Salesforce says per-user pricing will be new AI norm

• Salesforce CEO says the company can justify 3-4x price increases with up to 10x more valuable tools
• Customers prefer seat-based pricing for improved predictability
• The company isn't worried about reduced headcounts losing it per-seat subscriptions

Salesforce CEO Mac Benioff has alluded to a return to seat-based pricing for agentic AI, after the company experimented with usage and conversation-based models.

It seems that customers were demanding for predictability and flexibility in terms of pricing, and that they have so far been fond of the company's Agentic Enterprise License Agreement (AELA).

"When we first started with Agentforce, we were talking about, oh, it's going to be so much per conversation... but customers have pushed for more flexibility," Benioff said in last week's earnings call.