Marc Benioff: AI and Humans Now Indistinguishable in Customer Service

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff believes artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced to the point where AI-powered customer service agents are indistinguishable from their human counterparts. Speaking at the All-In Summit with David Sacks, Benioff confirmed that this level of capability is already being used in customer service interactions, marking a significant leap in AI technology.

“We are already at the point. We already have that live,” Benioff said. “We’re really getting to another level of capability, and I think that’s pretty impressive.” He added that Salesforce plans to roll out this feature to thousands of customers by the end of the year.

Customer service is a sector where AI is expected to have a major impact. Companies are increasingly using AI to improve efficiency and enhance customer experiences. For instance, earlier this year, Klarna, a Swedish fintech company, reported that its AI assistant performed the equivalent work of 700 full-time employees, with a high level of accuracy and customer satisfaction.

Some businesses claim AI outperforms human agents. Last year, Octopus Energy’s CEO shared that AI-generated emails achieved 80% customer satisfaction, compared to 65% for human-written responses.

However, not all AI implementations have been successful. McDonald’s, for example, recently pulled its Automated Order Taker technology from over 100 restaurants after public criticism of the system’s flaws.