"In practice, Lemkin, the founder of SaaStr, the world's largest community of business-to-business founders, said on Lenny's Podcast recently that this means he will stop hiring humans in his sales department. Instead, SaaStr is going all in on agents, which are commonly defined as virtual assistants that can complete tasks autonomously. They break down problems, outline plans, and take action without being prompted by a user."
"That move from an entirely human workforce to an agent-based workforce was rapid. In May, SaaStr had just one AI agent in production that it used for various digital tasks, Lemkin said. That month, though, during the SaaStr Annual - its yearly gathering of over 10,000 founders, executives, and VCs - two of its high-paid sales representatives abruptly quit. Lemkin said he turned to his chief AI officer and said, "We're done with hiring humans in sales. We're going to push the limits with agents.""
Jason Lemkin directed SaaStr to stop hiring humans in sales and deployed AI agents to handle sales functions. The company now runs 20 AI agents automating tasks previously managed by ten sales development representatives and account executives. The transition accelerated after two high-paid sales representatives abruptly quit during the SaaStr Annual, prompting leadership to scale from one agent in May to twenty-plus by June. Agents operate as autonomous virtual assistants that break down problems, outline plans, and take action without prompts. Leadership justified the move by comparing the recurring cost and turnover of human hires to the perceived loyalty and cost-efficiency of agents.
Read at Business Insider
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