft, Marketing Cloud, and non-core Agentforce functions, according to a California WARN filing first reported by Business Insider. That followed a larger February round of close to 1,000 jobs.<\/p>\n
Put together, the billing acquisition and the layoffs point to a company rebuilding its cost base and its product stack around charging for AI by the task done.<\/p>\n
What this means for investors watching CRM<\/p>\n
There’s good logic behind Salesforce\u2019s strategy; however, it is not yet certain that it will pay off. <\/p>\n
A few signals will tell you if the strategy is working:<\/p>\n
What to track on Salesforce\u2019s AI betConsumption revenue scale: Watch whether Flex Credits and Headless 360 grow large enough to lift the total growth rate.Existing-customer expansion: More than 50% of Agentforce and Data 360 bookings came from current customers in Q1, according to Salesforce. A rising share signals stickiness.Guidance direction: Salesforce raised its full-year fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to between $45.9 billion and $46.2 billion. Another raise would help close the credibility gap.<\/p>\n
The risks are also clear: <\/p>\n
Salesforce earns less when customers buy fewer seats, and the risk is that seat losses will outpace the revenue from the new pay-per-task model. <\/p>\n
If that happens, growth could stall before the new pricing gains traction.<\/p>\n
Salesforce still has scale, entrenched customers, and a valuation below many software peers, which gives patient investors a cushion.<\/p>\n
For now, Benioff has placed his bet. The market is waiting to see how it plays out.<\/p>\n
Related: Goldman Sachs has blunt message for AI stock investors<\/p>\n
#Salesforce #gutsy #bet #win #agent #race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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