Amid growing pressure to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) without sacrificing profitability, Salesforce and Workday are increasingly turning to international talent pools as part of a broader cost-cutting strategy. Both companies are adjusting their hiring practices and reducing US-based staff to better balance their finances while meeting AI demands.
Salesforce, in particular, has reduced the proportion of US-based employees in its workforce, which dropped from 58% to 51% over the past four years. The company announced job cuts in 2023 and 2024, including a reduction of around 8,000 jobs and an additional 1,000 positions recently. At a Barclays Plc event in December, Salesforce's COO, Brian Millham, questioned the necessity of hiring primarily in expensive locations like San Francisco, suggesting that cities like Mexico City and India offer highly skilled labor at a lower cost.
Similarly, Workday is streamlining its operations, eliminating 1,750 jobs to focus on improving profit margins. The company's CEO, Carl Eschenbach, highlighted that expanding hiring in Costa Rica is part of this effort, and also pointed to the increasing role of AI in functions such as call centers and finance departments to reduce costs.
This trend of shifting hiring abroad is not limited to Salesforce and Workday. Other tech giants like PayPal and ServiceNow have also seen their US-based workforce shrink, as PayPal's share of US employees dropped from 53% to 38% over five years. The same trend is visible across the industry, as companies realize the availability of high-quality talent globally for roles like engineering and finance, which were traditionally filled by domestic workers.
For companies like Checkr, a platform helping firms with background checks, the demand for international hires has surged by 42% in 2024, driven largely by profitability pressures. Companies are now seeing that global talent can fill roles that were once considered for lower-level jobs, making it a more attractive option.
In response to these trends, Oracle and Microsoft are prime examples of companies that have long relied on an international workforce, with Microsoft employing nearly 45% of its staff outside the US.
This shift reflects broader changes in the tech industry, where companies are prioritizing efficiency and margin improvement while adopting AI-driven solutions to streamline operations. As the industry faces increasing pressure to innovate and remain profitable, hiring talent from cost-effective locations is emerging as a key strategy.
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