Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I explore the growing significance of AI agents, the perspectives of industry leaders Satya Nadella and Marc Benioff, and how Salesforce is positioning itself as a frontrunner in this transformative market.
Highlights
00:17 — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appeared on the BG2 podcast with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley. Nadella said the rise of agents is going to change enterprise apps. He believes a lot of the functionality currently in enterprise apps will move to agents. Business applications will “collapse in some way” and surrender a lot of their functionality to agents.
01:15 — Nadella’s comments about how power will shift away from business apps toward agents were a huge endorsement for the position Marc Benioff and Salesforce have staked out. Benioff’s message has been, essentially, “You can’t be a master of both copilots and agents.” He views copilots as a cool, simpler tool from yesterday, while agents represent the future.
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02:18 — Microsoft has a different view and many customers do. By stating what he did, Nadella is going to give a lot of credence to Benioff’s position. Nadella’s comments on the BG2 podcast —particularly the idea that business apps and agents may merge or shift — have gotten a lot of interest. Over the past six months, Benioff has been all-in on his vision for agents and what they can achieve.
03:32 — Benioff himself has been as visible as I’ve ever seen during this time. He has described agents as constituting a new resource of digital labor. He believes agents will enable companies to expand into new markets where talent has been difficult to find. This first-mover status is something Salesforce holds right now in the enormous agents market.
04:18 — Directly or indirectly, Satya Nadella’s comments have given credence to Benioff’s position for Salesfroce. That said, the market is clearly large enough for multiple companies to succeed. But Benioff and Salesforce have taken the high ground as thought leaders here. They’ve laid out the vision, provided the strategy, and openly shared their ideas worldwide.
