Team SaaStr has been living in AI and sales for the past 18 months, but things really accelerated started around June 2025
Since then we’ve deployed 20+ AI agents at SaaStr. Our AI SDRs now send 11-40x the volume of our human SDRs—with better results. Our AI inbound agent has closed over $1M in revenue in its first 90 days. We talk to dozens of CROs, VPs of Sales, CMOs, and founders every month about what’s working and what’s not.
Here’s what I know for sure: 2026 is going to be a rude awakening for the sales profession.
Not because sales is dying. It’s not. But because the who and the how of closing deals is changing faster than most leaders realize. We’re already seeing $4M+ deals close without a traditional AE ever touching them. We’re seeing AI SDRs outperform humans on volume AND quality. We’re seeing buyers trust chatbots more than salespeople.
And yet—some things haven’t changed at all. In-person still closes at 3x. You still can’t coach an inbound rep into doing outbound. The best reps still just work harder and are genuinely curious.
Below are 15 ways sales has fundamentally changed in the age of AI, plus 5 things that haven’t budged. Whether you’re a founder, CRO, or individual contributor trying to figure out where this is all heading—this is what I’m seeing on the ground right now
1. The $3M Deal That Closed Without an AE
The Story: A Head of Sales Engineering at a leading AI dev tools company closed a $3M+ annual deal the other day right before I met with him. The SE ran the entire relationship—tested the product, designed the pilot, handled technical onboarding, built the business case, went onsite to close it. The sales team’s contribution? They helped price the deal. That’s about it.
The Insight: Big deals are closing without traditional sales execs. Not $2K deals—$4M contracts. The SE becomes the trusted advisor because they’re the one actually solving problems. By the time you get to contracting, the deal is basically done.
Many AI leaders are combining sales & solution engineering into one role. We’ll see how far and deep this can go. It works best when there is incredibly strong inbound demand.
2. Sales Engineers Are the New AEs
The Data: AI-native companies are running 2:1 or 3:1 SE-to-AE ratios. Some have more SEs than AEs. The traditional 4:1 AE-to-SE model is inverting.
The Shift: Instead of AEs “owning” deals, you’re seeing more FDEs (Field Development Engineers), Solutions Architects, and implementation specialists. These technical roles are closing deals because they solve actual problems.
The Comp Question: If your SE is closing the deal, shouldn’t they get closing credit? Many companies are already doing this. That $4M deal? The SE should get paid like an AE. Full stop.
3. AI SDRs Are Outperforming Humans—With Better Results
SaaStr’s Own Data:
- AI SDR sending 3,221 emails/month vs. human SDRs sending 75-285 emails/month (11-40x volume)
- Response rates: 5.5% to 12% depending on campaign warmth
- 11-13x more responses from the same lead pools
- AI SDR booked a six-figure sponsor meeting on Saturday night at 6:02 PM while we were at dinner. Zero humans would do this.
The Bigger Picture: Since August, SaaStr’s AI inbound agent handled 45,188 sessions, qualified 1,025 prospects, booked 91 meetings, and closed $1,010,000 in revenue. 71% of Q4 closed-won sponsorship deals came from AI-qualified inbound leads.
4. The Death of the Classic Email-Based SDR Role (It’s Real Now)
Emergence Capital Data (400+ B2B companies):
- 36% of companies decreased SDR/BDR headcount in the last year—highest of any sales function
- Only 19% increased SDR headcount—lowest growth rate across all sales roles
- Compare to Sales Engineers: only 14% decreased
Why This Is Happening: AI can do 10-40x the volume with consistent quality. The productivity gap is too large to ignore.
5. “If It Can Close on a Text Message, AI Can Close It”
The Principle: If a deal can fundamentally be closed via email or text message threads—and plenty of mid-market deals can—then an AI agent can handle that motion just as well. Maybe not perfectly today, but soon enough that it doesn’t matter.
The Implication: The traditional sales choreography of discovery calls, demos, objection handling, follow-ups? That’s all text-based communication with some video calls. AI agents are getting shockingly good at that.
6. Buyers Trust AI More Than Salespeople
G2 Buyer Behavior Data: Generative AI chatbots (17.2%) are now MORE trusted than vendor salespeople (9.3%) for final purchase decisions.
Why: AI synthesizes multiple data sources without an agenda. It doesn’t have quota pressure. It doesn’t have a bad day. It knows the product comprehensively. A great AI provides a better experience than a mediocre human rep.
The Expectation Reset: Customers simply won’t accept waiting, getting wrong answers, or dealing with reps who don’t know the product. Amazon-like expectations are coming to B2B.
7. “Sell by Chat” Is Now 50/50
SaaStr’s Own Data: We’re seeing a 50/50 split between traditional website purchases and AI-driven chat sales for our events. “We call it sell by chat. Our AI is basically selling tickets to future SaaStr events all via email, all automated.”
The Future: LLMs become sales channels. Buyers complete entire purchase journeys within chat interfaces. Websites become data sources for AI systems rather than human destinations.
8. The 50/50 Team Is Coming: Half AI, Half Human
The Prediction: CROs will need to manage teams that are 50% AI agents and 50% human by end of 2025. This requires entirely new management skills—systems optimization, not just people leadership.
From Kyle Norton (Owner CRO): “AI curiosity is now a firing offense to lack.” Team members who aren’t genuinely AI-curious should be let go. Not about being an AI expert—it’s about demonstrating active engagement.
9. Your Reps Only Touch 40% of Their Accounts (AI Fixes This)
HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan’s Data:
- Sales reps spend 25-35% of their time in front of customers—unchanged for decades
- Give your salespeople 100 accounts, they actually cover maybe 40
- AI can finally move these stuck metrics
The Unlock: AI handles the 60% of accounts that would otherwise get zero coverage. Your best reps focus on the 40% that matter most.
10. AI SDRs Know the Product Better Than 95% of Human SDRs
The Uncomfortable Truth:
- 95% of human SDRs don’t really know the product they’re selling
- 95% can’t answer a tough question from a VP Eng, CPO, or CIO
- 95% have to wait until they can grab someone to help
Why AI Wins Here: An AI SDR trained on your knowledge base knows every spec, every integration, every use case. It never says “I’ll check and get back to you.” The productivity benefits are real—but the truth is, an AI SDR is much, much better than a human one. Almost always.
11. Qualification Meetings Are Becoming Obsolete
The Old Way: 30-minute qualification call before providing any real value.
The New Reality: In the age of AI, making customers waste 30 minutes before you help them is unforgivable. Great AI can qualify leads better than most humans because it asks every question, scores consistently, and provides immediate value.
62% of buyers don’t want to talk to sales until the evaluation/decision stage. They’re using AI and peer reviews to eliminate vendors before ever speaking to humans.
12. Quotas Don’t Work (As Well) for AI-First Companies
From Anthropic & FAL: “We still don’t really have quotas. We have shadow targets. It’s really hard to predict exactly what is happening when adoption is fast and driven by model intelligence you cannot predict.”
Why Traditional Quotas Break:
- AI-driven growth is too unpredictable for annual planning
- Companies are seeing 50%+ growth in single quarters
- Usage-based revenue means consumption drives everything
13. The “Mech AE” Is the Future
The Concept: Your digital AI twin joins you on every sales call. Not just a note-taker—an AI that knows your product cold. Prospect asks about integrations? Ask your AI. It answers in real-time without human intervention.
What Changes:
- 95% of calls become productive (no more “I’ll get back to you”)
- Every rep performs like your best rep on product knowledge
- The AI handles all technical questions during complex sales processes
Products like Delphi are already enabling this functionality—just months away from being production-ready.
14. The 8-Month Countdown to Transform
The Timeline: Companies have approximately 8 months to adapt to AI-first sales and marketing, or be left behind.
What’s Required:
- 25% of marketing budget toward LLM influence and optimization
- Hidden AI-facing websites (entire content trees for AI agents to scrape)
- Chat-first sales experiences
- Agent handoff systems between AI and human interactions
15. 2026 Is the Rude Awakening Year
The Prediction: Everyone is going to be surprised how many fairly big deals close without a sales exec.
What “Sales Teams” Look Like:
- More FDEs, SEs, SAs, experts helping you onboard and train your AI
- More humans helping you before you go live, even before you pay
- AI agents handling the transactional sales motion
- Technical experts closing the complex deals
The Exception: The further removed your customers are from tech, the less true this will be. But tech is the #1 largest segment of our economy.
Customer Expectations Have Reset
Just as consumers expect Amazon-like experiences in all retail, B2B buyers now expect AI-level efficiency, knowledge, and convenience. Companies clinging to high-friction sales models are at severe competitive disadvantage.
The Hiring Implication
- Hire fewer traditional AEs (especially $50K-$250K ACV range)
- Hire way more technical talent for customer-facing roles
- Invest heavily in pre-sales and implementation
- Your best “closers” in 2026 will be people who solve problems, not handle objections
The Career Question for AEs
The AEs who will thrive:
- Develop deep technical chops (SE-level product knowledge)
- Move upmarket to complex, strategic deals
- Become deal orchestrators, not demo jockeys
- Build executive presence (C-level relationships are AI-resistant)
The AEs who will struggle rely on: process execution, product knowledge regurgitation, scripted objection handling, pricing negotiation within guardrails. AI is better at all of these.
5 Things That HAVEN’T Changed in GTM in the Age of AI
1. In-Person Still Closes at 3X the Rate
The Data: Toast, Brex, Splunk, and SaaStr all see the same thing—in-person meetings convert at 3X the rate of virtual (45% vs 15% at Toast). At SaaStr, meeting sponsors in person increased deal size by 30%.
The Irony: Only 27% of B2B customer meetings happen in person today, despite this data being widely known. AI hasn’t changed the fundamental human truth: trust builds faster face-to-face.
The Lesson: The most AI-forward companies still fly their SEs onsite to close big deals. The $4M deal that closed without an AE? The SE flew onsite. AI handles the transactional middle—the strategic top still requires showing up.
2. You Still Can’t Coach Inbound Reps Into Outbound (Or Vice Versa)
The Pattern That Still Holds:
- 95% of inbound-only reps won’t start doing real outbound, even when missing quota. They’ll pretend, send a few emails, but that’s it.
- 95% of outbound reps will stop prospecting once they have enough inbound leads to hit comp goals.
- 95% of reps don’t really want to visit customers in person.
Why AI Doesn’t Fix This: AI can make outbound more efficient, but it can’t change human DNA. Rippling found that going from programmatic to human outbound jumped conversion from 1% to 3-7% on the same accounts—but only with reps who actually wanted to do outbound.
The Hiring Truth: If you want your team to do more, you have to hire exactly that. The “full-stack AE” remains a rarity.
3. The Best Reps Still Just Work Harder (And Are Genuinely Curious)
From Loren Padelford (CRO, Slice, $100M+ ARR): “The best reps just work much, much harder. And they are truly curious. That’s rare.”
What AI Can’t Replace:
- Genuine curiosity about the customer’s business
- The drive to do the extra research, make the extra call
- Actually caring about solving the customer’s problem
The Data Point: Rippling books 1,300 outbound demos/month, and 50% still happen over the phone. Cold calling is almost a lost art—which makes it more effective for those who do it. AI didn’t kill the grind; it just made grinders more productive.
4. Relationships Still Win in Complex Enterprise Sales
What AI Can’t Do:
- Navigate internal politics at a Fortune 500
- Build trust with a CIO over 18 months
- Understand the unspoken dynamics in a buying committee
- Be the “trusted advisor” for career-defining decisions
The Further From Tech, The More True This Is: If you’re selling to construction companies, law firms, or healthcare providers, traditional relationship-driven sales motions will persist longer. These buyers want a human they trust, not an optimized chat experience.
Even in Tech: The strategic, $1M+ enterprise deals still require executive relationship building. AI handles the transactional layer; humans handle the strategic layer. That hasn’t changed.
5. Bad Sales Behaviors Are Still Bad (AI Just Exposes Them Faster)
What Still Kills Deals (AI or Not):
- Playing endless games with price
- Fake urgency (“prices going up next month!”)
- Pushing customers into oversized packages they don’t need
- Lies about the competition
- Not understanding budget and situation
- Breakup emails that guilt-trip prospects
- Renewal ambushes with unexpected price hikes
The Twist: AI makes bad behavior more visible. When your AI SDR sends an obviously wrong email or your chatbot gives bad information, customers screenshot it and share it on LinkedIn. The tolerance for mediocrity is lower, not higher.
What Great Reps Still Do:
- Listen to actual problems and show the best solution
- Are honest about product gaps and competition
- Help with demos, pilots, and trials in whatever format works
- Are there for customers after the deal
- Don’t play games with pricing
The Fundamental Truth: Transaction-focused reps lose. Relationship-focused reps win. AI didn’t change this—it just accelerated the sorting.
What Has — And Hasn’t — Changed
What’s changed: The how of sales—the mechanics, the volume, who does what, and where AI fits.
What hasn’t changed: The why of sales—trust, relationships, genuine curiosity, working hard, and treating customers like partners instead of transactions.
The companies that win in the AI age will use AI for the mechanical layer while doubling down on the human layer where it matters. The ones that try to AI-ify everything, including the relationship parts, will lose to competitors who understand that some things never change.
