Jason Lemkin

Founder of SaaStr and venture capitalist analyzing the impact of AI on SaaS sales.

Mentions

Appeared in

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Key positions and views

AI will cause a rapid and near-total replacement of repetitive, top-of-funnel sales roles like email-based SDRs and inbound BDRs within the next year.

The most significant impact of AI on employment will be through attrition, where companies stop backfilling open positions with humans in favor of AI agents.

The future of sales involves elite human operators managing fleets of AI agents, leading to order-of-magnitude increases in productivity and compensation for those individuals.

For most companies, the correct strategy for AI adoption is to buy from specialized vendors and to select those vendors based on their willingness to provide intensive, hands-on implementation support.

As AI automates prospecting and initial qualification, the value of a human salesperson is shifting away from interpersonal skills ('people person') toward deep, technical product knowledge.

Podcast consensus on Lemkin

Points of consensus

▶Jason Lemkin consistently argues that AI will cause a massive and rapid displacement of specific sales roles, particularly email-based Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and inbound-focused Business Development Representatives (BDRs), within the next 12 months.Mar–Apr 2026

▶He believes the primary impact of AI on employment will be companies choosing to backfill open positions with AI agents rather than through mass layoffs of existing staff.Apr 2026

▶Lemkin advocates that the future high-value sales professional will be a manager of AI agents, not a manual prospector, leading to new, higher-paying roles like the '$250,000 a year SDR'.Mar–Apr 2026

▶He strongly advises companies to buy, not build, their AI sales tools, emphasizing that the critical factor in vendor selection is the level of hands-on deployment support provided.Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶Lemkin predicts widespread job displacement for roles like SDRs, yet also notes that managing a team of 20 AI agents at SaaStr requires 10-15 hours of human oversight per week, suggesting a continued, significant need for human intervention.Mar–Apr 2026

▶He forecasts the obsolescence of salespeople who rely on being a 'people person', but also highlights a 70% response rate from AI re-engaging leads that humans had dismissed, indicating AI's effectiveness at a traditionally human-centric task.Apr 2026

▶Lemkin's vision includes both the 'extinction' of certain sales roles and the creation of new, highly compensated positions managing AI, presenting a conflicting picture of AI as both a job destroyer and a creator of elite opportunities.

▶He states SaaStr is 'done with hiring humans in sales' but also describes a remaining team structure that includes a full-time Account Executive and a part-time 'chief of AI', indicating a hybrid human-AI model rather than a complete replacement.Apr 2026

Key themes

▶The Great Sales Role ReplacementMar–Apr 2026

Lemkin posits that AI is not merely augmenting but actively replacing specific human roles in the sales funnel. He predicts that within a year, 90% of email-based SDRs and nearly all inbound BDRs will be made obsolete by AI agents who can perform these tasks more efficiently.

This theme suggests that companies heavily invested in large, traditional SDR/BDR teams for top-of-funnel activities face an urgent need to re-evaluate their go-to-market strategy and staffing models or risk significant competitive disadvantage.

▶Emergence of the AI-Powered 'Super Rep'Apr 2026

Lemkin envisions a new paradigm for sales productivity and compensation, exemplified by his target of $3-5 million in revenue per representative at Owner.com, a tenfold increase from previous benchmarks. This is enabled by a new type of role, such as a $250,000/year SDR, who manages a team of AI agents rather than performing manual outreach.

Investors should look for SaaS companies that are not just adopting AI tools but are fundamentally restructuring their sales teams and compensation models to leverage AI for order-of-magnitude efficiency gains.

▶Practical AI Implementation StrategyApr 2026

Lemkin provides a clear playbook for adopting sales AI: buy from a vendor rather than building in-house, and prioritize vendors who offer hands-on support like a forward deployed engineer. He also details the tactical side, such as the 30-day, hands-on training process required to make an AI agent effective and the use of top human performers' email copy as training data.

For analysts evaluating the AI vendor landscape, the ability to provide deep, hands-on implementation support may be a more significant competitive differentiator than features alone, as successful adoption requires intensive initial human guidance.

▶Macroeconomic Shifts in Tech Labor and DemandMar–Apr 2026

Lemkin observes two major market shifts driven by AI. First, the primary employment impact will be attrition, where open roles are backfilled by AI, leading to a gradual but significant reduction in headcount for roles like SDRs and content creators. Second, he notes that for many AI product categories, the percentage of prospects actively in-market has surged from the typical 3-5% to over 50%, indicating a massive, immediate demand for AI solutions.

The unusually high in-market rate for AI products suggests a land-grab phase where speed and effective, AI-driven go-to-market strategies are critical; companies that can capitalize on this demand wave will likely secure dominant market positions.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

Pre-AI Adoption

Lemkin references a benchmark where a typical sales representative would target $300k-$500k in revenue.

Current Period

SaaStr has strategically stopped hiring human salespeople, replacing a team of ~10 SDRs and AEs with 20 AI agents, one full-time AE, and a part-time Chief of AI. This new team is achieving performance on par with the previous human team.

Next 12 Months

Lemkin predicts this period will see significant unemployment for lower-level tech roles as AI becomes equally effective. He specifically forecasts that 90% of email-based SDR roles will be displaced and BDR roles for inbound qualification will become 'extinct'.

End of Next Year

Predicts that while 70% of Account Executive (AE) jobs will remain safe by this point, this marks a temporary state of stability before further decline.

Years Following Next Year

Forecasts a continued erosion of traditional sales roles, with the number of 'safe' AE jobs declining from 70% to 40-50%.

Suggested prompts

How does Lemkin's model of an AI-managed sales team scale for products that require complex, high-touch, and relationship-based enterprise sales cycles? &nearr;What are the potential second-order effects on company culture and innovation when a core customer-facing function like sales ceases to hire humans? &nearr;To what extent is Lemkin's experience at SaaStr, a media and events company, generalizable to SaaS companies with different product complexities and target markets? &nearr;What specific metrics should be used to evaluate the ROI of replacing a human SDR team with AI agents, beyond top-line response rates and revenue targets? &nearr;

Key concepts

AI Sales Agents 2 ep Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) 2 ep Future of Work 2 ep Go-to-Market Strategy 1 ep Business Development Representatives (BDRs) 1 ep Account Executives (AEs) 1 ep AI Training & Implementation 1 ep Salesforce 1 ep SaaStr 1 ep

Notable quotes

“We're done with hiring humans in sales. We're done.”

Jason Lemkin · We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

“The email-based cadence SDR will be 90% displaced by AI next year.”

Jason Lemkin · We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

“Jason Lemkin predicts that within 12 months, there will be significant unemployment among lower-level tech employees like SDRs and social media content creators because AI is becoming as effective as they are in their roles.”

Jason Lemkin · Duolingo Co-Founder, Severin Hacker: How AI Impacts the Future of Work and Education

“With AI, he's trying, he's targeting three to 5 million in revenue per rep. Three to 5 million. Honestly, if this was three or four years ago for a similar company, it would be three to 500K.”

Jason Lemkin · We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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