Chad Peets predicts that AI will automate the top-of-funnel tasks currently performed by Sales and Business Development Representatives, making most of those roles obsolete within five years. He sees this as the most obvious and immediate impact of AI on the structure of sales teams.
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The traditional, entry-level SDR role is becoming obsolete. The new high-value SDR will be a skilled operator who manages a team of AI agents, not people. This leverage justifies a much higher salary, potentially reaching $250,000 per year, for those who can master this new skill set.
A salesperson's primary defense against AI is their ability to engage in real-time, synchronous conversations. By defaulting to email and keeping clients at a "digital arm's length," reps are performing tasks that AI can easily automate, making their roles increasingly redundant.
AI agents will handle administrative tasks like CRM updates, booking, and mass outreach. This won't eliminate the BDR role but will elevate it, requiring reps to focus on nuanced, trust-building activities like discovery calls and strategic relationship management that AI cannot perform.
AI is not coming for the jobs of high-performing salespeople. Instead, it's replacing the roles people don't want and displacing mediocre or mid-pack performers. The best sales professionals will gain superpowers from AI, while the rest will find their jobs at risk.
Industry leaders from LinkedIn and Salesforce predict that AI will automate narrow, specialized tasks, fundamentally reshaping careers. The future workforce will favor 'professional generalists' who can move fluidly between projects and roles, replacing rigid departmental structures with dynamic 'work charts.'
OneMind's CEO believes Account Executives are safest from AI due to the need for relationship-building and navigating politics. However, roles focused on information transfer, like lead qualification (SDRs) and product demos (Solutions Engineers), will likely be outperformed by AI.
The narrative of AI causing widespread sales layoffs is misleading. The more significant, subtle shift is that when a salesperson quits, companies will increasingly replace that function with an AI agent rather than hiring another person. This non-backfill approach is the real force of change.
AI agents can manage the entire buyer lifecycle from first touch to upsell. This removes human capacity constraints, allowing companies to merge siloed go-to-market teams into a single, cohesive unit focused on the customer journey.
AI won't eliminate sales roles but will automate the tasks of lazy, transactional reps, making them obsolete. Conversely, top performers who merge AI-powered insights with human empathy will become unstoppable, creating a more pronounced divide in sales team performance.
For 20 years, sales reps have spent only ~25% of their time with customers. AI is the first technology that can fundamentally shift this ratio by automating low-value prep work, rewriting the nature of go-to-market jobs.
