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Sales organizations that provide sellers with AI-enabled next best actions are 2.6x more likely to achieve commercial growth, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. The findings were presented at the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference in Las Vegas. A survey of 227 chief sales officers (CSOs) conducted from August through September 2025 also found that organizations that prioritize upskilling sellers on AI are 2.4x more likely to achieve strong revenue growth. However, the finding also highlights a growing divide between the rapidly expanding capabilities of AI and sellers' ability to apply those capabilities effectively in day-to-day work.
Sales orgs using AI-enabled next best actions are 2.6x more likely to achieve commercial growth.
Upskilling sellers on AI makes organizations 2.4x more likely to achieve strong revenue growth.
Effective sales orgs are redesigning seller workflows, not just layering AI onto existing processes.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 95% of sellers' research workflows will begin with AI, up from under 20% in 2024.
Human sellers outperform GenAI in helping buyers advance purchase steps, building confidence, understanding needs, and quantifying benefits.
Buying groups with low dysfunction are 13x more likely to report high-quality deals.
"The most effective sales organizations are not simply layering AI onto existing ways of working," said Greg Hessong, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Sales practice. "They are redesigning seller workflows so AI can support execution, recommendations and orchestration, while sellers focus their time on the moments where human judgment and customer value matter most."
AI-enabled growth depends not only on technology adoption but also on redesigning sales roles around how work gets done. Sales leaders should redesign roles for an AI-driven environment, align those roles to AI-augmented workflows and prepare future roles to orchestrate AI agents. The need for that shift is becoming more urgent: Gartner predicts that by 2027, 95% of sellers' research workflows will begin with AI, up from less than 20% in 2024.
Buyer data also clarifies where human sellers still outperform GenAI. A survey of 645 B2B buyers conducted from August through September 2025 found that buyers were:
28 percentage points more likely to say a sales rep helped them advance to the next step in the purchase process than GenAI
32 percentage points more likely to say a rep made them feel confident in the purchase decision
39 percentage points more likely to say a rep understood their needs
21 percentage points more likely to say a rep helped quantify the benefits for their organization
Buyers who spent more time with supplier reps reported the lowest levels of dysfunction, and buying groups with low dysfunction were 13x more likely to report high-quality deals.
AI is well suited to activities such as account research, personalized messaging, signal monitoring and next best actions, while sellers remain differentiated in empathy, judgment, contextual understanding and value framing.
"Sales leaders who win with AI will not ask sellers to do everything they did before, just faster," advised Hessong. "They will build AI-augmented roles that give sellers more capacity to help customers realize value, advance decisions and achieve better outcomes."
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