Is AI Making Sales Executives Less Strategic?
- The GTM Whisperer
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
Recent research on AI usage at work found that users tend to shift from creating, evaluating, and analyzing information to simply verifying AI-generated responses. This behavior, known as cognitive offloading, weakens the very executive functions that top-performing salespeople are prized for: deep curiosity, problem solving, and judgment.
In a study of weekly GenAI users, most used AI for:
Writing formulaic outbound emails or follow-ups
Summarizing customer calls or whitepapers
Generating basic pitch decks or pipeline forecasts
When asked whether they still use critical thinking while doing these tasks, only 36% said yes. The rest admitted that AI reduced their cognitive effort and sometimes even introduced reputational risk. One executive recounted editing a GPT-written email before sending it to their CRO, realizing too late that it failed to reflect the company’s culture or deal nuance. Others verified AI output by re-Googling it—essentially doing double the work with less original thought.
Why This Matters in Sales
Sales isn’t just about speed—it’s about judgment. SaaS go-to-market leaders operate in high-stakes environments where subtle missteps can burn relationships or tank deals. The danger of over-relying on AI isn't just hallucination—it’s the atrophy of strategic muscles.
Discovery calls get templated.
Deal reviews get surface-level.
Messaging starts to blend into every other email in the inbox.
And when a truly complex customer situation arises—AI isn’t equipped to navigate the nuances. But are you still equipped to?
The Long-Term Cost: Erosion of Sales Intuition
The study also revealed generational differences: younger professionals were more likely to fully offload problem-solving to AI, skipping the learning curve that builds pattern recognition and strategic insight. Over time, that creates a knowledge gap—not just in product or market, but in human intuition, negotiation, and influence.
As one researcher put it: “The more we outsource thinking to AI, the less prepared we are when it matters most.”
Final Thought
Generative AI should be a co-pilot, not a crutch. For SaaS sales executives, the path to sustainable success still runs through creativity, strategic rigor, and critical thinking. The top closers and go-to-market leaders in this next wave will be those who use AI to accelerate thinking—not replace it.
Are you sharpening your edge, or outsourcing it?
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