$700M Saved: The Biggest AI Impact Story of 2024

This editorial appeared in the December 12th, 2024, issue of the Topline newsletter.

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AI Copilots started 2024 as the golden child of tech – hyped, hot and everywhere. By year’s end? Branded Clippy 2.0 and kicked to the curb. In its place came AI Agents.

The new darling has drawn over $1 billion in venture capital this year—a staggering 81% YoY increase—and delivered a titillating glimpse of what’s to come. 

But as the year kicked off, skeptics were quick to remind us: cloud adoption still hovers at just 30%. Their warning? Don’t overestimate how quickly AI will reshape our lives.

Mass adoption of AI may still be uncertain, but the pace of innovation is undeniable. What’s even harder to ignore is AI’s growing real-world impact at companies like Klarna, Bell Canada and Autodesk. 

Impressive? Absolutely. But there’s one example of AI’s transformative power that no one is talking about—and it’s the most compelling one yet.

Salesforce’s vanishing payroll

What a year it’s been for Marc Benioff. Salesforce entered 2024 riding high, but by Q2, their stock had tanked 20% on the back of weak results. Questions swirled about their future prospects in an AI-driven world.

Never one to back down, Marc went all in on a bold pivot: Agentforce. Topline readers know I was intrigued, but the real question was whether a behemoth like Salesforce—pulling in more revenue in Germany alone than Hubspot does globally—could actually pivot.

Months later, the results are coming in. Salesforce has emerged as the #1 enterprise AI supplier globally, processing a jaw-dropping 2 trillion enterprise AI transactions a week. The market took notice, rewarding these signals with a 10% post-earnings stock bump, pushing their market cap to $341B. 

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None of this is new information, but wait, I have some. 

In a recent podcast, Marc let drop that thanks to AI’s impact on their engineering teams, Salesforce won’t be hiring any new engineers in 2025. That one comment got me digging into their financials. Historically, R&D makes up 15% of their revenue, and about 70% of that is headcount. Do the math, and Salesforce stands to save a staggering $700M in engineering costs next year.

This isn’t just the largest AI-driven cost savings we’ve seen so far. It’s a forerunner  of what’s possible for all of us in 2025 and beyond.

No mud, no lotus

At Pavilion’s last CEO Summit, Jason Lemkin nailed it: we’re living in a bifurcated world. He was talking valuations, but the same divide applies to AI. On one side, leaders are evangelizing AI-driven transformations. On the other? A sea of holdouts, sitting on their hands, waiting for someone to show them how.

The difference is clear: the winners aren’t just experimenting with AI—they’re living it. The best leaders I know aren’t outsourcing AI adoption to their teams; they’re embedding it into their own workflows. Their personal wins fuel their belief—and their urgency—to unlock bigger, company-wide gains.

Take Tomasz Tunguz. The man uses AI 50-100 times an hour. For him, it’s as vital as his phone. That level of immersion doesn’t just impact productivity—it builds perspective. It helps him spot opportunities and grab competitive advantages before they disappear.

Before I read Tomasz’s post, I thought I was doing pretty well with AI. It was a wake-up call. So this winter break, I’m doubling down. My plan? Build GPTs for the team, experiment with Replit to create a simple app, and test AI Agents.

Why? Because the race is on. AI is handing out productivity boosts and margin gains, and I want to grab them before my competitors do. No one’s coming to hand you the playbook. You’ve got to write it yourself—and fast.