The controversy over whether or not synthetic intelligence belongs within the company boardroom seems to be over — at the very least for the folks accountable for producing income.
Seven in ten enterprise income leaders now belief AI to repeatedly inform their enterprise choices, in keeping with a sweeping new research launched Thursday by Gong, the income intelligence firm. 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 packages and particular person productiveness hacks.
The analysis, primarily based on an evaluation of seven.1 million gross sales alternatives throughout greater than 3,600 firms and a survey of over 3,000 international income leaders spanning the US, United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany, paints an image of an trade in speedy transformation. Organizations which have embedded AI into their core go-to-market methods are 65 % extra prone to enhance their win charges than rivals nonetheless treating the know-how as elective.
"I don't assume folks delegate choices to AI, however they do depend on AI within the course of of creating choices," Amit Bendov, Gong's co-founder and chief government, stated in an unique interview with VentureBeat. "People are making the choice, however they're largely assisted."
The excellence issues. Fairly than changing human judgment, AI has grow to be what Bendov describes as a "second opinion" — a data-driven test on the instinct and guesswork that has historically ruled gross sales forecasting and technique.
Slowing development is forcing gross sales groups to squeeze extra from each rep
The timing of AI's ascendance in income organizations is not any coincidence. The research reveals a sobering actuality: after rebounding in 2024, common annual income development 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 identical interval.
The perpetrator, in keeping with Gong's evaluation, isn't 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 highest of government priorities. For the primary time within the research's historical past, rising the productiveness of current groups ranked because the number-one development technique for 2026, leaping from fourth place the earlier 12 months.
"The main target is on rising gross sales productiveness," Bendov stated. "How a lot dollar-output per dollar-input."
The numbers again up the urgency. Groups the place sellers repeatedly use AI instruments generate 77 % extra income per consultant than those who don't — a niche Gong characterizes as a six-figure distinction per salesperson yearly.
Corporations are shifting past fundamental 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 fundamental automation: transcribing calls, drafting emails, updating CRM data. These use instances 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 within the ninety fifth percentile of economic influence from AI have been two to 4 instances extra prone to have deployed these strategic use instances, in keeping with the research.
Bendov provided a concrete instance of how this performs out in observe. "Corporations have hundreds of offers that they roll up into their forecast," he stated. "It was primarily based solely on human sentiment—imagine it or not. That's why a variety of firms miss their numbers: as a result of folks say, 'Oh, he advised me he'll purchase,' or 'I feel I can in all probability get this one.'"
AI modifications that calculus by analyzing proof slightly 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's evidence-based, not simply primarily based on human sentiment," Bendov stated.
Income-specific AI instruments are dramatically outperforming general-purpose options
One of many research's extra provocative findings issues the kind of AI that delivers outcomes. Groups utilizing revenue-specific AI options — instruments constructed explicitly for gross sales workflows slightly than general-purpose platforms like ChatGPT — reported 13 % increased income development and 85 % larger business influence than these counting on generic instruments.
These specialised techniques have been additionally twice as prone to be deployed for forecasting and predictive modeling, the report discovered.
The discovering carries apparent implications for Gong, which sells exactly the sort of domain-specific platform. However the information suggests an actual distinction in outcomes. Normal-purpose AI, whereas extra prevalent, typically creates what the report describes as a "blind spot" for organizations — notably when staff undertake shopper AI instruments with out firm oversight.
Analysis from MIT means that whereas solely 59 % of survey respondents stated their groups use private AI instruments like ChatGPT at work, the precise determine is probably going 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 slightly than get rid of them
Maybe probably the most carefully watched query in any AI research issues employment. The Gong analysis provides a extra nuanced image than the apocalyptic predictions that usually dominate headlines.
When requested about AI's three-year influence on income headcount, 43 % of respondents stated they anticipate it to remodel jobs with out lowering headcount — the commonest response. Solely 28 % anticipate job eliminations, whereas 21 % really foresee AI creating new roles. Simply 8 % predict minimal influence.
Bendov frames the chance by way of reclaiming misplaced time. He cited Forrester analysis indicating that 77 % of a gross sales consultant's time is spent on actions that don't contain prospects — administrative work, assembly preparation, researching accounts, updating forecasts, and inside briefings.
"AI can get rid of, ideally, all 77 %—all of the drudgery work that they're doing," Bendov stated. "I don't assume it essentially eliminates jobs. Persons are half productive proper now. Let's make them totally productive, and no matter you're paying them will translate to a lot increased income."
The transformation is already seen in function consolidation. Over the previous decade, gross sales organizations splintered into hyper-specialized features: one individual qualifies leads, one other units appointments, a 3rd closes offers, a fourth handles onboarding. The consequence was prospects interacting with 5 or 6 totally different folks throughout their shopping for journey.
"Which isn’t an awesome purchaser expertise, as a result of each time I meet a brand new individual that may not have the total context, and it's very inefficient for firms," Bendov stated. "Now with AI, you’ll be able to have one individual 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 stated.
American firms are adopting AI 18 months quicker than their European counterparts
The research reveals a notable divide in AI adoption between the US 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 presently use AI, with 22 % planning near-term adoption — figures that mirror U.S. information from 2024.
Bendov stated the sample displays a broader historic tendency for enterprise know-how traits to cross the Atlantic with a delay. "It's at all times like that," he stated. "Even when the web was taking off within the US, Europe was a step behind."
The hole isn't everlasting, he famous, and Europe generally leads on know-how adoption — cellular funds and messaging apps like WhatsApp gained traction there earlier than the U.S. — however for AI particularly, the American market stays forward.
Gong says a decade of AI growth offers it an edge over Salesforce and Microsoft
The findings arrive as Gong navigates an more and more crowded market. The corporate, which not too long ago surpassed $300 million in annual recurring income, faces potential competitors from enterprise software program giants like Salesforce and Microsoft, each of that are embedding AI capabilities into their platforms.
Bendov argues that Gong's decade of AI growth creates a considerable barrier to entry. The corporate's structure includes three layers: a "income graph" that aggregates buyer information from CRM techniques, emails, calls, movies, and net indicators; an intelligence layer combining massive language fashions with roughly 40 proprietary small language fashions; and workflow functions constructed on prime.
"Anyone that might need to construct one thing like that—it's not a small function, it's 10 years in growth—would want first to construct the income graph," Bendov stated.
Fairly than viewing Salesforce and Microsoft as threats, Bendov characterised them as companions, pointing to each firms' participation in Gong's current person convention to debate agent interoperability. The rise of MCP (Mannequin Context Protocol) assist and consumption-based pricing fashions means prospects can combine AI brokers from a number of distributors slightly than committing to a single platform.
The true query is whether or not AI will develop the gross sales career or hole it out
The report's implications lengthen past gross sales departments. If AI can rework income operations — lengthy thought-about a relationship-driven, human-centric operate — it raises questions on which different enterprise processes may be subsequent.
Bendov sees the potential for enlargement slightly than contraction. Drawing an analogy to digital images, he famous that whereas digital camera producers suffered, the whole variety of pictures taken exploded as soon as smartphones made images easy.
"If AI makes promoting easy, I might see a world—I don't know precisely what it seems like but—however why not?" Bendov stated. "Possibly ten instances extra jobs than we now have now. It's costly and inefficient at the moment, but when it turns into as simple as taking a photograph, the trade might really develop and create alternatives for folks of various talents, from totally different areas."
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 gave the impression of science fiction. The corporate struggled to boost cash as a result of the underlying know-how barely existed.
"Once we began the corporate, we have been born as an AI firm, however we needed to nearly disguise AI," Bendov recalled. "It was intimidating."
Now, seven out of ten of those self same executives say they belief AI to assist run their enterprise. The know-how that after needed to be disguised has grow to be the one factor no person can afford to disregard.
