Why Salesforce must die, pt. 2
No single company will replace Salesforce. Instead, it will be death by a million cuts.
Firstly, their existing customers will begin to cut back.
Larger companies will start examining their eye-watering licensing bills and investing in internal AI tooling that can outcompete in terms of functionality and massively compound in future value. Klarna has been one of the most public examples of this, but similar conversations and initiatives are undoubtedly taking place in many enterprise companies.
Next, they will be outcompeted by AI-first startups.
These startups will be looking hungrily at slices of that $38B pie. With small teams, even a 0.1% capture of the market can be an incredible opportunity. They will be able to move faster and adapt to this ever-changing and hugely powerful new enabler to deliver more value for far less.
Lastly, future opportunities for growth look limited.
Salesforce’s problem is not unique. There are many other large businesses that simply will not be able to adapt to the coming AI wave. The term ‘disruption’ was thrown around frequently during the build-out of the internet, but that will look paltry in comparison with what’s coming next. Some of Salesforce’s biggest customers simply won’t exist in the next decade for the same reasons Salesforce won’t. And new, small, AI-first startups that will become the enterprises of tomorrow won’t be choosing Salesforce as a tool anytime soon.
I’m no Nostradamus. I can’t predict exactly when or how this will happen, and one must never underestimate corporations’ ability to change and find ways to persist.1 But reasoning as best I can from first principles, it’s simply a question of when, not if, Salesforce is spent.
In case you missed it, here is the first part of this post.
Why Salesforce must die, pt.1
In the coming wave of AI startups, companies like Salesforce have a huge cross on their back.
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