Salesforce Inc. CRM CEO Marc Benioff criticized Microsoft Corp. MSFT for its artificial intelligence tools, claiming that they are overhyped and underperforming.

What Happened: Benioff took aim at Microsoft’s Copilot AI tool, describing it as overhyped and ineffective, in an interview with Business Insider. This criticism comes in the wake of Microsoft’s announcement of new Dynamics 365 AI agents, which directly compete with Salesforce’s Agentforce product, a CRM lead.

Benioff’s comments were not a coincidence. The day before the interview, Microsoft introduced 10 new AI agents for its CRM offering, Dynamics 365. This announcement came just days before the release of Salesforce’s own AI agent product, Agentforce, which is set to be generally available on Friday.

Benioff stated, “Microsoft has really disappointed so many of our customers. They’ve really done it by delivering a level of hype around their AI solutions.”

He also criticized the accuracy of Copilot, stating that it “spills corporate data,” and referred to it as “Clippy 2.0,” a nod to an infamous 1990s Microsoft Office digital assistant.

Benioff emphasized the success of Salesforce’s AI solutions and the company’s continued lead in the CRM market. Despite Microsoft’s recent gains in CRM market share, Benioff remains confident in Salesforce’s position.

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Why It Matters: The rivalry between Salesforce and Microsoft has intensified with the introduction of AI-driven technologies.

Recently, Benioff criticized Microsoft’s rebranding of Copilot to “agents,” calling it a sign of “panic mode” due to Microsoft’s lack of data and security models, which he claims leads to inaccuracies and data leaks. Benioff praised Salesforce’s Agentforce for its integration of data, workflows, and security into a unified platform.

Microsoft’s announcement during its “AI Tour” in London highlighted the ability of businesses to develop autonomous AI agents, aiming to streamline enterprise functions. This move is part of Microsoft’s Copilot Studio platform, which allows organizations to customize AI-driven agents.

Analysts have noted that Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is on par with Microsoft’s offerings, with Piper Sandler upgrading Salesforce’s rating and raising its price target.

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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote