Engineers Who Love Product Make Best Forward Deployed Engineers

The AI revolution in sales demands a shift from traditional playbooks to ruthless efficiency, with humans focusing on high-value work while agents handle repetitive tasks.

Jason Lemkin has transformed his SaaStr sales organization from 10 humans to 1.2 humans plus 20 AI agents, maintaining the same performance levels. This radical shift came after experiencing the frustration of SDRs quitting and realizing that AI could perform many sales functions more consistently than mid-tier performers. His experience reveals that while the fundamental "plays" of sales still work (outbound, webinars, podcasts, events), the traditional playbooks are breaking under current market conditions.

In Lemkin's view, AI is primarily replacing jobs people don't want to do and displacing the "mid-pack and mediocre" performers. The classic SDR role—junior employees sending emails and qualifying leads—will be "90% displaced by AI next year." Meanwhile, the best salespeople will gain superpowers through AI, becoming exponentially more productive and valuable.

For organizations, this means the opportunity to achieve dramatically higher efficiency. Where traditional sales teams might generate $300-500K per rep, AI-enhanced teams can drive $3-5M per rep. This efficiency doesn't eliminate the need for humans but changes what roles remain valuable. As Lemkin puts it: "Being a people person is not enough anymore... the best outbound emails you've ever gotten, someone spent two hours researching. How many 21-year-old SDRs do that? None."

The transition requires dedicated orchestration—someone must spend 1-2 hours daily managing these agents, correcting mistakes, and ensuring quality. This "Chief AI Officer" role is critical but nascent, typically requiring someone with both technical aptitude and deep product knowledge. For most companies, this means promoting from within rather than hiring externally.

For individual contributors, the implications are clear: embrace AI tools or risk obsolescence. Those who learn to train, manage, and work alongside AI agents will become "hyper-employable," while those who resist will struggle. As Lemkin advises: "Pick a tool, an agent, to solve one of your problems... train the agent, ingest the data, do the iterations, understand how this damn thing works." This hands-on experience is what separates those who will thrive from those who will be left behind.

The future sales organization will likely be smaller but more impactful, with fewer entry-level positions but higher-paid roles for those who can orchestrate AI systems. As Lemkin suggests, "We should have $250,000 a year SDRs, but they'd be managing 10 agents, not 10 people."