Salesforce backs HiBob in AI-driven workforce data push

HiBob has secured an investment led by Salesforce, with participation from Farallon.

The deal deepens ties between HiBob and Salesforce, which are already connected through Slack, as HiBob expands its people management software into a broader organisational data offering.

HiBob, which runs the Bob platform, said the new backing will support its push to make workforce data more central to how companies use artificial intelligence in day-to-day operations. It argues that information about employees, roles, reporting lines, skills and incentives will become increasingly important as businesses deploy AI tools and automated workflows.

That positions the company in a growing part of the software market where HR data is being used as context for business systems beyond the human resources department. HiBob said its software already combines information on roles, skills, teams, reporting structures, goals, compensation, performance and workforce planning.

According to the company, the business serves more than 5,500 customers in more than 170 countries. It sells to mid-sized and larger organisations and has been building links between HR, payroll and finance data.

AI and structure

Ronni Zehavi outlined the company's view that AI will reshape management structures as well as software tools.

"We founded HiBob with a simple conviction: The world of work has transformed, and will continue to transform at a rapid pace," said Ronni Zehavi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of HiBob. "Salesforce's investment validates our belief that AI is not only changing technology, it is changing the architecture of organizations. As people and AI agents increasingly work side by side, trusted workforce context will become fundamental to how companies redesign work, empower managers, and make better decisions."

He said businesses risk treating AI too narrowly as a software deployment issue.

"The biggest mistake companies can make is to think AI is primarily a technology story," said Zehavi. "It is an organizational and managerial revolution. The winners will not simply have the best AI model. They will build the best organizations for the AI era."

Salesforce executives linked the investment to the view that AI systems become more useful when they draw on detailed information about how a company is organised. This is a notable area of interest for software suppliers trying to embed AI into internal workflows while keeping outputs tied to company data.

"HiBob has built an impressive global people platform serving more than 5,500 customers, with a deep understanding of how organizations operate," said Joe Teplow, Chief Strategy Officer at Slack and Senior Vice President at Salesforce Labs at Salesforce. "This trusted foundation of workforce context makes AI more useful, relevant, and connected to how businesses actually operate."

Slack link

The investment builds on HiBob's existing integration with Slack. The companies said the work is aimed at bringing workforce information and organisational context into Slack-based workflows, where managers and employees already communicate and make decisions.

For HiBob, that reflects a strategy of pushing HR and organisational data into other business systems rather than keeping it inside a standalone application. It described this as an open and headless approach, with workforce information made available across collaboration, customer management, finance and operations software.

Slack's marketing chief said the aim is to place organisational information closer to where teams work.

"AI is most effective when it understands the people, roles, and structures that shape an organization," said Ryan Gavin, Chief Marketing Officer of Slack. "Trusted workforce context provides that foundation, making AI more relevant to the teams using it. Our work with HiBob brings that context into Slack, where people collaborate and make decisions every day."

HiBob's broader argument is that as companies automate more tasks, the remaining human work will focus more on judgment, accountability and creativity. It said that shift will require employers to rethink team design, management systems and skills planning as people work alongside AI agents.

The transaction also gives Salesforce a stake in a software provider focused on workforce and organisational information at a time when large technology groups are seeking better data sources for AI systems. In that context, HR platforms are emerging as one route to structured data on permissions, reporting lines, incentives and responsibilities.

HiBob said its long-term goal is to provide what it calls organisational intelligence for companies managing hybrid workforces made up of people and AI agents. It said this should help businesses identify skill gaps, plan staffing and create clearer accountability as work is redistributed between staff and software.