Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) poses for a group photo with AI company leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (C) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (right), at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
Software giants have had their worst stock performance in years due to concerns about the disruption of AI. Now they have a new problem.
Several top software executives are being poached by AI giants looking for people with sales and go-to-market experience, sources said.
executives from sales force, snowflakeand data dog Sources say it has recently been poached by OpenAI and Anthropic, lured by the opportunity to bring hefty compensation packages and existing corporate relationships to these AI companies.
Salesforce and OpenAI declined to comment. CNBC has reached out to Snowflake and Datadog for comment.
One of OpenAI’s flashiest software adopters was Denise Dresser. Mr. Dresser is currently Chief Revenue Officer and previously served as CEO of Slack, a communications platform within Salesforce. Jennifer Majlessi also joined Salesforce last month in her role as head of market development for OpenAI, according to LinkedIn. Anthropic also hired from Salesforce, recruiting officials said.
Competition for talent is nothing new in AI. Elite researchers are the highlight of the AI field’s so-called “talent wars,” attracting multimillion-dollar salaries and tens of millions of dollars in signing bonuses.
But the new frontier in the talent war signals a shift in the AI giants’ priorities. The enterprise sector is an increasingly important growth area for OpenAI. This is the more profitable and “sticky” part of the business. Executives from Salesforce, Snowflake, and others bring deep relationships with companies to help grow this segment.
As of January, enterprise customers accounted for about 40% of OpenAI’s business. But CFO Sarah Friar recently said the company is on track to increase that percentage to 50% by the end of the year. OpenAI announced in November that more than 1 million enterprise customers around the world use its technology.
For software companies, this is the latest AI headwind.
The sector has already been battered this year by fears that AI tools from companies like Anthropic and OpenAI will upend the dominant cloud subscription model. The iShares Expanded Technology Software ETF (IGV), which tracks this sector, is down almost 20% this year.
Some employees are trying to get through the layoffs early. Earlier this month, CNBC confirmed that: oracle was laying off thousands of employees as it ramped up AI cloud computing. meta and microsoft Meta also announced plans to reinvest in AI and reduce its workforce.
As more companies invest in AI due to structural changes in the technology workforce, IT professionals are thinking about where they can add value and capitalize on the latest technology trends.
Mr. Majlesi, a sales executive, posted on LinkedIn that he is leaving Salesforce to join OpenAI. “What makes this opportunity especially meaningful is my sincere belief in this product. I have seen how useful this technology can be in both work and life,” Magilesi wrote.
Two sources share that OpenAI has also poached forward-deployed engineers. Palantir Technologies In the last few months.
Forward deployment engineers are regarded in the industry as leading professionals skilled in helping clients implement significant changes to their businesses on-site using a variety of software capabilities. CNBC has reached out to Palantir for comment.
While executives at traditional technology companies build deep relationships, those at AI companies say it’s not necessarily a cultural fit. One executive said some companies lack the appetite for the long hours required by fast-growing AI companies.
— CNBC’s Noah Broder contributed to this report
