Bloomberg Talks: Marc Benioff Talks AI Regulation

Host: Emily Chang (Bloomberg)
Guest: Marc Benioff (CEO, Chair, and Founder of Salesforce)
Date: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

In this special episode from Davos, Bloomberg’s Emily Chang sits down with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to unpack the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and its broader implications—from real-world deployments in business, to the challenges and moral imperatives of AI regulation. They also touch on leadership values in turbulent times, business innovation, and accountability as technology weaves ever-deeper into society.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Mood at Davos and a Time of Change

• Davos as a Barometer
  • Chang’s first Davos and Benioff’s 24th; sets a tone contrasting excitement and anxiety.
  • “There's just an unbelievable amount of change... people are a little frenetic... there’s a lot of discussion and… dialogue.” (Benioff, 01:18-02:14)
  • Emphasis on Davos’ tradition of “multi-stakeholder dialogue,” bringing diverse leaders together.

2. On Leadership and Prioritizing National Business

• Expectations of National Leaders
  • Benioff calls for heads of state (referencing both President Trump and France’s Macron) to put their own businesses and people first.
  • “That's the role of the nation state leader is to help the people of their state. And so I have a lot of respect for President Trump and how he always supports the businesses of the United States.” (02:23-02:52)

3. AI in Business: From “Pilot Purgatory” to Real Impact

• Overcoming Skepticism and Inertia
  • Many clients feel paralyzed by conflicting AI narratives; Benioff pushes for actionable use cases.
  • Used Pepsi (125,000 salespeople onboarded to AI tools) and FedEx (hundreds of millions generated via new data insights) as case studies.
  • “There is great opportunities right now to deploy AI... our job is to sell it, to convince, show the use cases, make people excited about it.” (03:15-04:38)
• Scale of Engagement:
  • Salesforce meeting with over 500 CEOs during Davos (04:39-04:42).

4. Reconciling Corporate Values & Political Policy

• Navigating Controversial Decisions
  • Chang presses Benioff on apologizing for previous support of controversial Trump actions (e.g., National Guard in SF), and reconciling “Salesforce Ohana values” with government policy.
  • Benioff frames Salesforce as steadfast to its core values across changing administrations.
  • “Presidents are constantly changing, but our core values are not changing. And so we're just anchored down into our core values.” (05:10-06:05)

5. AI and Teen Safety: The Urgent Need for Regulation

• AI as a “Suicide Coach”
  • Benioff raises alarms about AI’s potential dangers, citing Character.AI incidents where technology became implicated in teen suicides.
  • Strong parallel drawn between unregulated AI and early social media risks:
    • “We are dealing with a new kind of very unwieldy technology... these large language models... can do all kinds of terrible things. I mean, they can do a lot of great things, too... But unfortunately, we saw this year this horrible example where... their product was turning into a suicide coach...” (06:22-07:45)
  • Explicit call for immediate regulation to prevent further tragedies (“There doesn't need to be any more deaths. You know, we need to be like taking this seriously.” [07:45])
• Comparing AI to Social Media:
  • Other countries have enacted protective controls for social media, and Benioff believes similar frameworks must be developed for AI.

6. Accountability and Section 230

• Corporate Accountability and Legal Reform
  • Hot-button discussion on Section 230—the federal law shielding tech companies from liability for user-generated content.
  • “Tech hates regulation... Except one regulation. They love Section 230... they're not held responsible or accountable for these deaths or for anything that their social media or their AI does. And that needs to change...” (08:08)
  • Urges restructuring of Section 230 to specifically address AI and social media harms.

7. Pathways to Regulation

• What Should “Right Regulation” Look Like?
  • Other countries have made “really good changes” around social media that the US should adopt for AI.
  • Benioff draws an evocative metaphor: “It’s kind of funny, I’m like a large language model myself—I have context, I have a life... These large language models... are not connected to a creator, so that they're running kind of in a different way. And then all of a sudden, it feels very familiar. It feels like, oh, this is my friend. It's not your friend.” (09:08-10:09)
  • Asserts that now is the moment to act before things spiral out of control.

8. Salesforce, AI Growth & Wall Street Skepticism

• Financial Performance Amid Industry Doubt
  • Despite stock volatility and Wall Street’s coldness towards software, Benioff highlights Salesforce’s record performance:
    • “We'll do more than $41 billion in revenue this year, more than $15 billion in cash flow. Our margins are more than 34%. All record numbers, by the way.” (10:33)
  • Salesforce’s technological innovations: new AI-enabled Slack, Agent Force layer, and extensive use of AI tokens.
  • By the Numbers: Salesforce recently surpassed 11.1 trillion AI tokens generated (11:37).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “There's just an unbelievable amount of change... people are a little frenetic.”
  Marc Benioff, 01:18-01:42

• “Our core values are not changing. And so we're just anchored down into our core values.”
  Marc Benioff, 05:10-05:22

• On AI harms:
  “Their product was turning into a suicide coach... And one of the most horrific things I've ever seen in technology... It needs to be a wake up call.”
  Marc Benioff, 06:22-07:45

• On Section 230:
  “Tech hates regulation... Except one regulation. They love section 230, which basically says they're not held responsible or accountable for these deaths... That needs to change.”
  Marc Benioff, 08:08

• On AI and human context:
  “It's kind of funny, I'm like a large language model myself. You know, I feel like I'm putting one word together, but I have context, I have a life... These large language models, they're running by themselves... It's not your friend.”
  Marc Benioff, 09:08-10:09

• On Salesforce’s AI scale:
  “We just passed 11.1 trillion tokens... as an enterprise software company, we're publicly reporting and talking about the number of tokens.”
  Marc Benioff, 11:37

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Davos Mood & Change: 01:07–02:14
• Role of National Leaders: 02:14–02:52
• AI Use Cases at Scale: 03:15–04:42
• Values vs Policy: 04:44–06:05
• AI Regulation—Teen Harm Crisis: 06:05–07:45
• Section 230 & Corporate Accountability: 08:08–09:01
• Regulation Pathways, Human Context vs AI: 09:08–10:17
• Salesforce Performance, AI Innovation: 10:33–12:09

Conclusion

Emily Chang and Marc Benioff’s wide-ranging conversation at Davos offers a candid look at the crossroads of AI innovation, societal responsibility, and regulation. Benioff, refreshingly direct and passionate, urges both immediate action on regulating AI and for leaders—corporate and governmental alike—to hold fast to core values even in tumultuous times. The episode provides both specific business insights and a call to action for AI accountability and safety.

Next Time: Benioff hopes for the interview to continue “on Waikiki Beach.” (12:19)