The AI battle between tech giants is heating up, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff taking aim at Microsoft’s Copilot. In a recent social media post, Benioff declared that Microsoft’s rebranding of Copilot as ‘agents’ is a sign of ‘panic mode’ and called the technology a ‘flop’.
Benioff’s criticism centers around what he sees as Copilot’s fundamental shortcomings. He argues that Microsoft lacks the data, metadata, and robust enterprise security models needed to create a truly reliable and effective AI solution for businesses. This, he claims, leads to inaccuracies, data leaks, and ultimately forces customers to build their own large language models (LLMs).
Benioff went as far as comparing Microsoft’s Copilot to the infamous ‘Clippy’, the discontinued Microsoft Office assistant, suggesting that both fail to deliver true corporate intelligence. He believes Copilot is more of a ‘science project’ than a practical tool for businesses.
In contrast, Benioff championed Salesforce’s own AI offering, Agentforce. He touts Agentforce as a transformative technology for businesses, capable of autonomously managing sales, service, marketing, analytics, and commerce. He highlights Agentforce’s integration of data, LLMs, workflows, and security into a unified Customer 360 platform, which he believes represents the true potential of AI.
This public spat underscores the fierce competition in the AI technology sector. Microsoft recently announced its ‘AI Tour’ event in London, showcasing its Copilot Studio platform, which enables businesses to develop custom AI agents. This move highlights Microsoft’s ambition to dominate the AI agent market.
Benioff’s criticism of Copilot is not new. Last month, he similarly compared it to Clippy, suggesting that customers haven’t seen real value from it. His recent comments further highlight the competitive landscape as both companies race to claim the top spot in the AI agent technology market. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will respond to Benioff’s pointed criticism and whether it will sway the market towards Salesforce’s Agentforce.