Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, has given Google’s new AI assistant, Gemini Live, a strong endorsement. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) this Sunday, Benioff praised the tool’s performance and highlighted its quick response time.
“Just downloaded Gemini Live, and I’m absolutely blown away,” he said in the post. According to Benioff, Gemini has “zero latency,” meaning there’s almost no delay between asking a question and getting an answer. He also called it “the future of consumer AI.”
He tagged Google CEO Sundar Pichai in the post, congratulating him on the “truly groundbreaking” effort and encouraging others to try it.
Benioff has been pretty vocal lately, especially when it comes to AI tools. Over the past few months, he hasn’t been shy about criticizing Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot. He recently compared it to Microsoft’s old Clippy assistant, saying it falls short of expectations.
“Microsoft has really disappointed so many of our customers,” Benioff said in an interview with Business Insider’s Ashley Stewart. His main gripe is that Microsoft has leaned too much on hype rather than delivering real results, especially with its AI lineup.
In contrast, Google launched Gemini Live as a free app for iPhone users on Thursday, not long after Apple unveiled the iPhone 16. The app allows users to engage with the AI via voice, mimicking natural conversations. Ask Gemini a question, and it responds with the same ease as talking to a friend.
Business Insider tested Gemini by asking why San Francisco is so foggy. The answer came back clear and conversational: “It’s a combo of things — the cold water off the coast, the warm air from inland, and the shape of the bay. The cold ocean air meets the warm air, and it creates this thick fog that gets trapped in the bay. You could say it’s San Francisco’s calling card — you know you’re there when you see it!”
This ability to speak naturally is similar to other AI tools. Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have dedicated apps as well, allowing users to have conversations with AI chatbots. But their responses sounded almost identical when asked the same question about San Francisco — pointing to just how similar these tools can be at times.
ChatGPT, for instance, gave a similar rundown about the fog: “It’s mainly because of the unique geography and climate. The cold ocean water from the Pacific meets the warmer air from the land. This causes condensation, which forms fog.”
Of course, these AI tools aren’t perfect. Reports have noted that all three — Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini — are capable of giving inaccurate information or hallucinating responses that sound good but don’t make sense. However, each has its strengths. ChatGPT generally works pretty well for a variety of tasks, according to Axios, while Gemini tends to pull more up-to-date info. Copilot seems like it’s better suited for tasks that involve productivity.
Benioff’s interest in AI doesn’t stop with Gemini Live. During Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in September, he talked to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about how much he uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Interestingly, he mentioned that he often uses it as a “therapist.” That’s right—he’s not just using AI for business but as an everyday tool for personal reflection.
In another interview with David Sacks, Benioff said that AI is advancing so quickly that it’s already at a point where it can easily mimic real human customer service. “We are already at the point,” Benioff said. “We already have that live… I think it’s pretty impressive.”
Both Benioff and Google have yet to comment publicly beyond the X post. It seems clear that AI is continuing to grow as an essential part of business — and perhaps, as Benioff suggests, our everyday lives too.
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