Salesforce says it will hire 1,000 ‘AI-native’ new grads

Last week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced in a post on X that the company would hire 1,000 new grads and interns “to ride the AI exponential.” Today, the company released a statement committing to that plan. Salesforce launched a new Builder Program within its university recruitment program, in an effort to fast-track recent grads into roles like engineering, product and sales to work on the company’s AI agent system, Agentforce. Salesforce said the company has hired over 10,000 professionals through its university recruitment program to date. According to a recent LinkedIn report, entry-level hiring is down 6% year-over-year. Some major CEOs bet that AI will cause job displacement and disrupt careers, especially for entry-level candidates. But Salesforce seems to hope to alleviate some of those bleak stats for new grads—at least in the name of AI. “The AI-native generation entering the workforce today isn’t threatened by AI,” the company’s chief people officer, Nathalie Scardino, said in the announcement. “They’re the ones building it. Businesses can’t afford to wait for their workforce to catch up to AI. That’s why we’re betting on Builders now—to redesign how we work and redefine our business from the inside out.” Recent graduates have faced a brutal job market. They’re applying to more jobs among fiercer competition, and settling for roles they feel overqualified for. According to a recent study by ZipRecruiter, many feel like AI itself is to blame for the situation: nearly half (47%) the recent grads surveyed said that AI has impacted their field. Still, it’s clear that Salesforce believes grads with AI fluency are the future of work—and will be the ones to get a spot at the table. With the new grad hire announcement, the company also launched its “Emerging Talent Playbook,” a guide meant to help other businesses bolster their own workforce with employees who are skilled with AI. According to the ZipRecruiter study, new college grads don’t think that uni