As tech barons go, Marc Benioff has been far from the worst offender when it comes to hyping artificial intelligence (AI). The Salesforce chief executive notably poured scorn on the notion – popularised by so many senior figures in Big Tech – that the technology could one day develop human-like cognitive function, describing the idea as “hypnosis”. Still, Benioff is an AI evangelist and he has essentially bet the family farm on it. Last year he told the Financial Times that the tech industry would have to “throw a lot against the wall” before it “figures out what sticks”.Benioff said: “So you’re like: ‘Wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense. These 10,000 companies just got funded, and only 100 of them are good.’ But you have to fund them all to get to the 100.”Salesforce has thrown a lot of stuff (cash, mostly) against the wall when it comes to AI. Very little of it seems to have stuck, however. Last month the software-as-a-service (SAAS) giant delivered what Bloomberg described as a lukewarm set of quarterly results that fell short of analyst expectations.This also came after Bloomberg published an article casting some doubt on the marketing around Agentforce, the company’s AI platform, compared with its actual capabilities.Enter Fin, the Irish-founded tech company that Salesforce agreed to acquire in a deal worth about $3.6 billion last week. Formerly known as Intercom, the business has specialised in creating artificial intelligence-driven customer agents that can answer complex user queries. Given the somewhat muted reaction from investors to Salesforce’s efforts in that area, the rationale for the deal is clear. Yet Salesforce’s share price has slumped by almost 10 per cent since the deal was announced. To be sure, the stock has fallen by about 40 per cent over the first six months of the year as part of a wider trend affecting SAAS companies. Many see the sector as being in the firing line of AI-related disruption. However, some in the industry see the Fin deal as a tacit admission that Salesforce’s AI strategy simply hasn’t passed muster up to this point. Benioff would be well advised to keep the hype to a minimum until his new Irish toy can start delivering results.