Salesforce CFO explains how AI will impact the tech giant

Introduction all right yahooo Finance is uh at dreamforce still talking about the future of AI and really the future of Salesforce let's bring in right now Amy Weaver uh Salesforce CFO thanks for having us to dream Force we appreciate it oh Brian so glad you're here you can just see all of the energy all of the excitement we have Trailblazers from 90 countries from around the world right now this place is packed it's always one of our favorite uh favorite events how does the CFO of Salesforce spend their time in an event like this well first spending time with our customers you know our customers are really here for their focus on AI more than any other year I think that there's a unified focus and it's all about artificial intelligence you the keynote today we highlighted new AI throughout all of our products and it showcase some incredible companies of what they're doing how does this AI we're seeing it I've certainly seen at the vent talking to people in the product installations the exhibitions how does this change the financials of a company like Salesforce you know it has the possibility to change every company and every company is financials we're really at the beginning of the AI Revolution right now we're focused on how we can best serve our customers how we can educate them how we can really get them ready for what's coming with AI we've seen a lot of companies I think shock investors on on how much business and and book of business they're building from AI how should investors think about the trajectory of your business in 2024 you know in fway 24 we just had a fantastic quarter I'm sure you saw we headit it out of the park Revenue operating margin cash flow we were also able to raise on all of those points in our guidance so we've raised our revenue for the year raised our margin raised our cash flow now artificial intelligence we're excited about that but as I said on the earnings call it's not part of our guide for this year that's going to be more of a future event of course you sit on that McDonald's board of directors as well uh what's your view on the economy head into next year as seen through the prism from a company like that but also big Tech budgets you know it's really interesting for Salesforce for about the last year we have seen a more measured buying environment and I think it's true across the tech industry there have been elongated sales Cycles deal compression additional approvals and we're continuing to see that but looking to the Future you can feel the buzz you can feel the excitement I think we've got good times ahead you had a I think it Operating margins was you that made a really important point on the earnings call and the earnings call just happened to be very clear he said 30% operating margins are the floor for your business then then what's the ceiling not maybe trying to get a little got you the C sales for I have to ask these things well going back you know we've had an incredible operating margin this year for the second quarter in a row we increased our operating margin more than a thousand basis points year on year pretty much unheard of for a company I'm really excited about that I was able to raise our guidance to 30% for the fiscal year which is really a milestone St amount for the company and I have commented several times I think 30% we need to treat that as the floor not the ceiling so how are you driving these oper operating margins I know you've had to make some tough decisions on the business where where are the biggest gains coming from you know right now the gains are coming primarily from the decisions we made last January we made some tough tough decisions around headcount tough decisions about real estate but we're also bringing a new discipline around spending and you're seeing that P off at our margins is Salesforce being reborn Salesforce being reborn there's a different vibe to this conference and I told my team back at home I don't know what it is I can't put my fingers on it but how do you do you feel that do you see it I do I do um Salesforce and dreamforce they has all the same energy all the same excitement but there's a new maturity I think there's maturity in our processes there's a maturity in our product there's a real sophistication in terms of what we're doing with AI I think you can feel our customers really leaning into that Salesforce transformation what what has it been like leading sales force really through so much transformation of the past year you've really dealt with situations that I've not experienced from uh someone who covers Salesforce and you have not experienced the activists and headcount reductions and what has it been like for you we have had uh quite a year but I'm incredibly proud of the company our employees have risen to the occasion they have rallied and there is not one person at the company who has not been involved in this transformation and bringing us further Mark and I uh Co Boomerang employees Mark benof co-founder chairman we talked about Boomerang employees people coming that used to work at Salesforce they left for whatever reason they're coming back to your company to I guess drive this AI Revolution how important have those employees been to this rebirth we're seeing in you we've had some incredible bmarine employees uh Steve Fischer is a terrific example he left back in 2014 went off to eBay other experiences his come back has been really instrumental in terms of our engineering and our artificial intelligence we've had many others come back and what I love is they know the company and yet they've had these outside experiences and it brings it all together they hit the ground running but I also want to give credit to our employees who have been here throughout they are the engine at Salesforce and they have brought us through this year before I let you go uh Education you know I mentioned to Mark too that all this AI I would imagine you have to retrain workforces around the country to learn a lot of these new products but I think it also starts in the school I was thinking back I learned really no computers no computer skills in school whatsoever I think I started working on the Commodore like which is a wild like playing Pacman or some weird game but how are people going to get the skills to put some of these new AI applications to work well I think it's a perfect question Salesforce is incredibly dedicated to public education probably the most fun thing I have done at Salesforce or at dreamforce is I went across the city yesterday to George Washington High School where we announced another $20 million donation from Salesforce to public schools and in this case it was particularly for artificial intelligence how do we get the technology how do we get the skills in the hands of our students and you're right this is not something that we've dealt with before but we need this and it's not entirely altruistic from Salesforce these are our future employees we need these students to have the best skills the best technology in the best future so this money you're Outro that you unveiled these children are going to learn how to code how to use AI in this absolutely and this was just part a small part of the investment you know over the years we've given 72 million dollar to the San Francisco Unified School Board 52 million to Oakland and more around the world but today really focusing on that Ai and one thing that was really fun we had the George Washington High School robotics Club here for the keynote they are going around now they are hitting all the booths they're hitting the different sessions they are just going to be cutting edge and about half of them were girls and I was particularly thrilled to see that that is uh that is really cool to see I will let you go I know this dream Forest is your event you're a very high demand I I also know you don't do a lot of interviews so thank you for coming on WE greatly appreciate your time it was a pleasure and we were H Salesforce CFL we'll talk to you soon