Salesforce CEO Brushes Off 'SaaSpocalypse' As CRM Stock Slides Despite 60% Surge In Premium AI Deals

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM ) shares dipped in after-hours trading on Wednesday despite a massive first-quarter earnings beat , as soft guidance and legacy weakness overshadowed an explosive under-the-hood surge in enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) adoption. Dismissing The ‘SaaSpocalypse’ While the weaker performance of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector has been in focus on Wall Street, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff remained firmly defiant during the company's fiscal first-quarter earnings call. Addressing prevailing market fears head-on, Benioff pushed back against the pessimistic industry narrative. “Well, you've heard the narrative on the SaaSpocalypse,” Benioff remarked, acknowledging the “crazy thing that these AI apps are transforming software.” He instead highlighted Salesforce’s massive shift toward autonomous AI as definitive proof of structural resilience. However, not everyone on Wall Street is fully convinced by the AI pivot just yet. As Chief Analyst Patrick Moorhead at Moor Insights Strategy pointed out on X, investors remain skeptical because Agentforce still represents less than 5% of total sales, ultimately overshadowing the product’s explosive 205% ARR growth to $1.2 billion. Full story available on Benzinga.com