Latest news with #PeterSchwartz
Wall Street Journal
10 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Salesforce Not Taking Survival for Granted in AI Era, Top Strategist Says
Salesforce CRM -1.08%decrease; red down pointing triangle is a giant in its field, but Peter Schwartz, one of its top strategists, isn't taking survival for granted in the era of artificial intelligence. The unprecedented pace of change brought by AI is forcing the software maker to reinvent itself, or risk being put out of business, said Schwartz, chief futures officer of Salesforce.
Straits Times
10-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
2025 could be the year when AI agents take wing, says futurist
During his recent visit to Singapore, the futurist and world-renowned scenario planner Peter Schwartz wanted to change the arrangements for his return flight. He tried to do it through the Singapore Airlines app, but that didn't work for him. So, he turned to the airline's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital agent. 'Within seconds, it was able to update my reservation, make the booking and issue me my boarding pass,'' he says. Mr Schwartz, 78, has been working on AI since the 1970s, having written books and even movie scripts about it. Now, as Chief Futures Officer of the customer-relationship management company Salesforce, he is a champion of 'agentic AI' – whereby artificially intelligent agents, acting like virtual humans, can not only make complex decisions, but also act on them. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Salesforce exec tells BI there's an even more important skill for employees than coding
Coding is no longer the most important skill in the AI era, said Salesforce's chief futures officer. Peter Schwartz said in an interview that employees need empathy more than anything else. "Parents ask me what should my kids study, shall they be coders? I said, 'learn how to work with others.'" Coding is no longer the must-have skill of the AI era, said Salesforce's chief futures officer, Peter Schwartz. "The most important skill is empathy, working with other people," said Schwartz in an interview with Business Insider at the Singapore tech conference ATxSummit. "Parents ask me what should my kids study, shall they be coders? I said, 'learn how to work with others.'" Schwartz said empathy is the ability to understand and relate to another human being, like with coworkers. It's the ability to "collaborate and to creatively work together." "That will be the most important thing because the AIs can deal with all the routine stuff," he added. When asked how to screen for it, Schwartz said it's hard to measure. "I don't have a good answer," he said. "But that's what I am looking for. I look for that empathy that this is a person who's really going to be a great teammate, somebody I can work closely with," he added. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said earlier this year that his company might not hire software engineers in 2025 because of how much AI agents have helped boost some coders' productivity. Schwartz called AI's impact on coding for Salesforce "huge." "We've seen a massive increase in productivity of our coders because they have the tools to be able to do coding much faster — frankly, more creatively," Schwartz said. During Google's third-quarter earnings call in October, CEO Sundar Pichai said more than a quarter of the company's new code was generated by AI. As AI gets better at writing code, some product managers have speculated that AI will increasingly take on some technical coding tasks and circumvent their need for engineers. Job postings for software engineers on Indeed have hit a five-year low. Some tech leaders said learning the fundamentals is still essential, while others emphasized the importance of soft skills in setting candidates apart. Mark Zuckerberg said in a July interview with Bloomberg that he believed the most important skill was "learning how to think critically and learning values when you're young." "If people have shown that they can go deep and do one thing really well, then they've probably gained experience in, like, the art of learning something," Zuckerberg said, discussing what he looked for in job candidates. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
29-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
A Salesforce exec tells BI there's an even more important skill for employees than coding
Coding is no longer the must-have skill of the AI era, said Salesforce's chief futures officer, Peter Schwartz. "The most important skill is empathy, working with other people," said Schwartz in an interview with Business Insider at the Singapore tech conference ATxSummit. Schwartz said empathy is the ability to understand and relate to another human being, like with coworkers. It's the ability to "collaborate and to creatively work together." "That will be the most important thing because the AIs can deal with all the routine stuff," he added. When asked how to screen for it, Schwartz said it's hard to measure. "I don't have a good answer," he said. "But that's what I am looking for. I look for that empathy that this is a person who's really going to be a great teammate, somebody I can work closely with," he added. AI has come for coding Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said earlier this year that his company might not hire software engineers in 2025 because of how much AI agents have helped boost some coders' productivity. Schwartz called AI's impact on coding for Salesforce "huge." "We've seen a massive increase in productivity of our coders because they have the tools to be able to do coding much faster — frankly, more creatively," Schwartz said. During Google's third-quarter earnings call in October, CEO Sundar Pichai said more than a quarter of the company's new code was generated by AI. As AI gets better at writing code, some product managers have speculated that AI will increasingly take on some technical coding tasks and circumvent their need for engineers. Job postings for software engineers on Indeed have hit a five-year low. Some tech leaders said learning the fundamentals is still essential, while others emphasized the importance of soft skills in setting candidates apart. Mark Zuckerberg said in a July interview with Bloomberg that he believed the most important skill was "learning how to think critically and learning values when you're young." "If people have shown that they can go deep and do one thing really well, then they've probably gained experience in, like, the art of learning something," Zuckerberg said, discussing what he looked for in job candidates.
