Benioff is referring to the widely disparaged animated paperclip Microsoft unveiled as part of Office 96. The "smart" digital helper was designed to assist with certain tasks, but it was viewed more as an annoyance and reviled by users. As such, Benioff's comments had a tone of mockery.

Microsoft Copilot or Microsoft Office's Clippy. But Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently came at both of them. Benioff dismissed Microsoft's Copilot AI features during an interview in the midst of his company's annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.