New study finds AI adoption surging across go-to-market teams, but revenue gains lag behind

SAN DIEGO [November 4, 2026] - Seismic, the Go-To-Market Performance company, today announced findings from a new Harvard Business Review Analytic Services report that examines how organizations are using AI across go-to-market (GTM) teams and the challenges preventing them from translating productivity gains into measurable business performance. Sponsored by Seismic, the research, Unlocking AI's Revenue Potential, reveals that while AI adoption is accelerating across revenue-generating activities (defined as sales, marketing, customer support and revenue enablement), most say their organization has not yet capitalized on its potential to drive revenue growth.

According to the study, 75% of respondents say their organization has increased its use of AI for revenue-generating activities over the past year. However, only 11% report increased revenue or new revenue streams from AI. The AI adopters (respondents at organizations using or considering AI in any of the revenue-generating functions) said the top barrier preventing their organization from using it more effectively is lack of a clear AI strategy (45%). The report suggests that the next phase of AI success will depend on how effectively organizations combine human expertise with trusted intelligence, supported by the strategy and governance needed to translate productivity gains into stronger revenue execution and measurable business outcomes.

"The research shows a clear gap between using AI and getting meaningful business value from it," said Rob Pinkerton, Chief Marketing Officer, Seismic. "Closing that immense gap requires a clear strategy, strong governance, and revenue teams equipped to combine their judgment with AI insights to turn information into action, and productivity into performance."

Additional key findings include:

• Revenue enablement presents an untapped opportunity: Thirty-nine percent of respondents say their organization uses AI for revenue enablement processes, compared with 54% for marketing and 44% each for sales and customer support. Yet 71% of respondents at organizations using AI for revenue enablement report seeing significant or moderate value from it, the highest of the four functions measured. There is substantial room for broader adoption, particularly as organizations already using AI for revenue enablement report stronger value than those applying it in other departments.
• Human judgment remains essential: More than half of AI adopters (55%) identify critical thinking and judgment as the most important skills for their organization's revenue-generating employees to gain value from using AI, while 49% point to knowing when to use, or not use, AI. The findings reinforce the importance of human expertise and AI literacy as organizations integrate AI more deeply into revenue workflows.
• The governance gap is overwhelming: While 88% of AI adopters believe that a strong governance framework is necessary for revenue-generating teams to use AI safely and effectively, only 32% say their organization is creating a strong governance framework/guardrails for AI at their organization over the next year to improve human-AI collaboration. This exposes a significant gap between businesses recognizing AI risks and taking action to prevent those risks.
• Real-time AI execution remains limited: While 54% of AI adopters say their organization's revenue-generating teams use real-time AI to generate meeting preparation materials and 50% use it to generate post-call summaries, fewer (19%) use it to recommend next-best actions to employees in the moment, and only 18% use AI agents to assist revenue employees in real time. The findings suggest significant room for organizations to move beyond preparation toward AI-guided execution.
• There is a lack of confidence in using AI: Although AI adoption is accelerating, only 12% of AI adopters say their organization's revenue-generating teams are highly confident in their ability to make effective use of AI, and 55% report low confidence levels ("slightly confident" or "not confident").

"The survey findings reveal that critical thinking and AI literacy are key skills as employees need to know when to trust AI content or challenge it," said Beth Tracton-Bishop, Ph.D., Director of Research, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. "As the report shows, AI is becoming more embedded in revenue-related workflows, making human judgment more important."

"At Regal Rexnord, we're focusing AI investment on work that helps our teams respond to customers faster and close deals sooner," said Timothy Dickson, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Regal Rexnord. "AI-powered assistants have cut our response time for quote requests from nearly four hours to seconds, and our sales teams can close deals in a quarter of the time it took before. We're supporting that work with a cross-functional governance process that brings business, technology and compliance leaders together to evaluate use cases and guide responsible deployment."

The full report, Unlocking AI's Revenue Potential, produced by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and sponsored by Seismic, is available for download on Seismic's website.

About the Report

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services surveyed 208 members of the Harvard Business Review audience via an online survey fielded in June 2026. Respondents qualified to complete the survey if they worked at an organization that sells business-to-business products or services and they are familiar with their organization's revenue-generating activities and the tools teams use for those activities. The respondents reside globally and work primarily in senior and executive roles at organizations with over half from organizations with 1,000 or more employees.

About Seismic

Seismic is the Go-To-Market Performance company, driving how organizations turn their strategy into revenue. Seismic brings together signals from customer conversations, buyer engagement, governed content, coaching and seller behavior to turn intelligence into winning action. Through its AI revenue execution platform, the company equips customer-facing teams with the insights, governance, and contextual guidance they need to execute with confidence and deliver measurable business outcomes. Trusted by 2,500 organizations and over 3.5 million users around the globe, Seismic is headquartered in San Diego with offices across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at seismic.com.

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