Managing AI agents is a demanding job. Since agents operate on weekends, holidays, and overnight, the human manager must constantly review outputs and correct mistakes. This creates a relentless workload and is not a suitable role for those who are not prepared for constant oversight.
The key for go-to-market leaders to stay relevant is hands-on experience with AI. Instead of delegating, leaders should personally select an AI tool, ingest data, and go through the iterative training process. This firsthand knowledge is a rare and highly valuable skill.
Relying on relationships is an insufficient defense against AI in sales. Salespeople who can't answer tough technical objections and lack deep product knowledge are becoming obsolete. Expertise, not just charm, is the new requirement to provide value that an AI cannot.
The ideal person to manage your AI sales agents is likely already on your team. Look for a quantitative, curious individual in marketing, product, or RevOps. This internal 'nerd' is a better fit than an external hire or a traditional salesperson for this new, critical role.
AI agent tools require significant training and iteration. Success depends less on software features and more on the vendor's commitment to implementation. Prioritize vendors offering a dedicated "forward-deployed engineer" who will actively help you train and deploy the agent.
SaaStr tested both disclosing and hiding that their outreach came from AI agents and found it made no difference in response rates. As long as the email is relevant and useful, prospects are willing to engage, proving that value trumps the human-versus-AI distinction in sales communication.
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.
New AI-powered RevOps tools provide radical transparency by automatically tracking every salesperson action in the CRM in real-time. This makes it impossible for underperformers to hide a lack of activity. At SaaStr, one employee quit the day such a tool was implemented because 'the gig was up.'
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.
High-ROI AI products are changing B2B buyer expectations. The old model of signing a contract before a long, uncertain implementation is dying. The new standard, which even Salesforce's CEO envies, is for customers to go live and experience the product's value *before* committing to a purchase.
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.
Don't let an AI agent generate sales copy from scratch. The key to creating high-quality, effective outreach is to train the model using the proven email templates and scripts from your highest-performing salesperson. This provides a strong baseline for the AI to iterate and test from.
While it's tempting to build custom AI sales agents, the rapid pace of innovation means any internal solution will likely become obsolete in months. Unless you are a company like Vercel with dedicated engineers passionate about the problem, it's far better to buy an off-the-shelf tool.
Jason Lemkin's company, SaaStr, transitioned from a go-to-market team of roughly 10 humans to just 1.2 humans managing 20 AI agents. This new, AI-driven team is achieving the same level of business performance as the previous all-human team, demonstrating a viable new model for sales organizations.