At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff shared his predictions on the future of work—after all, being at the helm of a $320 billion software company, he has seen what new technology is capable of. 

Benioff told attendees at the Swiss gathering that he, and many of the other CEOs sitting in the room that day, would be the last cohort of executives to lead all-human workforces. 

“From this point forward…we will be managing not only human workers but also digital workers,” he said during a panel at the event.

Workers, meet your new desk buddy: AI agents

Those digital workers he’s speaking of are AI agents: autonomous intelligence systems created to perform specific tasks. 

The idea is that these “digital workers” would handle complex, time-consuming jobs to free up time for human employees. But simultaneously, professionals see the potential for an AI takeover; these agents can compile and analyze data quickly, provide customer care, and help streamline team operations. If an algorithm can do the work, what does that mean for humans? 

But Benioff was quick to shrug off that notion, saying at the forum that the advanced tech is all about supporting employees, not replacing them. He predicts that AI and humans will work together “to create a higher level of success,” because the technology is “becoming our partner to help us to run our lives, run our businesses, to help us to deliver a new level of productivity.” 

Another tech titan sitting with Benioff on the panel chimed in with similar projections. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI heavyweight Anthropic, sees the potential for algorithms to surpass people. 

“My guess is that by 2026 or 2027, we will have AI systems that are broadly better than almost all humans at almost all things,” Amodei said at the event. 

Workers’ worst fear: The rise of AI agents

AI agents are a relatively new concept in the world of this advanced technology, but they’re quickly gaining favor among employers.

Benioff, in particular, has been a pioneer of this product. Salesforce has a goal of getting a billion AI agents to its clientele over the next year, and some companies like Saks, OpenTable, and Wiley are already deploying the company’s technology. At this year’s World Economic Forum, the business built an AI agent to aid Davos attendees in picking which panels to attend. 

And other technology companies are riding the consumer interest wave—ServiceNow, Microsoft, and Workday have all announced their own AI agents. It’s estimated that 41% of employers globally intend to downsize their workforce by 2023 as AI automation shaves down tasks for human employees to complete, according to a recent report from the World Economic Forum. 

But the humans whose jobs may be at risk aren’t happy with the concept. Likening large language models to “digital workers,” as Benioff did at the forum, rubs workers the wrong way. Last summer, HR company Lattice fell flat in trying to introduce the concept of a “digital worker” to its company. 

Lattice wrote in a blog post: “We will be the first to give digital workers official employee records in Lattice. Digital workers will be securely onboarded, trained, and assigned goals, performance metrics, appropriate systems access, and even a manager. Just as any person would be.” 

The company was swiftly hit with backlash online, so it scrapped the idea just three days later, posting an update that Lattice “will not further pursue digital workers in the product.”