A top Salesforce artificial intelligence executive, Clara Shih, has apparently left amid the makeover of its AI strategy, a Wall Street analyst says. Salesforce stock has gained 26% in 2024, with much of the advance coming since it announced a new push into "AI agents."
JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens in a report on Thursday said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI, had departed. Shih oversaw artificial intelligence efforts across the company, including product strategy and marketing as well as the "ecosystem for Einstein GPT."
New Executive In Charge Of AI Push?
According to Walravens, who said he talked to Salesforce investor relations, Adam Evans will now take on a bigger role at Salesforce as executive vice president and general manager of AI. Evans had been senior VP of product, Salesforce AI Platform.
On the stock market today, Salesforce stock dipped more than 2% to 333.02.
Salesforce stock has forged a fresh base with an entry point of 318.71. It trades about 5% above the entry point.
Walravens said in a report: "Shih was named CEO of Salesforce AI in May 2023 after rejoining Salesforce in December 2020." Earlier, she had been founder and CEO of Hearsay Systems.
Salesforce did not respond yet to an IBD email requesting confirmation of the changes.
Meanwhile, Wall Street has been waiting for revenue growth from artificial intelligence to kick in for Salesforce as well as other software makers.
Salesforce Stock: Shift To AI Agents
Generative AI "copilots," also known as AI chatbots, have failed to generate meaningful revenue for software makers. Salesforce and others are shifting to next-generation autonomous, goal-driven AI agents.
Copilots help users answer questions. But agents execute tasks on behalf of humans by solving problems and taking action.
In September, Salesforce introduced Agentforce at its Dreamforce customer conference in September.
Salesforce's new AI agent platform became widely available on Oct. 25.
Salesforce Stock's Technical Ratings
The company has been touting artificial intelligence since it introduced predictive Einstein tools for salespeople in 2016. But Salesforce has never disclosed AI revenue.
According to IBD Stock Checkup, CRM stock currently has a Relative Strength Rating of 87 out of a best-possible 99. The best stocks tend to have ratings of 80 and above.
Meanwhile, CRM stock holds an IBD Composite Rating of 97.
IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
