Despite aggressive commercial spending, growth is slowing across the board. Revenue growth has contracted from 22% in 2021 to a projected 5% in 2025. EBITDA has barely moved.
Frontline managers should be a key lever to reverse declining growth rates by improving team performance. Instead, they spend more time reviewing data than developing their people. Research on 515 frontline sales managers found they spend nearly half their time (47%) on required activities like administrative work, reporting and opportunity management leaving only 15% for coaching. Today’s managers are so busy reviewing what happened, they don’t have time to influence what happens next.
In a world where sales productivity is flat or declining, commercial leaders must find a way for mangers to spend less time buried in reporting and more time doing what actually drives growth: developing people. AI promises to make this shift possible.
AI Will Unlock Time for What Actually Drives Growth—Coaching
Predictive analytics can forecast outcomes, generative AI can draft communications, and conversational agents can handle inquiries. Combined, AI can reduce the time spent on required activities from 47% to just 26%. This change would free up capacity to more than double the time spent on coaching, increasing it from 15% to 32%.
But managers have heard these promises before. CRM was meant to improve forecast accuracy but became another administrative burden. Sales enablement platforms would streamline content delivery but required constant curation. Each technology wave promised efficiency and delivered more work.
The Manager’s New Role is Leading Through Change
AI can be different, but only if managers actively lead their teams through adoption.
The introduction of AI introduces a change curve that will feel unfamiliar, even threatening, to sellers. Managers must become the bridge. Success requires them to guide their teams through the transition by developing four essential skills:
Managers who embrace this evolution drive AI adoption, build resilient teams, and lay the foundation to shift their role away from reviewing data towards developing their team. . Those who don’t will see AI adoption stall under the weight of confusion and resistance.
Winning Managers Will Know When to Disagree with the Algorithm
AI is excellent at identifying patterns in data but it doesn’t always have context.
Data-driven recommendations appear definitive, but they often lack nuance. Successful managers will know when to trust the signal and when human context takes precedence.
Take the example of a commercial insurance manager. Her AI system flagged a key deal as high-risk due to a drop in buyer activity. Statistically, deals with this signal close just 22% of the time. A less experienced leader might have pushed for immediate action. However, this manager was aware that the client’s fiscal freeze was in effect, and communication dips were typical. Instead of reacting, she coached patience.
This is the essence of judgment in the AI era: not ignoring the signal but interpreting it within the broader commercial context.
The Manager’s Future is Designing the GTM Operating System
As AI capabilities advance, the manager’s role will continue to evolve from orchestrator to architect.
The shift will happen in three distinct stages:
This evolution reflects a broader shift from pipeline surveillance to ecosystem optimization. The KPI is not activities completed, but rather capacity unlocked and commercial ROI delivered.
The Technology Isn’t the Bottleneck the Transformation Is
Adding AI to legacy workflows won’t deliver productivity gains. It will only amplify inefficiencies. Organizations that win will be those that redesign the frontline manager’s role around what AI can’t do: build connects with and lead their teams
Frontline managers have always held the keys to seller productivity. The difference today is that AI can finally give them the time and tools to lead. But only if companies have the courage to evolve their expectations and enable their managers to architect the next era of commercial execution.
Learn how leading companies are rethinking frontline management in the age of AI.
Download the full SBI report: How AI Will Make Sales Management More Human