As enterprises pursue growth efficiency to new heights, AI agents are rapidly becoming the "standard" in sales. According to Salesforce's latest "2026 State of Sales Report," the global sales industry is undergoing a career transformation driven by AI, with 90% of sales teams having already adopted or planning to adopt AI agents within the next two years.

The report found through a survey of over 4,000 sales professionals across 22 countries that AI agents are no longer just "small tools" that add value, but rather core engines for business growth. Among sales leaders who have adopted this technology, as many as 94% believe that agents are essential for addressing growing business demands. Currently, these AI assistants work around the clock, taking on non-sales tasks such as data entry and lead generation that consume more than half of salespeople's time, allowing employees to focus on building deep customer relationships.

However, the AI boom has also exposed the "weaknesses" in the foundation of enterprises. AIbase noted that data quality has become the biggest bottleneck limiting AI effectiveness. Surveys show that nearly half of teams face serious issues such as duplicate data, manual errors, and data fragmentation. To enable AI agents to provide accurate decision support, 74% of leading teams have made "data hygiene" a top priority.

Additionally, the report highlights that sales models are shifting toward "streamlined integration." With an average of 8 separate tools per team, this "technological redundancy" has left nearly half of employees exhausted. To combat productivity loss caused by too many tools, more than 80% of teams plan to streamline their existing tech stack, moving toward an integrated platform to break down data silos. As Salesforce points out, future sales competition is not only about human resources, but also about who can integrate high-quality data and AI computing power more efficiently.

Summary:

  • 🤖 Widespread Adoption of Agents: 90% of sales teams have embraced AI agents, with 94% of sales leaders considering them an essential tool for addressing current business challenges and achieving growth.

  • 📊 Data Bottlenecks Emerge: Nearly half of teams are struggling with duplicated and incorrect data, which limits AI from reaching its full potential. Clean and unified data foundations have become a common consensus in the industry.

  • 🛠️ Streamlining Tech Stacks: To overcome productivity losses caused by too many tools, over 80% of companies are planning to simplify complex software systems, improving AI collaboration efficiency through integrated platforms.