The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

SaaStr 838: The Present and Future of AI in Sales and GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Owner's CRO

112 snips

Jan 21, 2026

Jason Lemkin, Founder and CEO of SaaStr, shares insights on the revolutionary role of AI agents in sales. Frustrated with turnover, he deployed 20 AI agents, abandoning traditional SDRs forever. He discusses why many AI deployments fail, the importance of training agents hands-on, and how Salesforce is experiencing a renaissance as an AI hub. Lemkin forecasts the decline of mid-market sales jobs and provides essential advice for revenue leaders on navigating AI in their teams.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Salesforce Reemerges As Agent Hub

Salesforce is becoming the central hub for agents because it stores the shared data and learnings.
Agents push and pull insights via Salesforce, making the CRM more important again.

INSIGHT

Agents Create Meta-Coordination Needs

Multiple AI agents in production will create data conflicts you must resolve.
For now, you need a human GTM nerd to manage and reconcile agents via a central hub like Salesforce.

ANECDOTE

Ghosted Reps Sparked Agent Push

Jason Lemkin quit relying on traditional SDR hires after senior reps ghosted him before SaaStr Annual.
He and Amelia decided to go all-in on AI agents and now run ~20 agents to replace mid-pack SDR/AE work.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

SaaStr 838: The Present and Future of AI in Sales and GTM with SaaStr's CEO and Owner's CRO

Jason Lemkin on Going All-In on AI Agents: 20 Agents, Zero SDRs, and the Death of Mid-Pack Sales

Jason Lemkin, Founder and CEO of SaaStr, sits down with Kyle Norton, CRO at Owner, to share the raw story of how frustration with sales team turnover pushed him to deploy 20 AI agents in under a year, and why we'll never go back.

In this episode, we cover:

→ Why Jason stopped hiring SDRs after two senior reps ghosted him right before SaaStr Annual → The real reason most AI agent deployments fail (hint: it's not the technology)

→ How to pick your first AI vendor: "Talk to your forward deployed engineer before you sign"

→ Why Salesforce is having a Renaissance as the hub for AI agents

→ The brutal truth about mid-pack sales jobs being in "terminal decline"

→ How to get started with AI agents when your CFO won't give you budget

→ AgentForce vs. the hot startups: what actually works in production

→ Why the $250K SDR is coming, but only for the truly elite

Jason's advice for revenue leaders: "Roll up your sleeves. If you haven't trained an agent yourself, you'll be utterly ignorant in the age of AI."

🔗 See the AI agents SaaStr uses: saastr.ai/agents

---------------------

This episode is Sponsored in part by HappyFox:

Imagine having AI agents for every support task — one that triages tickets, another that catches duplicates, one that spots churn risks. That'd be pretty amazing, right? HappyFox just made it real with Autopilot. These pre-built AI agents deploy in about 60 seconds and run for as low as 2 cents per successful action. All of it sits inside the HappyFox omnichannel, AI-first support stack — Chatbot, Copilot, and Autopilot working as one. Check them out at happyfox.com/saastr

---------------------

Hey everybody, the biggest B2B + AI event of the year will be back - SaaStr AI in the SF Bay Area, aka the SaaStr Annual, will be back in May 2026.

With 68% VP-level and above, 36% CEOs and founders and a growing 25% AI-first professional, this is the very best of the best S-tier attendees and decision makers that come to SaaStr each year.

But here's the reality, folks: the longer you wait, the higher ticket prices can get. Early bird tickets are available now, but once they're gone, you'll pay hundreds more so don't wait.

Lock in your spot today by going to podcast.saastrannual.com to get my exclusive discount SaaStr AI SF 2026. We'll see you there.