Analyst(s): Keith Kirkpatrick
Publication Date: February 13, 2026
Salesforce’s 2026 State of Sales report reveals that AI and AI agents have become the top growth tactic for sales teams, with adoption rates and productivity gains accelerating rapidly. As administrative friction and data challenges persist, top-performing organizations are leveraging AI agents to outpace competitors and reshape the sales function. This marks a strategic inflection point for enterprise sales leaders evaluating how to operationalize AI at scale.
What is Covered in this Article:
- Unpacks why AI agents are now the #1 growth tactic for sales teams in 2026
- Explores how administrative friction and data quality are shaping sales productivity
- Examines the widening gap between high-performing and struggling sales teams based on AI agent adoption
- Analyzes competitive implications for vendors like Salesforce, Microsoft, and HubSpot in the AI-powered sales landscape
- Identifies actionable trends and metrics for enterprise buyers to monitor as AI agent deployment accelerates
The News: Salesforce has released its 2026 State of Sales report, surveying over 4,000 global sales professionals to assess emerging tactics and technologies. The report finds that AI and AI agents are now the top growth strategy for sales teams, with 87% of organizations using some form of AI and 54% already deploying AI agents across the sales cycle. AI agents are credited with slashing research and content creation time by over a third, while top-performing teams are 1.7x more likely to use these tools than underperformers. Administrative friction, particularly for Gen Z sellers, and the need for unified, clean data are highlighted as ongoing challenges. Salesforce’s own teams, as well as customers such as Siemens and Asymbl, are cited as examples of organizations that have realized measurable gains from agent-driven sales processes.
AI Agents Take Center Stage – Will Sales Teams That Automate Win in 2026?
Analyst Take: The 2026 State of Sales report signals a decisive shift: sales organizations that operationalize AI agents are pulling ahead in both productivity and revenue growth. This is not just about automating busywork, but instead about reengineering sales processes and talent strategies for a new era of digital selling.
AI Agents Move From Experimentation to Essential Infrastructure
AI adoption in sales has crossed the tipping point, with 87% of teams using AI for tasks like prospecting, forecasting, and email drafting, and 54% already leveraging AI agents for deeper automation, according to the report. The most advanced organizations are deploying agents across the sales cycle—from onboarding and quoting to 24/7 prospecting—unlocking 34% time savings in research and 36% in content creation.
Salesforce’s Agentforce and similar offerings from Microsoft Dynamics 365 and HubSpot Sales Hub are rapidly evolving to meet this demand, with integrations that promise seamless handoffs between human sellers and AI-driven workflows. High performers are 1.7x more likely to use AI agents for prospecting, underscoring the emerging competitive gap between early adopters and laggards. For buyers, the message is clear: AI agents are no longer a pilot project, but are foundational to modern sales operations.
Administrative Friction and Data Quality: The New Battlegrounds
While AI agents promise dramatic productivity gains, the report highlights two persistent barriers: administrative friction and data quality. Gen Z sellers, in particular, are losing up to two hours a week to manual data entry, with limited access to mentorship and enablement, a dynamic that risks accelerating turnover among early-career talent.
Meanwhile, more than half of sales leaders cite disconnected systems as a drag on AI initiatives, prompting 74% of professionals to prioritize data cleansing and integration. High performers (79%) are especially focused on data hygiene, compared to just 54% of underperformers.
This aligns with broader industry trends: vendors such as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Oracle are doubling down on unified data platforms and embedded AI, while ecosystem partners such as Gong and Outreach are building specialized AI agents that rely on clean, connected data. For enterprises, investments in data infrastructure and workflow automation are now inseparable from sales strategy.
Transforming Efficiency to Results
The Salesforce survey focused on the usage of AI agents and highlighted specific metrics around saving time and driving productivity, which is certainly commendable. What will be truly interesting to watch – and critical for providers of AI agents – is the ability of organizations to transform these efficiency and productivity improvements into top-line organizational sales growth.
Indeed, while Futurum Research’s forthcoming 1H 2026 Enterprise Software Decision Makers survey of 830 global enterprise IT professionals found that agentic AI capabilities claimed the #1 technology priority ranking for 17.1% of decision-makers, up from 13.0% in 2H 2025 (+4.1 pts), the “productivity” argument is collapsing as an ROI metric.
Indeed, productivity gains fell 5.8 percentage points as the #1 success measure (from 23.8% to 18.0%). Decision-makers are replacing it with direct financial impact metrics—combining top-line revenue growth and bottom-line profitability—which nearly doubled to 21.7% of #1 responses.
As a result, vendors should focus on helping customers translate these efficiencies into direct financial impacts, which not only help customers drive growth but also serve as proof points around a vendor’s capabilities to truly transform a business.
What to Watch:
- Trends in AI agent adoption rates across sales organizations and industries
- Impact of AI agents on prospecting volume, opportunity creation, and deal velocity
- Retention and advancement rates among Gen Z and early-career sales talent as administrative friction is addressed
- Investments in data cleansing, integration, and unified sales platforms by leading vendors
- Competitive responses from Microsoft, HubSpot, Oracle, and emerging AI sales startups as Salesforce doubles down on agent-driven automation
See the complete press release on the survey results on the Salesforce website.
Disclosure: Futurum is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum as a whole.
Other insights from Futurum:
Will Salesforce’s Cimulate Acquisition Redefine AI-Driven Product Discovery?
Is SaaS Facing a Threat from AI Automation?
Systems of Agency: Agentic AI to Drive $762B Enterprise Software Super-Cycle by 2031
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is VP & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
