On CNBC’s Squawk on the Street this week, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff emphasized that AI development cannot proceed on a ‘growth at any cost’ basis. Citing customer trust and long-term stability, Benioff urged U.S. lawmakers to establish clear guardrails around data privacy, bias mitigation and transparency standards for generative models. He noted that Salesforce has invested more than 2,000 engineer-years into ethical AI research, and warned that a regulatory vacuum could expose enterprises to compliance risks and reputational damage. For investors, the push for federal guidelines may slow the pace of new product rollouts in the short term, but could also fortify Salesforce’s competitive moat by raising barriers to entry for smaller AI vendors.