The controversy over whether or not AI belongs in the company boardroom seems to be over — at the very least for these chargeable for producing income.
Seven in 10 enterprise income leaders now belief AI to frequently inform their enterprise selections, in accordance to a sweeping new study launched by income intelligence firm Gong. The discovering marks a dramatic shift from simply two years in the past, when most organizations handled AI as an experimental know-how relegated to pilot applications and particular person productiveness hacks.
The analysis, based mostly on an evaluation of seven.1 million gross sales alternatives throughout greater than 3,600 firms and a survey of over 3,000 world income leaders spanning the U.S., UK, Australia and Germany, paints an image of an trade in fast transformation. Organizations which have embedded AI into their core go-to-market methods are 65% extra seemingly to enhance their win charges than opponents nonetheless treating the know-how as non-obligatory.
“I do not assume individuals delegate selections to AI, however they do rely on AI in the course of of creating selections,” Amit Bendov, Gong’s co-founder and chief government, mentioned in an unique interview with VentureBeat. “People are making the determination, however they’re largely assisted.”
The excellence issues. Somewhat than changing human judgment, AI has develop into what Bendov describes as a “second opinion” — a data-driven examine on the instinct and guesswork that has historically ruled gross sales forecasting and technique.
Slowing progress is forcing gross sales groups to squeeze extra from each rep
The timing of AI’s ascendance in income organizations is no coincidence. The research reveals a sobering actuality: After rebounding in 2024, common annual income progress amongst surveyed firms decelerated to 16% in 2025, marking a three-percentage-point decline 12 months over 12 months. Gross sales rep quota attainment fell from 52% to 46% over the similar interval.
The wrongdoer, in accordance to Gong’s evaluation, is not that salespeople are performing worse on particular person offers. Win charges and deal period remained constant. The issue is that representatives are working fewer alternatives — a discovering that means operational inefficiencies are consuming into promoting time.
This helps clarify why productiveness has rocketed to the high of government priorities. For the first time in the research’s historical past, rising the productiveness of current groups ranked as the number-one progress technique for 2026, leaping from fourth place the earlier 12 months.
“The main target is on rising gross sales productiveness,” Bendov mentioned. “How a lot dollar-output per dollar-input?”
The numbers again up the urgency. Groups that frequently use AI instruments generate 77% extra income per consultant than those who do not — a niche Gong characterizes as a six-figure distinction per salesperson yearly.
Corporations are shifting past primary AI automation towards strategic decision-making
The character of AI adoption in gross sales has developed significantly over the previous 12 months. In 2024, most income groups used AI for primary automation: Transcribing calls, drafting emails, updating CRM data. These use circumstances proceed to develop, however 2025 marked what the report calls a shift “from automation to intelligence.”
The variety of U.S. firms utilizing AI for forecasting and measuring strategic initiatives jumped 50% 12 months over 12 months. These extra subtle functions — predicting deal outcomes, figuring out at-risk accounts, measuring which worth propositions resonate with totally different purchaser personas — correlate with dramatically higher outcomes.
Organizations in the ninety fifth percentile of business impression from AI have been 2 to 4X extra seemingly to have deployed these strategic use circumstances, in accordance to the research.
Bendov provided a concrete instance of how this performs out in follow. “Corporations have hundreds of offers that they roll up into their forecast,” he mentioned. “It used to be based mostly solely on human sentiment, imagine it or not. That is why plenty of firms miss their numbers: As a result of individuals say, ‘Oh, he informed me he’ll purchase,’ or ‘I believe I can in all probability get this one.'”
AI modifications that calculus by inspecting proof quite than optimism. “Corporations now get a second opinion from AI on their forecasting, and that improves forecasting accuracy dramatically — 10 [or] 15% higher accuracy simply because it is evidence-based, not simply based mostly on human sentiment,” Bendov mentioned.
Income-specific AI instruments are dramatically outperforming general-purpose options
Certainly one of the research’s extra provocative findings considerations the sort of AI that delivers outcomes. Groups utilizing revenue-specific AI options — instruments constructed explicitly for gross sales workflows quite than general-purpose platforms like ChatGPT — reported 13% greater income progress and 85% higher industrial impression than these relying on generic instruments.
These specialised programs have been additionally twice as seemingly to be deployed for forecasting and predictive modeling, the report discovered.
The discovering carries apparent implications for Gong, which sells exactly this kind of domain-specific platform. However the information suggests an actual distinction in outcomes. Common-purpose AI, whereas extra prevalent, usually creates what the report describes as a “blind spot” for organizations — notably when staff undertake shopper AI instruments with out firm oversight.
Research from MIT means that whereas solely 59% of enterprise groups use private AI instruments like ChatGPT at work, the precise determine is seemingly nearer to 90%. This shadow AI utilization poses safety dangers and creates fragmented know-how stacks that undermine the potential for organization-wide intelligence.
Most gross sales leaders imagine AI will reshape their jobs quite than eradicate them
Maybe the most closely-watched query in any AI research considerations employment. The Gong analysis affords a extra nuanced image than the apocalyptic predictions that usually dominate headlines.
When requested about AI’s three-year impression on income headcount, 43% of respondents mentioned they anticipate it to rework jobs with out lowering headcount — the commonest response. Solely 28% anticipate job eliminations, whereas 21% truly foresee AI creating new roles. Simply 8% predict minimal impression.
Bendov frames the alternative as reclaiming misplaced time. He cited Forrester research indicating that 77% of a sales representative’s time is spent on actions that do not contain prospects — administrative work, assembly preparation, researching accounts, updating forecasts and inner briefings.
“AI can eradicate, ideally, 77% of the drudgery work that they are doing,” Bendov mentioned. “I do not assume it essentially eliminates jobs. Individuals are half productive proper now. Let’s make them absolutely productive, and no matter you are paying them will translate to a lot greater income.”
The transformation is already seen in position consolidation. Over the previous decade, gross sales organizations splintered into hyper-specialized capabilities: One particular person qualifies leads, one other units appointments, a 3rd closes offers, a fourth handles onboarding. The consequence was prospects interacting with 5 – 6 totally different individuals throughout their shopping for journey.
“Which is not an ideal purchaser expertise, as a result of each time I meet a brand new particular person that may not have the full context, and it’s totally inefficient for firms,” Bendov mentioned. “Now with AI, you may have one particular person do all this, or a lot of this.”
At Gong itself, sellers now generate 80% of their very own appointments as a result of AI handles the prospecting legwork, Bendov mentioned.
American firms are adopting AI 18 months quicker than their European counterparts
The research reveals a notable divide in AI adoption between the U.S. and Europe. Whereas 87% of U.S. firms now use AI of their income operations, with one other 9% planning adoption inside a 12 months, the UK trails by 12 to 18 months. Simply 70% of UK firms at present use AI, with 22% % planning near-term adoption — figures that mirror U.S. information from 2024.
Bendov mentioned the sample displays a broader historic tendency for enterprise know-how traits to cross the Atlantic with a delay. “It is at all times like that,” he mentioned. “Even when the web was taking off in the U.S., Europe was a step behind.”
The hole is not everlasting, he famous, and Europe typically leads on know-how adoption — cell funds and messaging apps like WhatsApp gained traction there before the U.S. — however for AI particularly, the American market stays forward.
Gong says a decade of AI improvement provides it an edge over Salesforce and Microsoft
The findings arrive as Gong navigates an more and more crowded market. The corporate, which lately surpassed $300 million in annual recurring income, faces potential competitors from enterprise software program giants like Salesforce and Microsoft, each of which are embedding AI capabilities into their platforms.
Bendov argues that Gong’s decade of AI improvement creates a considerable barrier to entry. The corporate’s structure includes three layers: a “income graph” that aggregates buyer information from CRM programs, emails, calls, movies and net indicators; an intelligence layer combining massive language fashions (LLMs) with roughly 40 proprietary small language fashions; and workflow functions constructed on high.
“Anyone that will need to construct one thing like that — it is not a small function, it is 10 years in improvement—would want first to construct the income graph,” Bendov mentioned.
Somewhat than viewing Salesforce and Microsoft as threats, Bendov characterised them as companions, pointing to each firms’ participation in Gong’s latest consumer convention to focus on agent interoperability. The rise of MCP (Model Context Protocol) assist and consumption-based pricing fashions means prospects can combine AI brokers from a number of distributors quite than committing to a single platform.
The true query is whether or not AI will broaden the gross sales occupation or hole it out
The report’s implications prolong past gross sales departments. If AI can rework income operations — lengthy thought of a relationship-driven, human-centric perform — it raises questions on which different enterprise processes may be subsequent.
Bendov sees the potential for enlargement quite than contraction. Drawing an analogy to digital pictures, he famous that whereas digicam producers suffered, the complete variety of images taken exploded as soon as smartphones made pictures easy.
“If AI makes promoting easy, I may see a world [with] possibly ten instances extra jobs than we’ve now,” mentioned Bendov.” It is costly and inefficient at present, but when it turns into as simple as taking a photograph, the trade may truly develop and create alternatives for individuals of various skills, from totally different places.”
For Bendov, who co-founded Gong in 2015 when AI was nonetheless a tough promote to non-technical enterprise customers, the present second represents one thing he waited a decade to see. Again then, mentioning AI to gross sales executives appeared like science fiction. The corporate struggled to elevate cash as a result of the underlying know-how barely existed.
“After we began the firm, we have been born as an AI firm, however we had to nearly cover AI,” Bendov recalled. “It was intimidating.”
Now, seven out of 10of those self same executives say they belief AI to assist run their enterprise. The know-how that after had to be disguised has develop into the one factor no person can afford to ignore.
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