White Paper, sponsored by Salesforce | December 2023

SALESFORCE ECONOMIC IMPACT:

Salesforce AI-Powered
Cloud Solutions Will Generate
$948 Billion in New Revenues
for Customers by 2028
Alan Webber David Schubmehl
Research Vice President,
Program Vice President,
Conversational Artificial Intelligence and
Customer Experience, IDC
Intelligent Knowledge Discovery, IDC

Carla La Croce Ritu Jyoti

Group Vice President
Senior research analyst,
Worldwide Artificial Intelligence and Automation
Data and Analytics, IDC
Research Practice, Global AI Research Lead, IDC
Salesforce Economic Impact

Table of Contents CLICK ANY HEADING TO NAVIGATE

DIRECTLY TO THAT PAGE.

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Cloud Computing Is the Foundation for AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Benefits of Salesforce AI to the Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Broader Impacts and Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Employment Impacts of Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

The Talent Challenges with Implementing Any AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
IDC’s EIM and the Benefits of AI-Powered Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

The Salesforce Economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

The Salesforce Ecosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Changes from 2021 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

Appendix 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Key Definitions in Support of Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Exchange Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Appendix 2: Supplemental Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

About the IDC Analysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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Executive Summary

IDC has quantified the impact of the Salesforce ecosystem as

an economy for 10 years and, more broadly, cloud computing’s
economic impact for over a decade. But change is underway.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to shift how cloud
applications are used and the value they provide. AI is changing
how applications and data work together to provide insights
that drive increased efficiency, effectiveness, and new products
and experiences.
Predictive, analytic, and generative AI (GenAI) promise unprecedented productivity
improvements and business transformation opportunities, but calculating the
value of AI investments requires building the business case by simulating potential
cost and value realization. To realize the full impact and value of traditional AI
and GenAI, organizations need to leverage enterprise data in unique ways to grow
and transform current business processes and experiences.

At IDC, we undertook a new version of the study we previously conducted

for Salesforce, looking at the factors specific to the growth and impact of AI.
We specifically looked at the impact that Salesforce AI-powered applications are
having on generating revenue for customers, partners, and others beyond the
Salesforce ecosystem. Additionally, there was a positive impact on jobs.

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Specifically, we found that:

• IDC expects that AI applications delivered through cloud will grow

AI impact: from $12.5 billion in 2022 to $42.6 billion in 2027 with a five-year
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28%. Tangential to this
To what extent do
growth, the market for GenAI applications is expected to become
you agree with the
a larger part of the AI-centric applications market, and while GenAI
following about
applications accounted for only 4.8% of the market in 2022, their share
implementing AI in
of the market will increase to 28.1% by 2027 (see Worldwide GenAI
your organization?
Implementation Market Outlook, 2023–2027).

79% • IDC expects companies worldwide to have invested $16 billion in

will change our GenAI solutions in 2023. GenAI spending is expected to exceed $140
organization culture billion at a CAGR of 70%+ for 2023–2027. This is approximately three
times greater than overall AI IT spending and almost 13 times greater
78% than the CAGR for worldwide IT spending over the same period in 2027
will change (see Worldwide GenAI Implementation Market Outlook, 2023–2027).
operations entirely
• Specific to Salesforce, IDC found that Salesforce AI-powered

57% cloud solutions will generate $948 billion in new revenues for
customers by 2028, which is in line with the overall growth in AI
will disrupt
company culture and AI-powered applications.
and organization
• IDC conducted a survey (see the Methodology section) concerning
the adoption of cloud-based AI products. Respondents said that
the top three areas to leverage AI are in IT (62%), customer service
and support (51%), and finance and administration (48%).

• For companies using Salesforce applications, 62% indicated that there

was either heavy or moderate use of AI-powered Salesforce CRM
solutions, and 70% of all respondents said there was either heavy or
moderate use of Enterprise AI Software Platforms.

• IDC has estimated that the adoption of AI-powered cloud solutions will
result in an additional 4.7 million direct jobs being created between
2022 and 2028 within the expanded Salesforce ecosystem.

• According to IDC’s Future of Enterprise Resiliency Survey (FERS) July

2023 Wave 5, the top barriers to organizations using GenAI are data
security, data privacy, and the lack of high-quality data.

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Cloud Computing
Is the Foundation for AI

Cloud computing has been the foundation for digital

transformation, enabling companies to move key applications
from on premises to a solution that is more effectively managed,
more easily updated, and that limits the wasting of resources.
Cloud computing has had a solid growth curve compared to the lower or stagnant
growth in on-premises software: whereas on premises applications spending is
growing at 3.65%, spending on cloud-based applications is growing
at 20.12% (see Figure 1).

FIGURE 1
Most Software Today Is on the Cloud, and Businesses are Benefiting from It

■ On Premise/Others ■ Public cloud services (Own IP)

$691B
$561B
$454B
$363B
$285B
$226B
$147B $163B $184B $206B $229B $253B

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

Source: IDC Semiannual Software Tracker-Forecast 2022 | H2 in Constant Currency

For an accessible version of the data in this figure, see Figure 1 Supplemental Data in the Appendix.

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Why the focus on cloud computing? Because cloud applications are critical to
digital transformation and, going forward, the application of AI. Cloud computing
has enabled the digital transformation of business by allowing companies to
implement software applications, shift business processes, launch new products,
and understand the customer more efficiently and effectively.

Not so long ago, companies would take a couple of years to implement a new
application and then a couple of more years to fine-tune it before they started
to see its full value. Today, with new business models and processes, new
applications, update cycles, and the instantaneous need to see value from those
applications have resulted in a stream of continuous digital transformation,
and companies are struggling to retain relevancy in their markets.

Going forward, cloud computing will be the foundation for implementation and
the value that comes from AI applications. AI by its nature requires significant
resources when it is used at full capacity, but when paired with cloud, it allows
for more efficient use of resources. Being cloud based allows for the optimal use
of compute resources at a time when it makes sense and for a cost that is limited
to the actual use. Hence, companies are able to build their AI future on
the foundation of the cloud.

Specifically, IDC has found that the use and adoption of AI applications are
increasing as companies are spending on cloud-based AI software (see Figure 2).
IDC predicts the worldwide AI software market will grow from $372.8 billion
in 2022 to $943.7 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 20.4%. This projected growth of
the global AI software market reflects the expanding recognition and adoption
of AI across industries, along with the perceived value that companies believe it
can have in their business.

FIGURE 2
Cloud Computing Is the Foundation for the Adoption and Application of AI

■ On-Premise/Others ■ Public Cloud Services (Own IP)

$994B
$846B
$716B
$602B
$505B
$419B
$331B
$368B $392B $407B $419B $432B $444B $457B

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

Source: Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Software Forecast, 2023–2027, IDC Doc #US50027023

For an accessible version of the data in this figure, see Figure 2 Supplemental Data in the Appendix.

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What is the business value that companies expect from adopting AI-powered
cloud solutions? The largest expected outcome is to be able to continuously
digitally transform. More and more business is done online every day and,
to maintain parity with competitors in this digital realm, companies need to be
willing to adopt new technologies that will support ongoing digital transformation
as a key part of their strategy.

Figure 3 shows that, of the companies with a digital transformation strategy, 94%
of them view AI-powered cloud solutions as foundational to effectively
and continuously digitally transform.

FIGURE 3
AI Is the Foundation to Maintaining Relevancy During the Digital Revolution
How important are AI-powered cloud solutions to your formal digital transformation strategy?
(Percentage of respondents)

Very important. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%

Somewhat important. . . . . . . 44%

Not at all important. . . . . . . . . 4%

Not sure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%

Base: all respondents; n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

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Benefits of Salesforce AI
to the Economy

Companies continue to adopt AI-powered cloud solutions

across functions and business processes. This has direct
impacts to the company, its customers, other companies, and
the economy as a whole. But how broad is the adoption, what
is the economic impact, and what is the specific impact of
Salesforce AI-powered applications?
Starting with adoption, according to respondents from a recent IDC survey on
AI-powered applications, 70% of companies are using Enterprise AI platforms
and 62% of companies are using AI-powered CRM solutions (see Figure 4,
next page). This includes a broad set of AI technologies ranging from predictive
models all the way to the more advanced AI technologies such as GenAI.
The economic reasoning behind adoption is the value to the company and
the customer. For example, implementing a GenAI CRM application or solution
combines the power of GenAI with customer data to enhance business
productivity and efficiency. It can perform countless functions such as answering
queries, teeing up conversational text, and crafting an email. These types
of outcomes provide value to both the company and the customer.

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FIGURE 4
Adoption and Application of AI Is Becoming Table Stakes
To the best of your knowledge, how much does your organization use the following technologies?
(Percentage of respondents)

70%
62%

Use AI-powered Use enterprise AI

CRM solutions software platforms

Note: The percentage represents the sum of respondents that selected “Heavy or Moderate Use”
of AI-Powered CRM Solutions andEnterprise AI Software Platforms.
n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

Obviously, companies are adopting AI, but what is the economic benefit, and what
specifically is the economic benefit from a Salesforce AI-powered cloud solution?
IDC calculated that the use of Salesforce AI-powered cloud solutions generated
$312 billion in the customer base in 2022 and expects that this will triple in size by
2028 to $948 billion with a CAGR of 20.3% (see Figure 5, next page). Considering
just the new revenues created since 2022, Salesforce AI-powered solutions will
add $2.02 trillion in revenue globally.

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FIGURE 5
Revenue Impact of Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions 2022–2028

Net gain 2022–2028

$2.02 trillion

2022–2028 CAGR = 20.3%

$948B
$836B

$691B
$570B
$469B
$375B
$312B

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028

Note: for further breakdown of revenue, please refer to the methodology section;
Source: IDC Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions Economic Impact Model, July 2023

The primary drivers of this revenue growth are customer-facing activities, as well
as the benefits AI will bring to companies’ internal functions and how they conduct
business with partners. Figure 6 (see next page) shows the primary benefits that
companies experience from AI-powered cloud solutions, with the largest benefit
coming from employees and customers touch points (at 62%), such as customer
service calls. The second largest benefit is improved overall customer experience
(61%), which leads to increased revenue (50%) and lowered costs to acquire, retain,
or service customers (47%).

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FIGURE 6
Clear Customer and Organizational Benefits from AI-Powered Cloud Solutions
Has your organization experienced any of the following benefits from AI-powered cloud
solutions focused on customer-facing activities?
(Percentage of respondents)

Improved customer-facing
employee productivity
(output per employee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62%
Improved customer
experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
61%

Increased revenue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%

Lowered costs to acquire,
retain, or service customers. . . . . . . 47%

Base: Respondents indicated their organization’s investment in AI-powered cloud solutions is targeted to the customer-facing activities;
n = 517; Source: Salesforce Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July 2023

Considering just the new revenues created since 2022, Salesforce

AI-powered solutions will add $2.02 trillion in revenue globally.

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Broader Impacts
and Opportunities

AI-powered cloud solutions offer additional opportunities

to the basic cloud subscription that are necessary for a fully
functional implementation.
According to the survey, customers cited other services or products necessary
for a fully functional implementation, including IT project consulting or systems
integration (51.5%), additional cloud services (e.g., storage, security, other apps)
(50.5%), IT training (50.1%), managed services (45.8%), on-premises hardware
or software (e.g., additional servers, upgraded end user computers, new or
upgraded mobile devices) (45.0%), business consulting (e.g., planning, vendor
selection, needs assessment) (35.6%), end user/LOB training (31.5%) and additional
bandwidth, VPN upgrades, or remote access services (30.4%). As AI-powered
solutions gain traction, these areas will unlock opportunities for a variety
of partners, creating a full-service provision ecosystem.

Employment Impacts of Salesforce

AI-Powered Cloud Applications
One of the key concerns surrounding AI adoption is the impact on employment;
namely, whether it will cause people to lose their jobs. As with any significant

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technological change, there will be changes in the types of jobs available and the
work that people do. But we also believe that even with those potential changes,
there will still be positive job growth.

IDC estimates that the adoption of Salesforce AI-powered cloud solutions will
result in the creation of an additional 4.7 million direct jobs between 2022 and
2028 (see Figure 7). Additionally, it will indirectly impact roles not directly tied to
technology but that come about as a result of the changes AI brings to different
career fields. IDC estimates that adoption of Salesforce AI-powered cloud
solutions will create 7 million indirect or induced jobs between 2022 and 2028.
This is a net gain of 11.6 million jobs between 2022 and 2028.

FIGURE 7
Employment Impacts of Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions 2022–2028

■ Direct jobs* ■ Indirect/induced jobs*

Net gain 2022–2028

11.6 million

2021–2027 CAGR = 19.1%

18M
13M 16M
11M
11M 8M 10M
9M
6M 8M 7M
6M
4M 5M 7M
5M 6M
2M 3M 3M 4M

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028

*Note: IDC defines “direct” jobs as those jobs in Salesforce and its ecosystem. “Indirect” jobs are those generated
by the use of Salesforce AI-powered cloud solutions and its ecosystem’s cloud services.“Induced” jobs are those generated
by the spending on local goods and services.

Source: IDC’s Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions Economic Impact Model, July 2023

For an accessible version of the data in this figure, see Figure 7 Supplemental Data in the Appendix.

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The Talent Challenges

with Implementing Any AI
New technologies require new skills and have different impacts. That was true with
the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the digital revolution, and now
the AI revolution. For example, prior to the digital revolution, computers weren’t
machines with processors, disk drives, or motherboards — they were people who
used their skills in advanced mathematics to do very complex calculations.
That role was eventually replaced by a machine, which led to the creation of whole
new roles such as programmers, application developers, chip designers, database
managers, and more.

What can we expect from the dawning of the AI revolution? Companies have
already been hiring to maintain relevance in the AI space. Specifically for AI jobs,
50% of companies have hired data engineers over the last 12 months, 43%
have hired business analysts, and 41% have hired AI solution architects
(see Figure 8, next page). Given that there aren’t necessarily that many people
with the education and skills to fulfill these and similar roles, it foreshadows a race
for limited talent in these areas.

Additionally, 82% of companies expect that AI will change the nature of the
workforce, including whether there are more freelance employees and fewer direct
employees, how and where employees work, and even how employees reskill.
Not only are the roles changing, but also the nature of the workforce is changing,
similar to what was seen during previous technology revolutions.

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FIGURE 8
New Key Roles that Are Needed in an AI-Driven World
Which AI roles have you hired in the past 12 months?
(Percentage of respondents)

Data engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%

Business analysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43%

AI solutions architect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41%

Data architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39%

Data scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36%

Chief data and analytics officer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33%

AI governance/security engineer/analyst. . . . . . . . . 31%

Machine learning engineer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%

DevOps/ModelOps or MLOps engineer. . . . . . . . . . 30%

Chief AI officer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27%

Chief strategy and transformation officer . . . . . . . . 25%

Prompt engineers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22%

AI ethicist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%

Base: all respondents; n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

Part of understanding the direct employment impact is understanding the types

of roles that companies will need to hire going forward to fully benefit from
AI-powered cloud solutions. The primary and immediate role that companies have
hired in, and continue to look to hire in, are data architects (43%) (see Figure 9,
next page). What is interesting is the role in the number 2 position: AI ethicist (41%).
In the previous 12 months, only 21% of companies hired an AI ethicist, but

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going forward, this will be a crucial role as companies struggle to figure out how to
employ AI in a way that is ethical and can be trusted. Additional key roles that
companies are focusing their hiring efforts on include AI solutions architects (41%),
ML engineers (38%), and data scientists (38%).

FIGURE 9
New Key Roles that Are Needed in an AI-Driven World
Which AI roles do you plan to hire in the next 12 months?
(Percentage of respondents)

Data architects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%

AI ethicist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43%

AI solutions architect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41%

Machine learning engineer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39%

Data scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36%

Data engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33%

AI governance/security engineer/analyst. . . . . . . . . 31%

Chief AI officer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%

Chief data and analytics officer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%

Business analysts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27%

DevOps/ModelOps or MLOps engineer. . . . . . . . . . 25%

Chief strategy and transformation officer . . . . . . . . 22%

Prompt engineers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%

Note: ModelOps/MLOps is the discipline of operationalizing models in production, scaling them, and so on;
n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

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As shown in Figure 10, AI will help employees do their jobs better through better
tooling and better data, which will allow for better decision making. Additional key
expected impacts for employees over the next 12 months are more productivity
(43%), a reduction in repetitive tasks (38%), and improved job satisfaction (40%).

FIGURE 10
Positive Employee Impacts Are Part of the AI-Powered Cloud Solution Shift
How has AI-powered cloud solutions impacted your organization in the past 12 months
and how will it impact your organizations in next 12 months?
(Percentage of respondents)

■ Past 12 months ■ Next 12 months

45%
Helped employees do their jobs better. . . . . . .
44%
41%
Increased workforce AI skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
41%
Made employees more productive/get 39%
more done in less time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43%
Reduce the need for technical skills 23%
for entry-level jobs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27%
42%
Reduced repetitive routine tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38%
27%
Created new knowledge-based jobs. . . . . . . . . .
33%
37%
Improved job satisfaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40%

Base: all respondents; n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

For an accessible version of the data in this figure, see Figure 10 Supplemental Data in the Appendix.

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Conclusion

With all of the recent AI announcements, from the unveiling

of ChatGPT4 (with other versions soon to follow), to
the Biden administration’s Executive Order on AI, to almost
every technology conference being AI focused, it is clear
that the AI revolution is just starting.
Salesforce and its ecosystem of application providers and services partners will
play a significant role in the AI-powered CRM space. The projected growth is
indicative of the expected positive impact this shift will have.

It is also clear that the speed and magnitude of AI transformation will result
in challenges, from the shift in job functions, to the need for talent, all the way
to rethinking what business models will look like moving forward. These changes
and more will be challenges that Salesforce, its partners, and its customers will
have to overcome.

With the recent launch of Einstein AI, Einstein Copilot, and other AI applications,
Salesforce seems to be successfully facing the initial challenges. Integrating
AI-powered solutions, data flows, business process changes, and more will be
ongoing challenges for Salesforce, its partners, and customers. Key to that success
will be the continued evolution of Salesforce’s trusted and responsible AI, as this
will support accelerated AI adoption in a trusted way.

The AI revolution is truly a revolution on scale with the industrial revolution in size
and impact, and Salesforce currently has a significant stake in what this looks like
for CRM systems.

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Methodology

IDC’s EIM and the Benefits

of AI-Powered Cloud
IDC maintains an internal model (the Economic Impact Model, or EIM) that takes
inputs from IDC’s market research on IT spending, spending on cloud computing,
AI, exchange rates, vendor market share, and inputs from external sources on GDP,
population, disposable income, and labor forces. Using research-driven algorithms,
the model forecasts the revenues in a geography created in user organizations
from the use of cloud computing.

IDC then computes the number of jobs supported by those revenues in the current
year using research on GDP, gross output, and disposable income per worker.
IDC uses standard growth rate ratios between revenue growth and job growth
to quantify job creation in future years. Typically, if revenues grow x% a year,
commensurate job growth will be 0.5–0.7 times x. In other words, new jobs grow
more slowly than revenues.

The Salesforce Economy

As a major vendor of cloud services and AI-powered cloud applications,
Salesforce accounts for a significant share of the benefits to the general economy
from cloud computing.

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To compute the Salesforce-specific share of revenues and jobs created by the use
of cloud computing, IDC relies on unpublished estimates of Salesforce’s future
revenues as a percentage of the revenues of all cloud vendors and IDC estimates
of additional cloud services delivered by the ecosystem.

Note that the ecosystem may include companies that are not formal business
partners of Salesforce but that nevertheless sell products or services associated
with the Salesforce implementations.

The Salesforce Ecosystem

To size the Salesforce ecosystem, IDC starts with its estimates of Salesforce
revenues by country by year, based on IDC tracker data for cloud software and
professional services revenues by vendor. These estimates, together with
Wall Street estimates and Salesforce financials, are used to forecast past revenue
and revenue a year out. The outer-year forecasts grow Salesforce revenues
at the forecast growth rate of the various software submarkets in which IDC tracks
Salesforce. This is the denominator of the ecosystem revenue ratio.

The numerator is calculated using IDC market studies, bulwarked by past

and present surveys, that show relationships between product and service
categories — for example, the ratio of IT services to application software, business
services to IT services, network line charges to infrastructure hardware, and so on.

This information is encapsulated in an IDC proprietary model

(the Salesforce Ecosystem Model) with a calculation page for each country.

The specific categories compared with Salesforce software

as a service, platform as a service, and professional services
revenues include:

• Add-on applications, including additional cloud services

• System software

• IT services, including managed services, project-oriented services,

training, and support

• Business services and consulting

• Infrastructure hardware (e.g., storage and network equipment) and

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Data services

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The aggregate of the revenue components calculated in this way becomes the
estimate of ecosystem revenues. For simplicity, IDC aggregates some categories.

Changes from 2021 Methodology

Advances in AI have made an undeniable impact on global businesses, and
so IDC’s 2023 methodology was updated to reflect the influence of AI-powered
cloud computing.

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Appendix 1

Key Definitions
in Support of Figures
• Direct Impacts (direct jobs and direct revenues) are those created in the
Salesforce and ecosystem base.

• Indirect Impacts (indirect jobs and revenues) are those created in the supply
chain and in the customer base from the use of cloud computing.

• Induced Impacts (induced jobs and revenues) are the effects induced from
the increase in SFDC and its ecosystem revenue. They refer to the impact due
to economic stimulus coming from increased households’ income. People will
spend their wages in the economy, thus generating additional revenues.

• AI-powered cloud solutions are AI technologies (Classic and Generative AI)

infused across cloud services.

• Net gain in jobs is the difference from year-end 2022 to year-end 2028.
For revenue, it is the aggregate difference from each year to 2028.

• Business revenues are those created in the Salesforce customer base from the
use of cloud computing. They do not equate directly to GDP.

Revenues from recent Salesforce acquisitions have been folded into the historical
view of Salesforce revenues as well as forecasts.

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TABLE 1
Breakdown of Worldwide Business Revenues Generated from the Use
of SFDC AI-Powered Cloud Solutions

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028

Direct
40B 48B 59B 73B 88B 106B 123B
impacts

Indirect
253B 302B 380B 460B 557B 675B 761B
impacts

Induced
20B 24B 30B 37B 46B 55B 65B
impacts

Total 312B 375B 469B 570B 691B 836B 948B

Source: IDC, 2023

The direct jobs created by the use of AI-powered cloud applications are from
spending in the region/country studied. The assumption is that those jobs will
also be located in that region/country, but that may not always be the case.

Exchange Rates
All IDC modeling inputs and forecasts are in constant dollars at the average annual
exchange rates of 2022.

The Survey
To support the assumptions driving the model and to present current real-world
information about the Salesforce economy, IDC conducted an online survey in
July 2023 of 533 decision makers familiar with their organizations’ AI-powered
cloud deployments across Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan,
New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Questions are related to the penetration of cloud services in the deployments,

the expectations of benefits from the use of cloud, and the products and services
involved in implementations.

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Appendix 2: Supplemental Data

The tables in this appendix provide accessible versions of the data for the complex figures in this document.
Click “Return to original figure” below each table to get back to the original data figure.

FIGURE 1 SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Most Software Today Is on the Cloud and Businesses are Benefiting from It

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

On-Premise/Others $147B $163B $184B $206B $229B $253B

Public Cloud
$226B $285B $363B $454B $561B $691B
Services (Own IP)

Source: IDC Semiannual Software Tracker-Forecast 2022 | H2 in Constant Currency

Return to original figure

FIGURE 2 SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Cloud Computing Is the Foundation for the Adoption and Application of AI

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027

On-premise/
$368B $392B $407B $419B $432B $444B $457B
Others

Public Cloud
$331B $419B $505B $602B $716B $846B $994B
Services (Own IP)

Source: IDC Semiannual Software Tracker-Forecast 2022 | H2 in Constant Currency

Return to original figure

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Appendix: Supplemental Data (continued)

FIGURE 7 SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Employment Impacts of Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions 2022–2028

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028

Direct jobs 2M 3M 3M 4M 5M 6M 7M

Indirect/
4M 5M 6M 7M 8M 10M 11M
induced jobs

Total 6M 8M 9M 11M 13M 16M 18M

Source: IDC Salesforce AI-Powered Cloud Solutions Economic Impact Model, July 2023

Return to original figure

FIGURE 10 SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Positive Employee Impacts Are Part of the AI-Powered Cloud Solution Shift
How has AI-powered cloud solutions impacted your organization in the past 12 months
and how will it impact your organizations in next 12 months?

Past 12 Next 12
months months

Helped employees do their jobs better 45% 44%

Increased workforce AI skills 41% 41%

Made employees more productive/get more done in less time 39% 43%

Reduce the need for technical skills for entry level jobs 23% 27%

Reduced repetitive routine tasks 42% 38%

Created new knowledge-based jobs 27% 33%

Improved job satisfaction 37% 40%

n = 553; Source: Salesforce.com Economic Impact Survey, IDC, July, 2023

Return to original figure

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About the IDC Analysts

Alan Webber
Program Vice President,
Customer Experience, IDC

Alan Webber is Program Vice President for Digital Strategy and Customer Experience.
In this role, Alan leads IDC’s Customer Experience research program as well as
supporting IDC’s Chief Marketing Officer research efforts. Specific areas of research
interest for Alan are the impact that technology changes have on how business and
customers engage and interact, the digital transformation of the customer experience,
and the impact of algorithms and analytics.

More about Alan Webber

Dave Schubmehl
Research Vice President,
Conversational Artificial Intelligence and
Intelligent Knowledge Discovery, IDC

Dave Schubmehl is Research Vice President for IDC’s Conversational Artificial

Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Knowledge Discovery research. His research covers
information access and artificial intelligence technologies around conversational
AI technologies including speech AI and text AI, machine translation, embedded
knowledge graph creation, intelligent knowledge discovery, information retrieval,
unstructured information representation, knowledge representation, deep learning,
machine learning, unified access to structured and unstructured information,
chatbots and digital assistants, and rich media search in SaaS, cloud, and installed
software environments. This research analyzes the trends and dynamics of the
Text and Audio AI software markets and the costs, benefits, and workflow impact
of solutions that use these technologies.

More about Dave Schubmehl

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Carla La Croce
Senior Research Analyst,
Data and Analytics

Carla La Croce is a senior research analyst for IDC’s European Data and Analytics
team. She develops qualitative and quantitative research on IT strategies for EMEA
vertical markets, with direct involvement in IDC Spending Guides (big Data and
analytics, artificial Intelligence, robotics) and is part of the Intelligent Business
Execution (IBE) practice. She also leads the Macroeconomic Center of Excellence,
where she works on economic impact analysis and European recovery plans,
and manages a database of macroeconomic indicators (such as GDP and inflation).
La Croce also supports IDC’s consulting and forecast activities in the region.

More about Carla La Croce

Ritu Jyoti
Group Vice President,
Worldwide Artificial Intelligence and Automation
Research Practice, Global AI Research Lead, IDC

Ritu Jyoti is Group Vice President, covering worldwide AI and automation research
with IDC’s Software Market Research and Advisory practice. Ritu is responsible for
leading the development of IDC’s thought leadership for AI research and managing
the research team. Her research focuses on the state of enterprise AI efforts and
global market trends for rapidly evolving AI and ML innovations and ecosystem.
She also leads insightful research that addresses the needs of AI technology
vendors and provides actionable guidance on how to crisply articulate their value
proposition, differentiate, and thrive in the digital era.

More about Ritu Jyoti

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