Facing Doubts About Falling Behind in the AI Race, the once-favored software company Salesforce is attempting to restore investor confidence with an optimistic long-term growth blueprint.
At the investor briefing held on Wednesday, October 15, in San Francisco during the Dreamforce conference, Salesforce announced that it expects its annual revenue to exceed $60 billion by 2030.
This forecast drove its stock price up by as much as 5% in after-hours trading. Previously, the company's stock price had fallen 29% this year, in stark contrast to the Nasdaq index, which rose 17%.
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This latest financial target exceeds the consensus expectation of $58.37 billion from analysts surveyed by LSEG. More importantly, company executives indicated that they expect organic revenue growth to return to an annual growth rate of over 10% from fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2030. Since mid-2024, the company's growth rate has been below 10%.
The guidance provides investors with a clear growth path, but it does not include the impact of the upcoming acquisition of data management company Informatica, which Salesforce announced in May for $8 billion. This deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year or the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.
<h2>Is Salesforce's Growth About to &#34;Re-Accelerate&#34;?</h2>
The financial targets released by Salesforce focus on the &#34;re-acceleration&#34; of growth.
Robin Washington, the company's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, stated at the briefing: &#34;We have experienced a period of slow growth, and now it is re-accelerating.&#34; This statement aims to dispel investor concerns about the company's growth prospects.
In addition to the revenue target of over $60 billion by 2030, the company's guidance on growth rates for the coming years is equally critical.
Returning to an annual growth rate of over 10% is a strong positive signal for a company that has seen a slowdown in growth since mid-2024, demonstrating management's confidence in future business development.
<h2>Confronting the Threat of Artificial Intelligence</h2>
In recent years, with the rise of artificial intelligence technology, investors have been concerned that so-called &#34;vibe-coding&#34; tools may threaten the position of traditional software vendors like Salesforce.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in April that artificial intelligence is creating up to 30% of new code for the company, heightening market concerns.
In response, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff directly addressed this at Wednesday's event, stating that there are some &#34;nonsense&#34; claims in the market
He stated: “For example, some say these products are writing all the software, but that is not the case.”
<h2>Agentforce is Highly Anticipated</h2>
To achieve its ambitious revenue goals, Salesforce is pinning its growth hopes on its Agentforce software. Launched last year, the software aims to help brands automate customer service processes by connecting large language models with internal company data.
According to Robin Washington, Agentforce is a key driver for the company's revenue growth.
However, the rollout of Agentforce has not been smooth sailing. Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets pointed out in a report earlier this month that “investors continue to question why the adoption of Agentforce is slower than expected.”
To attract more customers, Salesforce is addressing the challenges through product upgrades.
On Monday, the company launched Agentforce Voice, allowing AI agents to handle customer service calls; on Tuesday, the company announced an expansion of its collaboration with AI model developers Anthropic and OpenAI. Salesforce noted at the meeting that companies such as FedEx, Pandora, PepsiCo, and Williams Sonoma have begun adopting Agentforce

Faced with concerns over slowing growth and lagging in the AI competition, Salesforce released an optimistic forecast of over $60 billion in revenue by 2030. This move had an immediate effect, driving its after-hours stock price up by as much as 5%. The company promised that starting from the 2026 fiscal year, its organic growth rate will "re-accelerate" to over 10%, betting its growth engine on its AI product Agentforce, aiming to restore market confidence

- Salesforce aims to restore investor confidence with a long-term growth plan, projecting annual revenue exceeding $60 billion by 2030.  
- This forecast, announced at the Dreamforce investor briefing, led to a 5% increase in stock price after a 29% decline this year, contrasting with a 17% rise in the Nasdaq index.  
- The company also emphasized a return to over 10% organic revenue growth from fiscal year 2026 to 2030, despite concerns over AI competition and challenges in the adoption of its Agentforce software.

On Investor Day, the revenue forecast for 2030 exceeded $60 billion, and Salesforce's stock price soared