.svg){kind=logo}
Products
Sales used to be simple. More calls, moredemos, more pipeline meant more revenue. But that formula no longer works, and it hasn’t for some time.
AI has introduced a paradox into Sales:it promises a new era of efficiency and engagement, but it’s also fueling confusion, fatigue, and operational sprawl. As Gartner puts it, “AI can ignite a new era of seller productivity and customer engagement, but it can also unleash chaos.”
This dual reality is hitting Sales leaders hard. The board wants higher productivity. Budgets are flat or shrinking. Yet teams are drowning in tools that generate more prompts than progress.
To thrive in 2026, CSOs can’t just addAI; they have to rebuild the sales operating model around it. That means accounting for:
Sales productivity in the AI era won’t be about just doing more. It’ll be about doing more of the right things and fewerof the wrong ones, making better decisions in-the-moment and reducing buyer wait times on deals. Productivity will mean better sales execution.
But how? Gartner explores the AI productivity paradox in new research.
It’s tempting to blame bad tools for declining sales performance. But AI isn’t the problem. Organizational readiness is.
Gartner predicts that “By 2028, AI agents will outnumber sellers by 10 times, but less than 40% of sellers will say that AI agents have improved productivity.” Why? Because the systems AI depends on, data, process, integration, aren’t ready.
Here’s what’s dragging productivity down:
Gartner warns: “Workflow overload and seller burnout: Layering more prompts, nudges, and tools onto already complex workflows risks overwhelming sellers, eroding productivity, and accelerating burnout rather than improving outcomes.”
The key insight? Productivity is dropping not because AI is ineffective, but because the environment isn’t ready for it.
AI agents are poised to revolutionize sales productivity (effective sales execution) if they’re implemented with intention.
Gartner predicts, “By 2028, AI agents will outnumber sellers by 10 times.” But unless orchestrated strategically, most sellers won’t benefit. In fact, “less than 40% of sellers will say that AI agents have improved productivity.”
Here’s what goes wrong:
CSOs must shift from AI accumulation toAI orchestration.
And here’s the hard truth: you can’t achieve this level of orchestration by relying solely on incumbent platforms or vendors. We think the Gartner report makes it clear that the market is saturated with “intelligent assistants” that promise automation but deliver fragmentation. Most legacytools weren’t designed for agentic workflows, real task replacement, or integrated reasoning.
If CSOs want AI agents that actually drive productivity, they must be willing to explore emerging tools, challenge old assumptions, and evaluate solutions based on current and not past vendor credibility. This moment requires intentional experimentation, not passive adoption.
Orchestrating AI agents solves only half the equation. As AI absorbs more administrative and predictable tasks, the nature of selling changes. The work left for humans becomes more emotional,contextual, and strategic, which means seller roles must be rethought, not simply supported. Productivity gains stall unless organizations realign expectations, skills, and KPIs to match this new reality.
AI is not here to replace sellers, but it is reshaping what the best reps will do on each deal. In other words, AI agents are redefining how we think about sales productivity.
According to Gartner®, “By 2028, AI will close 70% of sales cycles by automating prospecting, lead qualification,and negotiations.” That leaves human sellers responsible for high-stakes,emotionally complex deals, where trust, context, and nuance matter most.
But here’s the problem: most sales KPIs haven’t caught up.
Still using activity-based metrics? You’ll miss your top performers entirely. Gartner warns: “Traditional productivity metrics will no longer accurately reflect sellers’ true contributions or distinguish high versus low performers.”
By 2031, Gartner predicts that “35% of sales organizations will introduce EQ-related productivity metrics.”
We believe this will include dimensions like:
Sales leaders who make this shift will unlock the true value of human sellers (empathy, trust, adaptability) and avoidthe trap of measuring what no longer matters.
Finally, AI is only as good as the system in which it is deployed.
You can’t deploy a next-gen sales agent on top of outdated and ineffective data and workflows. Gartner is blunt: “By2028, CSOs who overhaul data, automation, and UX will be five times more likely to gain ROI from AI than those choosing quick fixes.”
The fix isn’t more AI. It’s better foundations.
CSOs who align with CIOs to modernize these layers will avoid the trap Gartner calls “AI-by-numbers”: quick-fix deployments that fail to scale.
“AI-by-numbers” happens when organizations take an overly superficial approach to AI deployments, layering features on top of broken systems and hoping technology alone closes the gap.It’s the illusion of progress without the underlying transformation — AI tools added because they’re available, not because the workflows, data models, orseller experience can support them.
It’s giving tooling “the landlord special” of a fresh coat of paint when a gut renovation is actually needed to address structural issues.
We feel Gartner warns that this approach produces the exact opposite of the intended outcome: flashy deployments that look modern on the surface but fail to meaningfully improve execution, create adoption, or generate ROI. In practice, AI-by-numbers means automating bad processes, scaling bad data, overwhelming sellers, and mistaking activity forvalue.
When it comes to AI, perfection is theenemy of progress.
Gartner urges CSOs to embrace a rapid, iterative model: “Pilot with purpose, fail forward: Be disciplined and strategic about AI pilots.”
That means:
This model builds resilience and creates a culture of rapid iteration and continuous improvement, key ingredients forlong-term AI success. Gartner reinforces: “Small wins compound, and early failures build muscle.”
Sales orgs that wait for the “perfect” AI solution will be left behind by those who learn through controlled experimentation.
Confused on where to begin? Here’s yourgo-to checklist to cut through the chaos and drive real results:
Too often, productivity gets reduced to one idea: do more. More calls, more demos, more outreach, more“AI-powered” tasks. But this mindset is exactly what Gartner warns against. Inthe AI era, productivity is not about increasing the volume of sales activities; it’s about improving the effectiveness of every rep, in every interaction, across every deal. Productivity becomes a sales execution issue, not an activity-count issue.
“AI chaos demands leadership: CSOs who fail to tame AI will see productivity collapse and morale suffer. Fatigue and disillusionment with AI will grow, but retreat is not an option. How CSOs orchestrate AI will determine whether it becomes a catalyst for empowerment ora trigger for burnout.”
AI’s true value is not in generating more tasks for sellers, but in removing the work that slows them down and elevating the work that moves deals forward. The goal isn’t a busier team; it’s a smarter team, a faster team, a team that spends dramatically more time selling and dramatically less time interpreting tools, navigating workflows, or repairing broken data.
If your AI strategy doesn’t directly improve sales execution by eliminating steps that don’t matter, preventing missteps, and increasing the volume of actions that do matter, then you will never see the long-term gains that the AI era promises. AI must be a force multiplier for judgment, precision, and buyer engagement. It must help sellers execute at a higher level, not simply act at a higher volume.
Organizations that embrace this shift will see sustainable, compounding productivity gains. Those that don’t will continue mistaking noise for progress.
__________________________________
Source: Gartner, Predicts 2026:Leading Sales in the Age of AI Contradictions, Sandhya Mahadevan, Melissa Hilbert, Dan Gottlieb, Wendy Butler-Mafuz, Alyssa Cruz, 4 November 2025.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
