Artificial intelligence will transform how people work, but the leaders of Nvidia, OpenAI and Salesforce are rejecting the idea that increasingly capable machines will make human workers irrelevant.
The future of work emerged as a recurring theme at Dreamforce in San Francisco this week, where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff for separate conversations about the next phase of enterprise AI.
Their message was reassuring but not entirely comfortable: AI may not eliminate the need for people, but it will substantially change the software they use, the tasks they perform and the skills employers value.
Benioff addressed predictions of a “SaaS apocalypse” caused by AI systems capable of creating interfaces, writing code and completing work that previously required traditional software.
“The SaaS apocalypse was not about the end of software,” Benioff said. “But it may be about the end of software that makes humans do all the work.”
Salesforce is responding with AIforce, a new interface layer that connects AI tools with the data, permissions, workflows and business rules held inside its platform.
Instead of navigating fixed dashboards and fields, employees can ask questions, update records and generate customized interfaces by describing what they need. AI agents can also monitor information and complete work across corporate systems.
Benioff said adoption remains uneven. Employees may use tools such as ChatGPT or Claude outside the workplace, only to return to companies that have yet to integrate comparable capabilities into their operations.
“The door is opening, but not everyone has gone through it yet,” he said. “In many cases, some of our customers are kind of stuck.”
Huang was more direct in rejecting concerns that AI will destroy employment, calling the prediction “nonsense.”
The Nvidia CEO argued that AI will operate as a new layer on top of existing software, helping people use those systems more effectively. As workers and companies become more productive, he expects them to pursue larger ambitions rather than simply eliminate roles.
Still, Huang warned that workers and businesses cannot afford to ignore the technology.
“Engage the technology, learn about it,” he told the Dreamforce audience. “The most important thing is don’t get left behind.”
Altman offered a similar view of an AI-enabled but still human-centred economy. He said people care about creating for, serving and being useful to other people in ways that machines do not.
“We’re going to stay in an extremely human-centric world no matter how good the technology gets,” the OpenAI CEO said.
That does not mean working practices will remain familiar.
Altman described enterprise AI as moving through three stages. The first centred on chatbots, followed by coding and computer-use agents capable of completing tasks. The next phase will involve AI systems that operate continuously, understand an employee’s responsibilities and proactively identify what needs to be done.
“The AI is running for you all of the time, understanding your job, what you need to be more successful, rendering new code for you, proactively watching your Slack or email,” Altman said. “I think we are on the precipice of this third phase.”
That evolution could change a wide range of knowledge-work roles. Employees may spend less time searching for information, navigating applications, creating reports or completing routine administrative tasks. Greater value could instead be placed on judgment, communication, creativity and responsibility for decisions made with AI assistance.
Altman acknowledged that workplace transformation will not happen immediately. Companies and employees have established habits, processes and technology systems that can take years to change.
Smaller businesses may hold an advantage. Altman said companies with fewer employees can often move faster, adopt new technology more easily and get ahead of larger competitors burdened by legacy systems and organizational inertia.
For technology workers, the comments point to a labour market in which familiarity with AI agents becomes less of a specialized skill and more of a basic workplace expectation.
The leaders offered no guarantee that every existing position will survive unchanged. Their own descriptions suggest significant disruption for software development, administration and other forms of computer-based work.
But their shared prediction was not a future without people. It was one in which employees increasingly direct, supervise and collaborate with AI systems—and where those who learn to use the technology effectively may gain a growing advantage over those who do not.