Salesforce: AI-Powered Wellbeing – Intern Season | W/C 14 July 2025
As intern season kicks off globally, Salesforce is once again leading from the front, not just with generous programmes and polished onboarding, but with a thoughtful, tech-enabled approach to wellbeing that reflects the needs of a rising Gen Z workforce.
This is the generation that values purpose over prestige, impact over income, and culture over perks. They’ve grown up with access to everything, except certainty. And that’s exactly what makes them the most values-driven, wellbeing-conscious generation to enter the workforce to date.
Salesforce understands this and is reshaping its early careers support model to reflect a profound truth: future talent doesn’t just want to work. They want to thrive.
🧠 AI Powered Wellbeing for Mental Health? It’s Already Here
Salesforce’s proprietary AI, Einstein Copilot, has long been used to power smarter customer service. But now, the same technology is being applied internally to transform how employees, including interns and graduates, experience the workplace.
From day one, young professionals at Salesforce are supported by:
- Wellbeing check-ins integrated into onboarding workflows, helping managers spot early signs of overwhelm or disengagement.
- Smart wellbeing nudges, driven by behavioural data, that suggest when to take breaks, practice mindfulness, or access internal resources.
- Personalised coaching, with AI surfacing tools based on the employee’s role, goals, and recent activity, whether that’s a resilience podcast, a TED-style talk from a leader, or a reminder to book that mental health day.
According to Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, 46% of Gen Zs feel stressed or anxious most of the time, with work pressure and poor mental health support cited as key contributors. Salesforce is using AI to close that gap, not by replacing humans, but by amplifying care at scale.
👥 Mentorship, Not Micromanagement
Salesforce doesn’t just assign interns to teams, they assign them to people.
Every early-career hire is paired with a Trail Guide, a Salesforce-trained mentor who supports their professional and emotional journey from day one.
But this isn’t a casual buddy system, Trail Guides are upskilled in:
- Psychological safety: how to create an environment where interns feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and be vulnerable.
- Neurodiversity awareness: recognising different working styles and how to adapt communication to support them.
- Burnout literacy: identifying early warning signs and signposting available support systems.
The result is an experience where interns don’t just feel supervised, they feel seen.
“Being a Trail Guide isn’t about telling someone what to do. It’s about helping them find their voice, feel confident, and know they belong. That’s how you build leaders,” says Linda Aiello, EVP of Employee Success at Salesforce.
🏫 Career Confidence Starts Here
The transition from university to workplace can be daunting. Salesforce bridges this with real-world preparation that centres on confidence, not just competence.
Through its flagship Futureforce programme, the company partners with top universities and grassroots organisations to deliver:
- Resilience workshops co-designed with psychologists, helping students build coping strategies before they even start.
- Interactive career clinics where interns learn how to manage feedback, set boundaries, and build supportive peer networks.
- Executive insight talks from Salesforce leaders sharing their own challenges and career missteps, normalising failure and celebrating growth.
There’s also a focus on digital upskilling through the free Trailhead platform, with customised learning journeys in topics like Emotional Intelligence, Time Management, and Managing Stress at Work.
The message? Your career starts here, and it starts with wellbeing.
🌍 Inclusion at the Core
With operations in over 90 countries, Salesforce knows that a one-size-fits-all approach to early-career support won’t cut it. Their approach is rooted in intersectional inclusion, understanding that interns show up with different lived experiences, challenges, and needs.
Their global wellbeing strategy includes:
- ERG (Employee Resource Group) onboarding: Interns are actively welcomed into communities such as Boldforce (Black employees), Outforce (LGBTQ+), Abilityforce (disability inclusion), and Earthforce (climateaction).
- Gender-neutral parental leave policies, including for interns transitioning into full-time roles.
- Mindfulness Days and optional digital detox weeks, recognising the importance of recovery, not just performance.
- Localisation of resources, with culturally relevant mental health and wellbeing tools in every major region.
In a 2023 study by McKinsey, 78% of Gen Z workers said they were more likely to remain loyal to an employer whoprioritised inclusion and equity. Salesforce is earning that loyalty by design.
📈 Why It Matters
The business case is clear: early-career employees who feel supported, seen, and psychologically safe are 3x more likely to stay and 5x more likely to recommend the company to others.
But the human case is even stronger.
This is a generation that has grown up amid global instability, climate anxiety, and a 24/7 social media culture. They don’t want the burnout stories of older generations. They want a new narrative, one that allows ambition and wellbeing to coexist.
Salesforce is proving that supporting Gen Z isn’t about lowering the bar, it’s about raising the standard of care.
Final Word
By combining high-tech tools with high-touch mentoring, and embedding wellbeing into the DNA of early careers, Salesforce is redefining what it means to build a future-fit workforce.
They’re not just helping Gen Z work.
They’re helping them work well.
Gen Z doesn’t want burnout stories. They want new narratives.
As intern season begins, Salesforce is setting the bar for how large enterprises can support early-career professionals, blending AI, mentorship, and inclusive wellbeing into one powerful framework.
From smart wellbeing nudges and mental health prompts to trained “Trail Guide” mentors and resilience bootcamps, their approach is thoughtful, scalable, and human-first.
This isn’t about perks.
It’s about building confident, supported leaders from day one.
About Your People Power
Spotlight Features are brought to you by Your People Power, the workplace performance and wellbeing experts helping large organisations build high-performing, happy, and healthy cultures. Founded by award-winning workplace wellbeing speaker and transformation expert Gina Buckney, we work with businesses across the globe to help their people and performance thrive.
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Did you enjoy reading about Gen Z ready Salesforce? For similar features, check out last weeks SPOTLIGHT FEATURE on Unilever.