It’s been a few weeks since the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference in Las Vegas, and the noise in my head has finally quieted enough to make sense of what really stuck with me.
There were a lot of smart takes. Plenty of charts. Buzzwords galore, of course—AI, intent, revenue intelligence, pipeline velocity. But looking back now with the benefit of time, there’s one theme that’s still circling in my head: the future of sales isn’t less human—it’s more.
And that surprised me.
The Moment That Shifted My Thinking
There was one session in particular—“What AI Can’t Replace – The Human Skills Still Winning Deals,” led by Corporate Visions—that I keep coming back to. At the time, I remember scribbling notes quickly, not because the content was groundbreaking, but because it hit something already brewing in my gut. Something I hadn’t yet been able to name.
They talked about “Agentic Sales”—the idea that AI doesn’t replace the seller; it co-pilots. It picks up the administrative weight, gives sharper insights, helps prep, helps follow through. But when it comes to creating momentum in a deal, the seller is still the irreplaceable agent of change.
That resonated. Maybe because, like many of us, I’ve been wondering where we fit in this next chapter.
A Stat That Sits in the Gut
Here’s the number that won’t leave my brain: 53% of buyers said the losing vendor could have won the deal.
Not “didn’t have the right product.” Not “wrong pricing.” But something in how the deal was handled. How the seller showed up. What they didn’t do—or didn’t say—that cost them the win.
Think about that. More than half of sales losses are not a result of a better alternative, but a better conversation.
That’s the space where human skills live. And it makes me wonder whether we’re training and enabling teams around the right things.
What Human Still Means in Sales
Corporate Visions mapped out competencies—rooted in buyer evidence—that correlate directly to win rates. And here’s the truth: not one of them can be outsourced to AI.
- Aligning solutions to problems that matter
- Framing a case for change that lands emotionally and logically
- Creating clear contrast between status quo and future state
- Helping buyers justify a decision internally
- Listening deeply enough to tailor follow-up meaningfully
- Resolving objections with empathy, not just logic
- Negotiating like a partner, not a counterparty
These are not “nice-to-haves.” These are the difference between a win and a loss. And in a world where tech is making every company’s process more efficient, it’s connection that will make one seller stand out from another.
Beyond That One Session: What the Broader Summit Reinforced
Zooming out from the Corporate Visions talk, there were other signals that pointed in the same direction.
Gartner shared that 73% of CSOs are prioritizing growth from existing customers in 2025. That means sellers are no longer just hunters—they’re advisors, orchestrators, and retention experts. And the skill set required to deepen those kinds of relationships is different. It’s not just product knowledge—it’s emotional literacy.
There was also a strong narrative around repositioning sales managers as performance coaches, which I fully support. If we’re going to prepare sellers to thrive in an AI-enabled landscape, we need to build their fluency in human-first selling—and that takes practice, feedback, and reflection. Not just dashboards and targets.
One of the more impressive examples of this was how companies like Corporate Visions and UneeQ are blending AI into roleplay simulations—enabling reps to refine communication and problem-solving in realistic, scenario-based environments. That’s what the future of enablement looks like. Tools that help sellers practice being more human at scale.
So, Where Does That Leave Me?
I came back from the summit with a clearer sense that AI is not the competition—it’s the invitation. It’s asking us to double down on what machines can’t do.
AI will change workflows. It will change team structures. But it won’t change the fact that B2B selling is still, at its core, a trust exchange between human beings.
If anything, the rise of AI raises the bar for how good you need to be at the human parts.
The storytelling. The curiosity. The courage to challenge a buyer’s thinking in a way that opens new paths. That’s not soft stuff—that’s the hardest skillset to master. And it’s what will define the top performers in the years ahead.
Still Thinking About This?
If you were at the summit—or have thoughts on where this all goes—I’d love to hear them. Are your teams adjusting how they hire, train, or coach around these human skills? Are you seeing the same tension between efficiency and empathy?