(WND)—For the past year, American tech workers have been told a familiar story: Artificial intelligence is replacing jobs. From boardrooms to press briefings, executives have framed workforce reductions as the inevitable result of machine learning and automation. It’s the narrative that’s guided mass layoffs across the industry.
But in the case of Salesforce, one of the most prominent voices in enterprise software, the facts point elsewhere.
Behind the company’s public claims of AI-driven efficiency lies a more traditional and far more controversial strategy: offshoring. Between 2020 and 2024, Salesforce reduced its U.S. workforce by thousands while growing its employee base in India by more than 420%. Offices in San Francisco, Portland and other U.S. hubs were shuttered. Simultaneously, the company signed formal training and hiring agreements with the Indian government and celebrated explosive growth in Hyderabad, Mumbai and beyond.
Salesforce isn’t alone in the illusion of automation. Amazon’s heavily hyped “Just Walk Out” AI-powered checkout was, in truth, driven by over 1,000 workers in India manually reviewing surveillance footage. What was marketed as innovation was really offshore labor behind the scenes. Likewise, Microsoft’s investment in a virtual assistant “Natasha” turned out to be 700 Indian employees posing as chatbots.
These weren’t breakthroughs in AI; they were high-tech facades for cheap labor.
2022–2023: Strategic cuts in the U.S., accelerated hiring abroad
These weren’t isolated missteps. The pattern is clear, with companies using the language of “AI innovation” to mask what amounts to global labor arbitrage. Behind the curtain of automation lies a deliberate strategy to cut costs by cutting Americans out of the workforce – and Salesforce fits the mold.
Salesforce’s labor realignment began in 2022, hitting U.S. recruitment teams following hiring freezes and small cuts to corporate operations. But while American jobs were disappearing, Salesforce was announcing plans to add 2,500 new roles in India, a 33% workforce increase.
In January 2023, Salesforce initiated its most sweeping cost-cutting measure to date, the termination of approximately 7,000 employees, or 10% of its global workforce. CEO Marc Benioff attributed the layoffs to pandemic-era growth that had outpaced demand. Public messaging emphasized a return to operational discipline.
But the company’s own filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission offered a different, more pointed explanation.
According to Salesforce’s 10-K filing for 2024:
“In January 2023, we announced a restructuring plan … intended to reduce operating costs, improve operating margins and continue advancing our ongoing commitment to profitable growth. The Restructuring Plan includes a reduction of our workforce and select real estate exits and office space reductions within certain markets.”
India becomes the growth engine
What emerged next underscored the stark imbalance in Salesforce’s global strategy. While the company was in the process of laying off thousands of U.S. employees and scaling back its real estate footprint to achieve $3-5 billion in cost reductions, it was simultaneously accelerating its investments in India. The contradiction was laid bare in a report from the Times of India, which noted:
“At a time when CRM giant Salesforce has been slashing jobs and cutting down on its real estate footprint globally in a bid to prune costs by $3-5 billion, it is beefing up its India presence with a chunk of it happening in Hyderabad.”
Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India, publicly confirmed the shift in focus: “When I joined Salesforce in 2020, we had 2,500 employees. Today, we have more than 13,000. This growth reflects the company’s increasing reliance on India for leadership and talent.”
Even amid internal cost-cutting, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, speaking at a Dreamforce 2024 conference, said, “There is no question that we are moving into an exciting era for India. We have invested aggressively in the country.”
Institutionalizing offshoring: a formal pipeline into India
In September 2023, Salesforce formalized its offshore expansion by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with India’s All India Council for Technical Education, or AICTE. The agreement established a nationwide initiative to embed Salesforce’s Trailhead platform into more than 2,500 Indian engineering colleges. The stated goal was to train 1 million Indian students and create 500,000 direct job placements across Salesforce’s ecosystem.
2025: Artificial Intelligence becomes the public rationale
In February 2025, Salesforce conducted yet another wave of layoffs, this time affecting over 1,000 employees and reassigning an additional 500. The company attributed the cuts to “productivity gains” enabled by artificial intelligence, asserting that automation, not offshoring or cost-cutting, had made certain roles obsolete. The layoffs were projected to save the company $50 million.
Public messaging emphasized a forward-looking transition into an AI-driven era. Salesforce claimed it would be hiring fewer software engineers going forward, citing reduced demand due to automation technologies.
“We have reduced some of our hiring needs,” said Chief Financial and Operations Officer Robin Washington during a call with analysts. According to Bloomberg, she credited the adoption of AI tools as the primary reason for slowing down recruitment, especially in engineering and customer service roles.
Once again, while Salesforce is telling the American public that artificial intelligence is eliminating jobs and reducing the need for new hiring, especially among engineers and service roles, in a presentation titled The Salesforce Economy: India Powered by AI Cloud Solutions, Salesforce tells a very different story.
According to Salesforce’s own projections shared with Indian stakeholders, the company expects its AI-powered cloud solutions to create 2.72 million jobs in India by 2028, including 1.17 million direct jobs. That’s a 185% increase from 2023 levels.
Let that sink in:
In the U.S., AI is the reason for layoffs. But in India, AI is the reason for record job creation.
The real transformation was geographic, not technological
While offshoring gets rebranded as “innovation,” and layoffs are justified under the banner of “efficiency,” Salesforce boldly claims that artificial intelligence saved the company $50 million. However, that savings didn’t come from cutting-edge automation, but rather, from eliminating U.S. jobs and shifting the work overseas. Prospective customers, clients, stockholders and investors are being sold a fantasy of automation, when in reality, it’s labor arbitrage dressed up in buzzwords.
Salesforce’s public claims of $50 million in “AI-driven” cost savings isn’t just a bold claim. It conveniently markets its own products while signaling to investors that its software, specifically its “Agentforce” AI platform, is slashing operating expenses. In its white paper, “Maximizing ROI with Agentic AI: Why Agentforce Is the Fast Path to Enterprise Value,” Salesforce projects that agent-based AI will automate $6 trillion worth of global labor tasks, explicitly stating that such tools “free up human agents” and promise faster ROI through “reduced operational costs.”
While Salesforce tells American workers their jobs are being eliminated due to AI, in India it promises massive job creation, projecting over 2.7 million new roles by 2028 tied directly to its AI cloud platform. That’s not automation, it’s offshoring. Like Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” high tech “AI” stores, quietly powered by more than 1,000 workers in India, and like Microsoft’s “AI” investment in chatbot “Natasha,” staffed by 700 Indian workers behind the scenes, Salesforce is following the same script. Their “AI” isn’t automation, but outsourcing for cheaper labor overseas – that’s the real dynamic behind all their cost-cutting headlines.
This kind of illusion may also cross legal lines. Under the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, publicly traded companies are required to truthfully disclose material risks, operational changes and forward-looking statements. Attributing layoffs and future hiring slowdowns to AI, while telling a foreign government the same technology will create millions of new jobs, may mislead shareholders about the company’s actual labor strategy.
Innovation or extraction?
So which is it, Salesforce?
Does the company no longer need American workers because of automation? Or is AI simply cheaper because it’s being built in India under government contracts and lower wage structures? Or are those “millions of jobs” promised inside India not actually needed, which would mean the company’s AI hiring pledges are either inflated or unsustainable?
The contradictions raise serious questions. But one fact is undeniable: When Americans invest in Salesforce, they’re investing in a company that itself no longer invests in the country that built it. America still drives more than 67% of Salesforce’s revenue, yet it’s India where the company is concentrating its future workforce.
That’s not innovation, it’s extraction. And it’s something Salesforce should be disclosing.
So while the company may be selling a global narrative of digital transformation, it’s actually selling out American workers.
It appears that, at least for Salesforce, “AI” doesn’t stand for “Artificial Intelligence” as much as it stands for “Actually India.”
Editor’s note: Follow WND’s major investigative series exposing the truth behind ongoing corporate betrayal of American workers. The American people deserve transparency, not propaganda that masks laying off their countrymen and offshoring their jobs as “technological innovation” or “corporate restructuring.”
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How to Prepare for Food Emergencies if You Don’t Have a Homestead or Bunker
In an unpredictable world, where supply chain disruptions, natural disasters, or economic instability can strike without warning, having a reliable food supply is more than just smart—it’s essential for survival. Whether you’re a “prepper” or not, we all know the golden rule: self-sufficiency is key. But what if you’re living in an apartment, working long hours, or simply don’t have the land to turn into a thriving homestead? Don’t worry; there’s a practical, effective way to build your food security without needing acres of soil or a fortified bunker.
The Ideal Prep: Building Your Own Food Empire
The ultimate dream for any serious prepper is controlling your own food production. Imagine waking up to a sprawling garden bursting with fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs—tomatoes ripening on the vine, potatoes ready to harvest, and greens that provide nutrition year-round. Add in livestock like chickens for eggs and meat, and you’ve got a self-sustaining system that keeps your family fed no matter what chaos unfolds outside.
This approach isn’t just about calories; it’s about resilience. A well-maintained garden can yield hundreds of pounds of produce annually, while a small flock of chickens might produce dozens of eggs weekly. It’s empowering, cost-effective in the long run, and teaches invaluable skills like crop rotation, animal husbandry, and preservation techniques. If you have the space, time, and resources, starting small and scaling up is the best path to true independence.
The Reality Check: Not Everyone Can Homestead
But let’s face it—not all of us are in a position to go full homesteader. Urban dwellers might be limited to a balcony or community plot that’s far from sufficient for long-term needs. Busy professionals juggling jobs, families, and daily life often lack the hours required for daily tending. And for those in apartments, condos, or regions with harsh climates, raising livestock or maintaining a large garden simply isn’t feasible. Factors like zoning laws, soil quality, water access, or even physical limitations can make this ideal out of reach.
That’s where the frustration sets in. You want to be prepared, but without a homestead or bunker, how do you ensure your pantry doesn’t run dry during a prolonged crisis? The good news is, you don’t have to sacrifice your preparedness goals. There’s a smart, accessible alternative that bridges the gap: investing in high-quality, long-term storage food.
The Smart Alternative: Long-Term Storage Food from Heaven’s Harvest
Long-term storage food is designed for exactly these scenarios—providing nutrient-dense, shelf-stable meals that last for decades without refrigeration or special conditions. It’s the perfect solution for preppers who can’t rely on fresh production but still demand reliability and variety in their emergency stockpile.
At Heaven’s Harvest, they specialize in premium survival food kits that make preparedness effortless. Their products are crafted with the prepper mindset in mind: non-GMO, made in the USA, and packed with real ingredients that taste like home-cooked meals, not bland rations. Whether you’re stocking up for a short-term blackout or a long-haul SHTF event, our kits offer:
- Extended Shelf Life: Up to 25 years of storage, so you can buy once and forget about rotation worries.
- Nutritional Balance: High-protein entrees, fruits, vegetables, and dairy alternatives to keep your energy up and health intact.
- Ease of Preparation: Just add water, and you’ve got hearty meals like beef stroganoff, chili mac, or cheesy lasagna ready in minutes—no garden weeding required.
- Customizable Options: From individual buckets to family-sized kits, scale your supply to fit your needs and budget.
- Peace of Mind: Sealed in durable, waterproof containers that protect against pests, moisture, and light.
Unlike generic store-bought cans that spoil quickly or lack variety, Heaven’s Harvest focuses on quality and sustainability. Our food is freeze-dried or dehydrated to lock in flavor and nutrients, ensuring you’re not just surviving but thriving. And for those concerned about allergens or dietary preferences, we offer gluten-free and vegetarian options to keep everyone covered.
Why Wait? Secure Your Food Supply Today
Preparing for food emergencies doesn’t require a homestead or bunker—it requires action. By choosing long-term storage food from Heaven’s Harvest, you’re taking control in a way that fits your lifestyle. Start small with a 72-hour kit to test the waters, or go all-in with a year’s supply for ultimate security.
Visit Heaven’s Harvest today and use code “PATRIOT” for an exclusive discount on your order. Don’t let limitations hold you back; build your resilient future, one meal at a time. Your family will thank you when it matters most.
