The Chief Revenue Officer may be the only GTM role that’s truly AI-proof. But one that has to evolve radically over the coming 24 months.
We’re watching AI systematically reshape every corner of go-to-market:
- Customer support? Already largely automated in many cases. Intercom/Fin, Gorgias, Zendesk, Decagon and others are seeing 60%+ defection rates and AI resolving most issues.
- Marketing? CMOs that aren’t AI native are panicking.
- SDRs? The writing’s on the wall. We won’t need more of them.
- Customer Success? AI is coming for those renewal conversations faster than you think. 90% of those check-ins and QBRs add no value anymore.
- The “One Call Close” Sales Rep? The next frontier for AI.
But there’s one GTM role that’s not just surviving the AI revolution—it’s becoming more critical than ever: the Chief Revenue Officer.
The Great GTM Disruption Has Already Begun
AI has already replaced much of support at many companies, turning what used to require human agents into sophisticated chatbots that solve and/or deflect up to 80% of customer issues without breaking a sweat. Marketing teams are discovering that AI can write better copy, optimize campaigns in real-time, and personalize at scale in ways humans never could. The ghost writer and copywriter jobs were the first to go.
The SDR role as we know it is starting to crumble. Why pay someone $60K-$90k to send 50 prospecting emails a day when AI can send 5,000 personalized messages that actually convert better — if you put in the time and train the AI, and do it right? And in Customer Success, AI is already beginning to predict churn, automate health scores, and even handle routine check-ins with startling effectiveness.
Here’s the reality: AI could realistically replace 50% of transactional SMB Account Executives within the next 2-4 years. The transactional, process-driven parts of selling? AI does them better, faster, and without needing coffee breaks. Or any breaks at all. And without customers needing to wait and schedule a Calendly link at a time convenient for the human sales rep.
The New Talent Equation: Technical Depth Over Volume
But we’re already seeing that while AI eliminates many traditional sales roles, it’s creating unprecedented demand for others. Look at Microsoft’s recent restructuring—amid laying off 9,000 employees, they’re specifically replacing traditional salespeople (called “specialists” internally) with “solutions engineers” who can show customers actual demos earlier in the sales process.
According to Business Insider’s source, “The customer wants Microsoft to bring their technical people in front of them quickly. We need someone who is more technical, much earlier in the cycle.” Microsoft has received feedback from customers that they had to engage with too many salespeople before getting down to technical details and demos.
The strategic shift is dramatic: Microsoft is slashing their sales team’s “solutions areas” by half—from six areas down to three: AI Business Solutions, Cloud & AI Platforms, and Security. They’re eliminating traditional sales roles while specifically hiring more technical salespeople to compete with OpenAI and Google.
This signals something crucial: the future belongs to solutions architects and deep product experts who can navigate complex technical conversations that AI can’t handle yet. As Artisan’s CEO Jasper Carmichael-Jack explains, “Sales requires end-to-end solutions, not point tools. Code generation is elegant in its simplicity—input code request, output working code. Sales is messier.”
But … Someone Has to Orchestrate the Symphony
Here’s what AI can’t do: figure out how all these pieces fit together. And manage them and iterate with them daily.
The CRO of 2027 won’t just be running a traditional sales organization. They’ll be the architect of a hybrid human-AI revenue engine that’s constantly evolving. And crucially, they’ll need to build teams heavy on technical expertise. They’ll need to:
Build Teams Around Technical Depth The winning sales teams of 2027 will look radically different. Instead of armies of generalist AEs, CROs will need more solutions architects, technical specialists, and industry experts who can have conversations that AI simply cannot. Microsoft’s transformation is the blueprint—they’re cutting traditional “specialist” sales roles while expanding “solutions engineer” positions who can deliver technical demos and engage in complex product discussions from day one. The reason? Sales spans everything from marketing attribution to contract negotiation, creating data silos that kill velocity when tools don’t talk to each other.
Master the AI-Human Handoff Knowing exactly when to deploy AI and when human intelligence is irreplaceable. Which deals need the empathy and relationship-building that only humans can provide? Which can be automated end-to-end? The CRO has to make these calls daily.
Build and Rebuild Playbooks Constantly It’s not enough to have a sales playbook anymore. The CRO of 2027 is simultaneously running the traditional sales playbook AND the AI sales playbook—and constantly iterating on both as AI capabilities expand.
Hire for a World That Doesn’t 100% Exist Yet What does a great Account Executive look like when AI handles all the grunt work? What skills matter when prospecting, follow-up, and data analysis are automated? The CRO has to identify and recruit for capabilities we’re still discovering—particularly deep technical and industry expertise that can’t be easily replicated. Microsoft’s sales chief Judson Althoff is betting on this future, calling for teams to “reinvent Microsoft and MCAPS” to become “the Frontier AI Firm” while establishing “a Copilot on every device and across every role.”
Navigate the Uncanny Valley of Revenue Customers are getting comfortable with AI, but they’re not there yet for every interaction. The CRO has to read the room—literally and figuratively—on when AI enhances the experience versus when it feels impersonal or premature. And make sure every AI is truly deeply and well trained — and re-trained constantly. Constantly.
At little Team SaaStr, we already have 10 AIs helping us with outreach, inbounds, ticket sales, support, and content review. Each took about a month to train, and then every day we spend 1-2 hours with them iterating and updating, and training more. More on that here:
The Strategic Evolution of the CRO. It’s Coming Fast.
The most successful CROs are already making this transition. They’re not fighting AI—they’re weaponizing it while doubling down on uniquely human capabilities.
The data supports this shift: AI-powered sales teams are seeing 8-12% response rates vs. manual emails at 2-4%, and AI qualification takes 2-3 minutes per lead vs. 15-20 minutes for human SDRs. But as Artisan’s CEO notes, “AEs want to sell, not admin—AI will handle the rest.” The average AE spends only 28% of their time actually selling, with the other 72% lost to administrative quicksand.
They’re using AI to handle the mechanical parts of sales (lead scoring, email sequences, meeting scheduling, basic qualification) while training their human teams to excel at complex problem-solving, relationship building, and strategic deal navigation.
They’re also becoming AI product managers within their own companies, constantly evaluating new tools, testing implementations, and measuring ROI on AI investments across the entire revenue stack.
Most importantly, they’re shifting their hiring strategy from quantity to quality—fewer generalists, more specialists who can dive deep into technical architectures, industry verticals, and complex use cases that require genuine expertise.
The Last Human Standing
Every other GTM role is becoming either fully automated or dramatically simplified. But the CRO role is becoming more complex, not less. It requires human judgment, strategic thinking, and the ability to manage both human psychology and artificial intelligence.
The CRO of 2027 will be part sales leader, part AI strategist, part organizational psychologist, and part fortune teller. They’ll need to predict not just market trends, but AI capability trends, and constantly rebalance their human-AI mix accordingly.
The window for this transformation is closing fast. As Artisan’s CEO warns: “While you’ve been testing, your competitors are scaling. The companies that commit to AI-first sales operations in 2025 will have an insurmountable 18-month head start by 2027.”
In a world where AI is eating GTM jobs, the person who can orchestrate the entire revenue symphony—human and artificial—becomes the most valuable player on the team.
That’s your CRO of 2027. The last human standing, and the most important one.
