Curative Drops Salesforce Contract for AI Tool but Salesforce Reports Continued Demand

Curative canceled its $600,000 annual contract with Salesforce and replaced the customer relationship management system with a tool built using artificial intelligence in two months, Insider reported. The health insurance company now plans to reduce overall SaaS spending by about 80% in 2026.

CEO and founder Fred Turner described the change during a February 2026 interview on the "20VC with Harry Stebbings" podcast.

He said the company had seen the number of contracts it was canceling and pointed to the Salesforce agreement as one example. Curative built the replacement system in two months, Turner added. The company is shifting spending toward AI.

Its costs with Anthropic rose sixfold each month over the last six or seven months, moving from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars per month, according to Turner. Turner highlighted the economics of a custom AI agent named Gwen that negotiates contracts with doctors and other providers. Before AI, Curative spent an average of $1,500 to $2,000 to complete one contract.

Gwen now completes a contract for about $70 on average. The company plans to finish ten times as many contracts in 2026 as it did in 2025 using the agent. Turner acknowledged that maintaining the custom-built system remains a challenge.

He said he still recommends the approach to other businesses. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff pushed back on concerns about declining demand during a February earnings call. He said he continued to see "incredible demand" for the company's products and suggested that agent improvements could lead companies to use more SaaS rather than less.