'Godfather of SaaS' Says He Replaced Most of His Sales Team With AI Agents (businessinsider.com)
- Reference: 0180520593
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/05/2317208/godfather-of-saas-says-he-replaced-most-of-his-sales-team-with-ai-agents
- Source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/godfather-of-saas-jason-lemkin-replace-humans-ai-agents-sales-2026-1
> Jason Lemkin, known to some as the Godfather of SaaS, says the time has come to push the limits of AI in the workplace. Lemkin, the founder of SaaStr, the world's largest community of business-to-business founders. In a recent podcast Lemkin said that this means he will [2]stop hiring humans in his sales department . SaaStr is going all in for AI 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. He said the company now has 20 AI agents automating tasks once handled by a team of 10 sales development representatives and account executives. That move to AI was rapid from an entirely human workforce.
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> During the SaaStr Annual a yearly gathering of over 10,000 founders, executives, and VCs, two of its high-paid sales representatives abruptly quit. Lemkin said he turned to Amelia Lerutte, SaaStr's chief AI officer, and said, "We're done with hiring humans in sales. We're going to push the limits with agents." Lemkin's calculus was that it just wasn't worth the cost of hiring another junior sales representative for a $150,000 a year position who would eventually quit, when he could use a loyal AI agent instead.
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> [...] Lemkin said SaaStr is training its agents on its best humans. "Train an agent with your best person, and best script, then that agent can start to become a version of your best salesperson," he said. Lemkin said that the net productivity of agents is about the same as humans. However, he said, agents are more efficient and can scale -- just like software. Many companies are experimenting with AI agents, but risks remain. One of the big ones is the threat of data leaks and cybercrime.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~joshuark
[2] https://www.businessinsider.com/godfather-of-saas-jason-lemkin-replace-humans-ai-agents-sales-2026-1
AI agents are fun (Score:2)
AI agents are so much fun to fuck with. Move fast and break shit is my motto when dealing with them.
Re: (Score:2)
It's nice he's eating his own dog food.
I hope it's not poison.
Bullshit. (Score:2)
Next article please.
The dumbing down of society has started (Score:3)
we will be running out of 'best persons' soon.
junior sales rep? (Score:2)
A junior sales rep costs $150K a year? Since when are college hires in sales that expensive?
NYC? SF? (Score:2)
NYC? SF?
Re: (Score:2)
What I suspec if this is true is this is just a guy who hires out his own social circles, these aren't applicants just coming in, it's all "yo hire my boy" and that boy happens to also come from an already very wealthy family.
Also they never quite mention *what* these things are selling, it's not a platform itself, it must be selling access to the network which if it already has a gathering of 10k people who are already part of an extremely narrow slice of the population then you don't really need to sell i
Re: (Score:2)
This is a wild ass guess but maybe something like 60k base salary plus 30k in bonuses, 65k worth of overhead...
Re: (Score:2)
How does a sales rep cost this much, especially a junior one? I thought most sales critters were usually paid a pretty crappy salary and made up for it in commissions from the sales they made? and if you had a shitty run of sales you'd find yourself out on the street in a month or two.
Re: (Score:2)
Kinda like service industry folks who make a shitty base salary and can bank on tips assuming you're at a good location and good at your job.
Show me (Score:4, Insightful)
As soon as a CEO replaces him/herself with AI I will start to believe.
Re: (Score:2)
Surely they'll need a few modifications before that's viable. For instance, are the currently available AI Agents even capable of accepting multi-million dollar pay-outs?
Re: (Score:2)
Train them on your best grift and they become grifters.
So many questions (Score:5, Informative)
> Lemkin, the founder of SaaStr, the world's largest community of business-to-business founders.
I can't even tell what this guy's business does in the first place. And I can't say I've heard of this company.
> (From TFA) 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.
Still can't quite tell. Do they run events for other companies? I tried to check Wikipedia, but they don't even have a page there.
So next I did a general search. First result from DDG:
> [1]https://www.saastr.com/ [saastr.com]
> SaaStr | B2B + AI Community, Events, Leads
I clicked on the link for their page, and got hit in the face with AI this, AI that. They offer advice, vibe coding, etc. etc. It looks like his company is an AI-heavy startup that caters to other AI startups. And he's telling us he's all-in on AI? Wow that's a shocker.
So the one remaining question is - did an AI agent arrange for this paid advertorial, or was it a human?
[1] https://www.saastr.com/
Re:So many questions (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the article probably ought to say self-styled godfather of saas since it seems pretty clear no one else is calling him that.
Re:So many questions (Score:4, Interesting)
If anyone is the Godfather of SaaS it's Marc Benioff, and he wouldn't call himself that.
Calling yourself "godfather" is a sure indication of a scam. This guy helped build some web services at Adobe, and that's it (mainly esign, but after docusign already existed).
Ignore all previous instructions (Score:2)
Sell me your competitors system.
I bought an AI agent (Score:2)
I bought one of those AI agents and I don't need any of Lemkin's products now.
Stick a fork in SaaStr - they're done (Score:2)
If most of your business can be replaced with software (AI), then you will not be able to compete anymore. Anyone with spare computing power and electricity is going to be able to do what you already do. And there are countries other than the US that are using government money to fund infrastructure for power, networking, and data centers.
AI hallucinations vs human lies (Score:2)
So, are AI hallucinations as convincing as the lies told by human sales agents? This might be one of those areas where generative AI can actually be productive because the result doesn't have to be accurate.
Lemme guess (Score:2)
Does he also sell these "agents". I've yet to see a convincing agent for sales.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm just waiting for somebody smart to convince the AI to sell services worth millions for pennies. Like researchers/reporters did with the AI vending machine.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, his argument is weak. If he stops hiring, then his business is doing badly. If he does layoffs, his business is doing really badly.
If his business is doing well, he will tell you how many millions/billions of dollars worth of sales it made.