The Productivity Gap: New Survey Shows ANZ Sales Teams Are Betting On AI Agents To Help

As sales teams kick off 2026 with ambitious new quotas, they’re turning to AI — especially agents — to hit their numbers. A new survey of more than 4,000 sales professionals, including 250 in Australia and 100 in New Zealand, reveals AI as the top tactic to drive company growth this year.

The data also reveals why: Sales teams are increasingly stretched between changing customer demands and limited bandwidth to meet them. The real drag on productivity, the research suggests, isn’t effort or skill; it’s administrative bottlenecks, a challenge hitting Gen Z sellers hardest. This year, they’re turning to AI and agents to do more with what they have: 91 per cent of Australian sales leaders with agents, and 92 per cent of those in New Zealand, say they’re critical for meeting business demands.

“The data shows it’s not a lack of hustle or skill holding sales teams back — it’s the ‘grunt work tax’ that’s a real drag on productivity across Australia and New Zealand,” said Kevin Doyle, RVP for Agentforce & Data Cloud ANZ at Salesforce. “We need to get these administrative roadblocks out of the way so sellers of all levels can focus on what they were hired to do: build relationships. AI agents are making that possible, and organisations across Australia and New Zealand are seeing the impact already.”

One of Australia’s fastest-growing property development companies, Geocon is exploring how agentic AI can qualify and nurture leads from organic channels, building a complete profile of the lead and hand off a sales-ready prospect to a human sales rep, boosting efficiency.

“In the world of property development and off-plan sales, time to engage matters,” said Andy Magee, CIO at Geocon. “A potential purchaser rarely enquires on a single property at a time. This will often mean that the first developer to engage with the client in a meaningful way will win the race.” 

“By deploying Agentforce, we will be able to strike while the iron is hot, using autonomous agents to engage with leads and gather purchase details before handing a sales-ready prospect to a human rep. For us, this technology isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about creating a personalised buying journey that ensures we don’t miss an opportunity.”

Detailed Findings

Sellers are doubling down on AI agents and deploying them across the entire sales cycle

• 88% of Australian sales organisations currently use some form of AI for tasks like prospecting, forecasting, lead scoring, or drafting emails. That number is 92% for sales orgs in New Zealand.
• 90% of Australian sellers say AI deepens customer understanding, and 91% say it makes their job less stressful.
• 55% of Australian sellers say they’ve used agents, and nearly 4 in 10 plan to by 2027. Once fully implemented, Australian sellers expect agents to cut prospect research time by 36% and email drafting by 37%, giving sales teams meaningful time back in their day.
• In New Zealand, this adoption is similar: 90% of sellers say AI deepens customer understanding and for 93% it makes their job less stressful. 54% also say they’ve used agents, and 44% plan to by 2027. 

Adam Alfano, EVP of Sales at Salesforce, revealed how his own teams use AI agents to drive impact. “AI agents have changed how we operate,” he said. “They help us onboard reps and quote complex deals faster and personalise outreach with better intel. Plus, they’re prospecting 24/7. It’s not just efficiency gains in one department — agents are reshaping our entire sales engine.”

Top-performing sellers are using AI agents to drive outreach efforts

• 42% of Australian sales reps and 34% of those in NZ point to cold calling as the worst part of their job, yet a strong pipeline requires more contacts and more engagement than teams can deliver on their own.
  • Despite devoting nearly one full day of their workweek to prospecting efforts, 42% of the Australia’s sellers say they lack bandwidth to do adequate cold outreach. 
• To close the capacity gap, 54% of Australian sales professionals are using AI for prospecting, with another 44% planning to do so in the future.
  • This figure is 60% in New Zealand, with 36% planning to do so in the future. 
  • 92% of global sellers with AI agents say it benefits their prospecting efforts.
• Globally, high performers — sellers who have substantially increased year-over-year revenue — are 1.7 times more likely to use agents to help with prospecting than underperformers who merely maintained or decreased YOY revenue.

For Stephanie Wells, AVP of Sales for Emerging and Small Business in ANZ for Salesforce, the data highlights how agentic AI can power growth. “For Australian business leaders, every minute and every dollar counts. With agentic AI now a real growth driver for sales teams in 2026, we’re going to see more emerging and growing businesses move quickly to bridge critical skills gaps using agents. 

“By deploying a limitless digital workforce that handles everything from complex prospect research to autonomous customer inquiries, growing and emerging businesses can scale their operations without needing immediate, massive increases in headcount.”

Administrative friction is hitting the lower rungs of the career ladder hardest

• The grunt work tax is real: While globally the average seller spends 40% of their time selling, Gen Z reps overall are trapped at just 35% — losing approximately two full hours each week to manual data entry. Meanwhile,  senior reps spend this time researching prospects and building relationships.
• They’re also navigating a mentorship drought:
  • 46% rarely get feedback on their sales conversations.
  • 47% don’t get enough roleplay opportunities before customer calls.
• When asked what prevents effective enablement, Gen Z points to lack of manager time as the #1 obstacle, while millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers cite lack of access to data and insights.

Sales teams — particularly high-performing ones — are tackling messy data to better support AI initiatives

To get the most from AI, sales professionals are focusing on trusted, connected data — with high performers leading the charge.

• Half of Australian sales leaders with AI (50%) say disconnected systems are slowing down their AI initiatives, while that number is only 37% in New Zealand.
• To help, 78% of Australian sales professionals and 71% in New Zealand are focusing on data cleansing — doing the unglamorous but essential work of removing duplicates, correcting errors or omissions, and standardising formats across siloed systems to maximise their AI returns.
• High performers take it further: globally, 79% of them prioritise data hygiene compared with only 54% of underperformers overall. 

“You can’t just bolt an agent onto a mess and expect it to work,” agreed Kevin Doyle. “The ‘secret sauce’ is unified data. If your agent doesn’t have the full customer context, it’s going to give you garbage output. High-performing teams in ANZ get this—they’re prioritising data hygiene now so their AI actually delivers results later.”

“We’re seeing that those who fix their data foundation first are the ones seeing the biggest ROI now, demonstrating how local organisations can cover the ‘last mile’ of AI and derive real value from it.”

Explore Further

• Read the full State of Sales report
• Hear more insights from sales leaders at Agentforce World Tour Sydney
• Learn how to build and activate your own sales agent
• See how Geocon is transforming sales and services with AI agents
• Join the Salesblazer Community to grow your selling career 

Methodology:

Data is sourced from a double-anonymous survey of 4,050 sales professionals, including sales leaders, sales reps, partner reps, sales and business development representatives, and sales operations. The survey was conducted in August through September 2025. Respondents represented Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.