Don't expect an AI agent to invent a successful sales process. First, have your human team identify and document what works—effective emails, scripts, and objection handling. Then, train the AI on this proven playbook to execute it flawlessly and at scale. The AI is a scaling tool, not a strategist from day one.

Despite hype, true 'autonomous marketing' is not imminent. AI excels at automating the first 80-90% of a workflow, but the final, most complex steps involving anomalies, nuance, and judgment still require a human. This 'last mile' problem ensures AI's role will be augmentation, not replacement.

Using AI to generate content without adding human context simply transfers the intellectual effort to the recipient. This creates rework, confusion, and can damage professional relationships, explaining the low ROI seen in many AI initiatives.

Don't just replace human tasks with AI. Deploy AI agents to handle leads your sales team ignores, like small deals or low-scored prospects. This untapped segment, as SaaStr found with a 15% ticket revenue lift, represents significant growth potential by filling a gap in your GTM process that humans create themselves.

Instead of fully automating conversations and risking sounding robotic, use AI to provide real-time suggestions and prompts to a human sales rep. This scales expertise and consistency without sacrificing the human touch needed to close deals.

Avoid using AI to create sales outreach from scratch ('black pen'). Instead, use it as an editor ('red pen'). Apply the 10-80-10 rule: 10% human-led prompting, 80% AI-driven task execution, and a final 10% human refinement. This maintains quality while boosting efficiency.

The primary ROI of sales AI isn't just saved time, but the reallocation of that time. Evaluate and justify AI tools based on their ability to maximize Customer Facing Time (CFT), as this directly increases both the quantity and quality of customer interactions, leading to better performance.

Unlike older sales tools, AI agents shouldn't be handed to individual SDRs to manage. This approach leads to failure. Instead, centralize the strategy: a core team must own agent training, contact routing, and performance tuning to ensure a consistent and effective GTM motion across the entire organization.

A powerful framework for the human-AI partnership: AI provides the "intellectual capacity" (data, options, research), but the salesperson must serve as the "intellectual activator." Their irreplaceable role is applying strategic judgment and critical thinking to activate the information AI provides.