Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 4/5

Lemkin: AI agents modeled on top reps beat mid-pack human salespeople

Jason Lemkin · We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr) · Jan 1, 2026 · at 47:14

Jason Lemkin explains why AI sales agents achieve superior results over average human sales representatives.

0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.0s
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“The bar for good enough for AI GTM, it's not as high as we think. It's just like you know, a facsimile of your best person reproduced as best we can. It's going to beat your mid pack person. It's going to beat the person that literally knows nothing about your product.”

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Assertion Not checkable as stated
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Prediction Not checkable as stated
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Prediction Not checkable as stated
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