- Salesforce CEO says company can justify 3-4x price increases with tools up to 10x more valuable
- Customers prefer seat-based pricing for better predictability
- Company not worried about downsizing and loss of per-seat subscriptions
Salesforce CEO Mac Benioff has hinted at a return to seat-based pricing for agentic AI, after the company experimented with usage and conversation-based models.
It appears that customers have been demanding predictability and flexibility in pricing and have so far been fond of the company’s Agent Enterprise License Agreement (AELA).
“When we started with Agentforce, we were talking about, oh, this is going to be so per conversation…but customers have been asking for more flexibility,” Benioff said on last week’s earnings call.
What is the future of AI pricing?
Salesforce believes there are also opportunities to charge more for AI: Customers could expect “three, four, or 10 times the value” from the company’s products, which could easily justify “three times, four times the ability to multiply monetization to customers.”
However, AI comes at a cost, as it appears that companies are buying the technology to improve worker performance rather than replacing them entirely, leaving them with two HR bills (human and AI). “In most companies, the number of humans will also increase,” explained Miguel Milano, chief revenue officer.
At this point, Salesforce doesn’t seem to care too much about charging per seat, because companies aren’t significantly losing headcount (and therefore seats).
Additionally, half (55%) of companies that laid off employees to replace them with AI said they regretted their decision in a survey conducted earlier this year, and many executives have even reversed workforce reductions due to artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, it’s Salesforce customers who may not reap the rewards of seat-based pricing, with some users barely scratching the surface of the tools available, making their seats poor value for money.
Looking ahead, it’s unclear how the landscape will evolve, but a combination of seat-based and consumption-based pricing could be an effective way to ensure customer value.
Speculation about a review of pricing strategies sparked when the company reported a 9% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue. Now in its fourth and final quarter of fiscal 2026, Salesforce also increased its full-year revenue guidance to $41.55 billion from $41.45 billion.
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