By John Barrows | May 30, 2026 | 6 min read
One of the biggest threats to the sales profession isn’t AI replacing reps. It’s buyers realizing they don’t need us anymore. New IDC data confirms what I’ve been watching unfold in real time: 77% of buyers of complex B2B solutions are already using AI agents to engage, personalize, and support their buying process, relying less on salespeople in the process.
I’ve been watching this pattern build
One of the benefits of getting old is experience, and one of the benefits of experience is pattern recognition. I’ve been through enough in my career to start recognizing when history is rhyming, and the pattern I’m watching right now concerns me.
A few weeks ago I made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude and spent a weekend with CoWork. At first I was fascinated and excited about everything I could do with it. Then I got concerned.
It started to sink in that I don’t think I’ll ever need to talk to a sales rep to buy something ever again.
Claude knows everything about me and my business. It’s what I use to develop and execute my strategy, so it knows what I may or may not need. When I come across something I think I need, the first thing I do is ask Claude whether it thinks I need it based on my strategy. It gives me a full analysis with pros, cons, and recommendations, including source links.
If it recommends I look deeper, I don’t call a sales rep. I stay in Claude and ask it to research the solution, how it works, how it fits my current infrastructure, and which of the top three vendors I should consider. Then I have it find demos I can watch.
If I still need to talk to someone and submit an inbound request, I get on that call already so educated that I usually only need one or two specific answers before I move forward. If that rep tries to run me through their standard sales process, I’m gone.
This is why most people increasingly want to talk to customer success or engineers rather than reps. They need value immediately, not a process.
This isn’t new. It’s a pattern.
Many of you are probably too young to remember when putting a credit card online to buy something was considered absurd. Then Amazon came along. People started buying $5 things, then $50 things, then eventually I bought a Tesla without ever talking to a rep.
Same thing happened with SaaS. Early on, SaaS was considered viable only if you couldn’t afford on-prem hardware. No way would enterprise ever adopt it. Then Salesforce signed State Farm for 1.4 million users and that argument was over.
The question isn’t whether mid-market and enterprise buyers will start using AI to evaluate vendors before engaging sales. It’s how long before they get there.
My bet? Not long.
The IDC data that confirmed it
Last night I went to an IDC event in Boston, Navigating the AI Economy with Trusted Tech Intelligence, and left with two charts that validated everything I’d been feeling.
77% of buyers of complex B2B solutions are using AI agents to engage, personalize, and support their buying process, relying less on salespeople.
When asked how they expect AI to change how their company buys technology in the next 12 months: “We will assign buying tasks to AI agents using set parameters to find exactly what we need and transact on our behalf.” Less than 10% strongly disagree or somewhat disagree with that statement.
When asked how often they use AI to assist with buying decision-making: “Will act as my intermediary to write, solicit, gather, and compare RFI/RFP responses.” Less than 17% say never or rarely.
This is a massive red flag for sales professionals. We need to level up, and we need to level up fast.
What leveling up actually looks like
Leveling up means two things: getting back to fundamentals and becoming AI-fluent. Not to automate the human parts of sales, but to augment them.
Here’s how I’m doing it and what I’m recommending to clients.
Use AI to learn, not just to get answers. When I build sequences and cadences, I don’t ask Claude to write messaging for me. I go through the process of identifying my ICP, understanding the priorities and challenges of the personas I target, and mapping my solution to their problems. I use AI to help me learn about those personas, not to hand me copy.
Keep the human in the last mile. I use tools like Apollo to build sequences from my targeted messaging. When it creates emails for my target accounts, the messaging is far more specific and relevant. But I still don’t let it auto-send anything. I review every email and call before it goes out. The human needs to be the last QC check on anything that goes to a client.
Build internal SE AI bots. Every company should have an internal SE AI bot that can answer most technical questions. When a rep is on a call and a client asks something technical, instead of waiting a week to loop in an SE, the rep shares their screen, opens the bot, and learns out loud with the client. That transparency builds trust.
Ask clients if they used AI to research you. One of the first questions in discovery should be: did you use AI to research us? What did it tell you? What couldn’t you find? You’ll learn how far along they are in their process, where you need to meet them, and if there are any discrepancies in what AI said about you, that’s direct feedback for your marketing team.
The bottom line
I’m a two-person company, so I move fast and can break things in ways that enterprise can’t. But I’ve watched this pattern play out too many times to think enterprise buyers are immune. They’ll get there. The question is whether sales professionals will be ready when they do.
Use AI to learn. Stay grounded in fundamentals. Make sure every email and call you send has a clear reason to exist and adds value a buyer can’t get from an AI chatbot.
That’s the only sustainable edge left.
#MakeItHappen
Frequently asked questions
Are AI agents actually replacing sales reps? Not replacing. Bypassing. The threat isn’t AI in your sales stack. It’s AI in the buyer’s stack. IDC data shows 77% of B2B buyers are already using AI to support their buying process, relying less on reps. The question is whether buyers will eventually stop engaging sales entirely until they’re ready to close.
What should sales reps do to stay relevant in an AI-driven buying environment? Focus on fundamentals and AI fluency, in that order. Get sharper on EQ, discovery, and genuine relevance. Use AI to research and prep better, but don’t outsource your thinking. The reps who win are the ones who can add value in the moments AI can’t: nuanced judgment, real empathy, and insight that doesn’t come from a prompt.
How can sales teams adapt when buyers are already educated by AI? Start by asking. One of the first discovery questions should be: “Did you use AI to research us, and if so, what did it say?” You’ll immediately know how educated they are, where they are in their process, and where you can add value they didn’t get from their research.
Why do buyers prefer talking to customer success and engineers over reps? Because those conversations add information buyers can’t easily get on their own. Reps who run a scripted process on an already-educated buyer aren’t adding value. They’re adding friction. The bar for what earns a buyer’s time is rising, and generic qualification cadences won’t clear it.
How can I keep learning about the future of AI in sales? John publishes weekly insights in The JB Sales Learning Lab Newsletter, free and actionable, sent every weekend. For training, coaching, and community, check out the JB Sales Learning Lab.
John Barrows helps sales leaders decide whether to replace or rebuild their teams for the AI era. For 25+ years he has worked with the world’s most demanding sales organizations, including Salesforce, LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, and Okta, building the frameworks that became Filling the Funnel and Driving to Close. Today he advises CROs and VPs of Sales on AI readiness, team restructuring, and go-to-market strategy, drawing on exposure to every type of B2B sales organization over that span. John believes sales is a science, not a personality contest. His training focuses on the fundamentals that hold up regardless of what the market or the technology does next. He is the host of Make It Happen Mondays, author of I Want to Be in Sales When I Grow Up, and an LP at GTMfund.
