SAN FRANCISCO — Artificial intelligence is opening opportunities that were previously out of reach and is more likely to generate new work than eliminate jobs, Salesforce chair and CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the opening keynote of Dreamforce 2026 on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Speaking before customers and technology executives, Benioff said companies were beginning to use AI to change how employees interact with business applications, access corporate data, and perform routine tasks.
“You know, AI has opened a door that’s never been opened before,” Benioff said.
However, he acknowledged that AI adoption remained uneven across countries and companies. While consumers may already be using tools such as ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, many businesses have yet to integrate the technology into their operations.
“Yes, the door is opening, but not everyone has gone through it yet,” Benioff said. “In many cases, some of our customers are kind of stuck. They’re kind of stuck in the old world.”
Benioff said AI models alone could not reliably run an enterprise because their outputs are probabilistic and must be connected to verified corporate data, business rules, security controls, and existing applications.
Salesforce used the keynote to introduce AI Force, a platform designed to connect different AI models with the company’s customer relationship management software and enterprise data.
The company said the system could allow employees to carry out tasks through conversational interfaces instead of navigating conventional software menus.
Huang, who joined Benioff during the keynote, rejected predictions that generative AI and autonomous agents would lead to widespread unemployment.
“The second idea is AI is going to destroy jobs. That’s also completely nonsense,” Huang said.
He argued that AI would improve worker productivity and allow companies to pursue projects and business opportunities that were previously impractical.
This increased capacity, he said, would make companies more ambitious and create demand for additional work rather than simply replace employees.
“As a result, companies are going to become more ambitious than ever,” Huang said. “As a result of our ambition and with the productivity boost that we get from AI, the sky’s the limit for us.”
Huang compared AI with earlier infrastructure shifts brought about by electricity and the Internet, saying the technology would become a layer used by nearly every business and country.
“With electricity, we could power everything. With the Internet, we can find anything. And now with artificial intelligence as an infrastructure layer across the planet, we can know everything and do anything,” he said.
The Nvidia chief also urged companies to start testing AI rather than wait for the technology to mature, noting that models and applications were improving rapidly.
“Engage the technology. Learn about it. If it doesn’t work for you right away, don’t give up on it,” Huang said. “The most important thing is don’t get left behind.”
On AI safety, Huang said companies should test their systems carefully and withhold products that they could not confidently deploy. But he rejected the view that developers had to choose between rapid innovation and safety.
“Innovation, speed, and safe products are not — it’s a false choice. You could definitely have both at the same time,” he said.
Benioff similarly framed AI as a tool that would work alongside employees by taking over parts of software operation while leaving people responsible for business decisions and outcomes.
“It’s not the end of software, but it may be about the end of software that makes humans do all the work,” he said.
