Salesforce adds AI to everything, jacks up prices by 6%

Salesforce is raising prices for a bunch of its products and claims that increasing integration with AI justifies the increased bills, even after one of its own researchers recently said that AI agents are often underdelivered on basic CRM tasks. In an announcement on Tuesday, the CRM giant said it is raising prices by an …

[Anonymous Coward]

Very Non-Deterministic & Pricey

List price for Flex Credits is $500 for 100,000 credits.

We've been trialling AgentForce since mid-December and have found it extremely non-deterministic, like it repeating the correct action 1 time in 10. We're very experienced with LLMs and what we see with Salesforce is unlike what we see elsewhere. This despite using known-good models ie. ChatGPT-4

We don't see these issues in standard 'vanilla' developer orgs which leads us to believe it's related to the complexity / metadata-size of our org.

Don't get me started on Data Cloud pricing which is required for AgentForce but not at all obvious how and why, we just know it chews through your credits until you get a big bill

[RegGuy1]

Re: Very Non-Deterministic & Pricey

but not at all obvious

Surely: Cloud pricing = big bill

If you were running a price obfuscation system (ie cloud something) wouldn't you try to lock your customers in and screw the arse off them?

[IGotOut]

C-Suite Logic

Salesforce research shows AI is shit.

Salesforce roll out AI and hike prices.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: C-Suite Logic

People love expensive shit.

[breakfast]

Re: C-Suite Logic

Salesforce is now a Veblen Good.

[Baird34]

Customer service

Salesforce: Thank you for your order, would you like something extra?

Customer: No thank you, that's all please

Salesforce: Let me add something extra for you, you're welcome

Customer: I'm fine as it is

Salesforce: Let me add extra for you then, your custom is appreciated, have a nice day

[Mentat74]

I thought...

This so-called "A.I." was supposed to make everything better and cheaper ?

Guess not...

[ecofeco]

Re: I thought...

SUCKERS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny

Funny how AI one minute is more efficient and saving money and the next requires a price rise. If it requires a price increase what is it doing that provides extra value on top of what could have been a lower price for the same capability? I bet if clients had the choice of just a lower price and the same capability, many would take it.

AI or rather LLMs have their place in productivity but it isn't everywhere.

[ecofeco]

Re: Funny

Funny like the difference between being robbed, or being mugged?

Or funny like being a rube and getting conned?

Either way, the jokes on them, so I guess, yeah, funny indeed!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice of them to open the market

If this is the new trend with Microsoft and now Salesforce hiking prices with forced AI, then they're opening the market for 'just works minus AI' companies keeping their price a nice 5-10% lower.

Unfortunately, I fear price is not decisive in big contracts.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Nice of them to open the market

"Unfortunately, I fear price is not decisive in big contracts."

No, it's lock-in that counts.

[ecofeco]

Re: Nice of them to open the market

And the backhanders.

How does everyone forget the backhanders? How will you ever get that country club membership if you keep forgetting this?

[G2]

Google Workspace did the same thing - and they even went above 10% increase in many cases

Google Workspace did the same thing and i did not see any news articles about it.

Google forcefully included Gemini AI in ALL Workspace service plans and raised the prices across all subscriptions - today it is impossible to have a Google Workspace plan without GeminiAI.

Starter went from $6/user/month to $7/user/month

Standard from $12/user/month to $14/user/month

Plus from $18/user/month to $22/user/month

see https://web.archive.org/web/20250101113458/https://workspace.google.com/pricing

and compare it with the live webpage.

[ecofeco]

Re: Google Workspace did the same thing - and they even went above 10% increase in many cases

Some of us said, the tech douche bros WILL force this on us, like it or not. They need to both recover their sunk cost and keep training their LLMs on YOUR data and using your efforts, all the while making YOU pay for it.

For some of us, this ain't our first rodeo. Or even our 100th. The public will eat the shit sandwich and ask for more and then come to praise the shit sandwich anyone not swallowing the kool aid will be ex-communicated.

[cbrisuda]

Climate change

IMO, every conversation about companies slapping LLMs onto their products must have a mention of electricity consumption and climate change. Thanks for contributing to the loss of hospitable habitats for humans, Salesforce (and M$ and Google and so on). My climate related despair has exponentially worsened.

[Anonymous Coward]

Solution looking for a question

Investment looking for a return.

Outcome looking for a cause.

Like Talky Toaster, annoying and really only capable of the simplest of tasks.

[Sp1z]

Salesfarce

See title

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone know anyone who LIKES AI in their prodct?

So, our company is big into AI and is trying to throw AI into everything, and constantly showing us videos of happy customers oohing and aahing at all the "unique new capabilities". But then I talk to my friends and colleagues and I've universally heard, "No, I don't use the d**ned thing; it's too unreliable to be of any real use."

From my informal "interviews" of end users:

(1) Nobody asked for it.

(2) Nobody trusts it.

(3) Everybody wants to know, "How do you turn it off?"

So I'm in a limited space; this is only 10-20 people I'm talking about.

Have any readers had *personal* interactions with people who actually *like* having AI turned on in their toolsets?

[cd]

Sales-FORCE

[Slinkyhippo]

If SalesForce did consultancy

Standard SF approach, put out items you don't want or need and then charge you extra for them. It is just like bringing in a large consultancy to help on a project - the bill only ever increases in their favour