Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results on Wednesday, but shares slipped in after-hours trading as CEO Marc Benioff used the earnings call to caution investors and peers against the hype surrounding artificial general intelligence.
Salesforce Beats Q2 Estimates, Raises Full-Year Guidance
The cloud software giant posted revenue of $10.24 billion, topping analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.91 per share, above forecasts of $2.78. Revenue grew 10% year-over-year, while adjusted operating margin hit 34.3%.
The company lifted its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook to a range of $41.1 billion to $41.3 billion, slightly ahead of Wall Street expectations and raised its adjusted earnings guidance to $11.33 to $11.37 per share.
Despite the beat and stronger guidance, Salesforce’s stock fell 5.58% after hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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Benioff Pushes Back On AGI, Dismissing The Idea Of It Taking Over The World
The Salesforce chief said that the company's focus is not on chasing AGI, but on expanding software-as-a-service into what he calls the "agentic enterprise."
He described a future where human workers and AI-powered agents collaborate at scale, lowering costs while improving efficiency.
"AGI, that seems like a fantastical term. I know it's coming in the next week or two, evidently. But this idea that there's some kind of AGI that's about to take over the whole world. Well, let me just help everybody understand that's not exactly what's about to happen," he stated.
While acknowledging industry chatter about AGI and even predictions that SaaS applications could become obsolete, he dismissed such narratives as "nonsense," stating that the real proof lies in customer use cases and Salesforce's own operations.
Benioff added that he plans to outline the company's vision for this transformation in greater detail at Dreamforce on Oct. 14.
"I guess AGI is gonna happen tomorrow, so I'm ready for that, but there's so much nonsense," he stated, adding, "You gotta separate the forest from the trees."
What Benioff's Peers Think About AGI
Previously, Benioff pushed back against the growing optimism among tech leaders about AGI, saying current AI systems lack anything resembling consciousness.
Meanwhile, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has said that true AGI would mirror the brain's consistent intelligence across tasks, unlike today's uneven systems. He noted that key missing elements are genuine creativity and the ability to invent.
The debate comes as leading voices in the industry put forward their own timelines.
Anthropic's co-founder has indicated AGI might be possible by 2028, while OpenAI's Sam Altman has speculated it could surface during Donald Trump's presidency.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has also argued that AGI could reasonably be expected to appear sometime between 2028 and 2030.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CRM is experiencing a downward trend in the short, medium and long term. Additional performance details can be found here.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
