90% of sales teams use AI agents – but half of them have the same data problem

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according to 2026 sales status report form sales force94% of sales leaders with agents say they are critical to meeting business demands. For the seventh edition of the State of Sales report, Salesforce surveyed 4,050 sales professionals from 22 countries to learn more about:

• AI Agent Adoption, Use Cases and Benefits
• Considering data to improve agent outcomes
• Key revenue models to drive growth
• Tips to Improve the Sales Rep Experience

Also: AI project stalled? Blame your old, broken workflow – and redesign it now

Here are four key findings from the 2026 State of Sales Report:

1. Sellers welcome AI agents to the team. Caught between high customer expectations and limited ability to meet them, nine out of 10 sales teams look to agents. They report benefits for sales planning, customer retention and prospecting. 94% of sales leaders with agents say they are critical to meeting business demands.
2. Adoption of AI agents requires better data and fewer tools. Sales teams are integrating data and simplifying technology to improve AI and agent outcomes. Sales professionals have data concerns, such as manual errors and duplicate data. Others say the bloated tech stack delays their AI initiatives. 84% of teams without an all-in-one platform plan to consolidate technology.
3. Sales teams work on three key levers for growth. Vendors are looking beyond AI to identify three key tactics for growth: emphasizing sales planning, investing in partners, and adopting usage-based pricing. 76% of sales leaders say usage-based pricing is more important to customers now than last year.
4. Beyond pay, here’s what reps really want. Sales reps want more personalized coaching and more transparency in pay. Leaders are bringing in agents and automation that can help. Many delegates also say that community is the key to their success. High performers are 2.5x more likely to regularly participate in a sales community outside their company.

The focus of this article will be on the first two key findings: the adoption of AI agents and the need for better data and aggregated tools.

Vendors welcome AI agents to the team

Sales representatives are facing a capacity crunch amid rising customer expectations and limited time to meet them. Customers now demand a clear return on investment (ROI), personal interaction, and comprehensive education before making a purchase. This has led to longer sales cycles as customers delay making decisions.

Also: Despite challenges, AI agent adoption and budget will increase significantly in 2026

The main issue is not lack of motivation or ability among delegates, but lack of time. In fact, reps devote more than half of their working hours to non-sales activities like data entry and prospecting. Given the limited nature of both the workday and the sales force, sales organizations must determine how to maximize output with fewer resources.

Changing customer demands are the number one challenge in sales.

AI Agents: Essential for Modern Sales Success

Faced with increasing pressure, sales professionals are increasingly relying on AI agents to maintain a competitive edge. These agents work around the clock on behalf of sales teams, with 94% of sales leaders using them considering them critical to meeting current business demands. Sales professionals report that AI agents significantly enhance the human sales experience, leading to stronger pipeline growth, more deal closings, and higher revenues. The extensive benefits reported include:

• Better Productivity and Efficiency: Reps are more productive, making sales planning more efficient, and increasing their chances of hitting sales goals.
• Better data and customer understanding: AI improves data accuracy and helps representatives gain a deeper understanding of their customers.
• Increased Customer Engagement and Retention: Agents retain customers and engage potential customers who were previously overlooked.

Top areas where AI agents benefit include: data accuracy, sales planning, customer retention, customer and prospect engagement, and cost savings.

AI Agent: Embracing Sales Across the Entire Sales Cycle

The adoption of AI agents in sales is growing rapidly, with estimates that nine out of 10 sales teams are either currently using them or planning to do so within the next two years. AI agents are already transforming the entire sales cycle, helping reps overcome efficiency constraints and speed up processes. This has been achieved while providing the high level of personalization expected by customers.

Also: MIT study shows AI agents are fast, loose, and out of control

Key applications for these agents include streamlining the closing process by creating quotes, improving customer experience through efficient order fulfillment, and enabling usage-based pricing by tracking product consumption. The financial sector is a significant adopter, accounting for three of the top five industries that use sales agents. For example, wealth managers use agents as assistants to schedule meetings and prepare financial reports, freeing up their time to focus on client engagement. The rise of AI agents in sales is not a future trend – it is a current reality.

AI agent adoption requires better data and fewer tools

For agents to deliver accurate, personalized results, they need comprehensive, integrated customer and business data. However, achieving this presents challenges. A staggering 84% of data and analytics leaders feel that meeting their AI objectives requires a complete overhaul of their current data strategies.

The need for integrated data highlights difficult data realities, such as issues of manual errors and duplicate data. Security is another major concern, with most sales professionals reporting that customers ask detailed questions about data privacy and security. Additionally, more than half of sales experts say security concerns delay AI initiatives. This underlines the critical need for sales technology that can safely mine customer data for insights while also keeping it secure. The top data issues among teams with agents are: manual errors, duplicate data, security concerns, incomplete data, and corrupted data.

Also: These top 30 AI agents offer a mix of tasks and autonomy

Most sales teams rely on a mix of standalone tools rather than a single, all-in-one platform—an average of eight per team. This approach, used by two-thirds of sales teams, leads to a decline in technology, with nearly half of sales reps feeling overwhelmed.

The implications of the data are equally worrying. Standalone tools keep data private, making it difficult to access and benefit from, even if the data itself is of high quality. Data and analytics leaders estimate that 19% of their data is inaccessible, and many believe that this inaccessible portion contains their most valuable business insights. This trapped data severely limits visibility into sales operations and hinders both agent results and AI effectiveness. In fact, 51% of sales leaders who use AI say that these technology silos are a barrier that delays or limits their AI initiatives.

To maximize the benefits of AI and agents, sales teams are focusing on the fundamentals: streamlined technology and quality data. Most teams are strengthening their tech stack; More than 80% of teams without a platform plan to do so. High performers are leading this change, 1.3x more likely to adopt platforms and 1.5x more likely to prioritize data hygiene for better AI outcomes.

10 key points

Here are the top 10 key findings 2026 sales status report: :

1. Nine out of 10 sales teams use agents today or expect to use agents within two years.
2. 94% of sales leaders with agents say agents are critical to meeting business demands.
3. Better performers are 1.7 times more likely to use prospecting agents than lower performers.
4. Good performers are 1.4 times more likely than poor performers to use agents for coaching.
5. 84% of teams without an all-in-one platform plan to consolidate technology.
6. 74% of sales teams with AI prioritize data hygiene to support it.
7. 76% of sales leaders say usage-based pricing is more important to customers now than last year.
8. 91% of sales professionals say sales planning benefits from AI.
9. 89% of sales professionals say partner sales are becoming increasingly important to achieving revenue goals.
10. 32% of sales leaders say their technology stack lacks compensation management capabilities.

To learn more about the 2026 Status of Sales Report, you can visit here Here.