Hey, Marc Benioff, knock once so we know that it's you.
"I'm here," Salesforce's chief executive said during the software stalwart's fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings call. "I just knocked on the table. In case anybody wants to know, this is not an agent."
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At one time, the sort of acknowledgment might have seen a little odd, but in this day of AI agents — autonomous intelligent systems that can perform specific tasks on their own — it's not all that strange.
"The big message I have for a lot of CEOs that I meet with is, 'Hey, you know, we're the last generation of CEOs to only manage humans,'" he said.
"I think every CEO going forward is going to manage humans and agents together. This is what I have to think about every single day as a CEO."
And Benioff says everybody will have to start thinking about this new reality.
"I was with a large CEO group last week," he said, "and it was a topic of conversation in every single person that I met with, and with whether it's those life sciences CEOs ... or financial services CEOs or manufacturing CEOs."
Benioff said that these executives can see how agents are going to be able to augment their workforces.
Salesforce CEO: this was the quarter of Agentforce
"Productivity is going to rise without additions to more human labor, which is good because human labor is not increasing in the global workforce," he said. "So, you have a stagnant human workforce worldwide."
Ergo, if you want productivity to go up, and if you want GDP to grow, and if you want growth, Benioff said, "I think that digital labor is going to be one of the catalysts to make that happen."
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During quarter, the specialist in customer-relations-management software introduced its second-generation Agentforce, which answers employee questions in the Slack team communications app.
"I really think that we have something incredible to talk about, and obviously this was the quarter of Agentforce," he said. "As we begin this year and, well, since our founding, I couldn't be more excited about what's ahead. It's — this is a moment like we've just never seen before."
Benioff said that just 90 days after it went live, "we've already had 3,000 paying Agentforce customers who are experiencing unprecedented levels of productivity, efficiency, and cost savings."
Robin Washington, a board member and incoming chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said Salesforce was "incredibly excited" about the customer momentum surrounding Agentforce.
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The "adoption cycle is still early as we focus on deployment with our customers," she said. "As a result, we are assuming a modest contribution to revenue in fiscal '26. We expect the momentum to build throughout the year, driving a more meaningful contribution in fiscal '27."
For the fiscal 2025 fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 Salesforce reported earnings of $2.78 a share, up 21% from $2.29 in the year-earlier period and beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $2.61.
Revenue increased 8% to $10 billion, short of Wall Street’s call for $10.04 billion. Subscription and support revenue was $2.33 billion, up about 8% year over year but below the $2.37 billion consensus estimate.
Salesforce shares are down nearly 11% this year and essentially flat from a year ago. The stock was up 2.2% at $301.48 at last check.
B of A: free cash flow outlook disappointing
Several investment firms issued research reports after Salesforce posted its results.
DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria lowered the firm's price target on Salesforce to $275 from $300 and kept a neutral rating on the shares after its Q4 results and below-consensus guidance.
The company continues to push Agentforce and data-cloud adoption, but management is assuming only modest contributions in fiscal 2026, which is in line with the firm's prior commentary, Luria said.
The initial FY26 guide calls for 7% to 8% revenue growth, down from 9% in fiscal 2025, as headwinds in professional-service and marketing-and-commerce cloud likely offset positive data-cloud momentum and tailwinds from artificial intelligence, Luria said.
Bank of America Securities analysts reiterated a buy rating for Salesforce but cut their price target to $400 from $440. The investment firm cited a "somewhat disappointing" outlook for free cash flow, a metric that measures the cash a company has available after paying expenses.
"Weaker results in marketing-and-commerce clouds are expected to sustain through FY26, offsetting some of the strength seen in data cloud and core sales and service clouds," the firm said.
B of A reiterated its view that Salesforce was emerging as the next quality GARP — Growth at Reasonable Price — stock with durable growth of low double digits in revenue and mid-teens in free cash flow.
While there were some puts and take this quarter, B of A said, Salesforce remains on track for healthy revenue reacceleration.
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"Fourth-quarter results and outlook make it clear that the business is tracking to 10% growth, and with a better macro and Agentforce, each adding 1% to 2% points as we move through the year," the firm said.
Analysts at Macquarie Equity Research reduced their to price target to $320 from $370 and maintained a neutral rating on Salesforce.
Adjusted for foreign-exchange matters, the quarter was OK, Macquarie said. But its guidance was disappointing even considering those forex changes. Macquarie says the guidance has been "appropriately derisked," but meaningful fiscal 2026 revenue upside looks questionable.
"We see upside and downside for CRM shares as balanced," the firm said.
"We like the potential for Agentforce adoption and margin improvement, but we think Salesforce is facing a combination of macro-driven demand weakness and intensifying competition."
The stock's valuation looks fair, with mixed comparisons across key metrics, Macquarie said.
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