When will AI replace human sales reps — poll results

This post presents the results of a poll conducted on LinkedIn, asking respondents when they believe AI will mostly replace human B2B sales representatives.

The poll in the LinkedIn group Salesty was active between September 15 and September 22, 2026, and received a total of 111 responses. The respondents were asked to estimate the number of years until AI mostly replaces human B2B sales representatives. The results are summarized in the bar chart below, which shows the distribution of estimates provided by the respondents.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from math import log, exp

cur_dir = "/mnt/Projects/Blog/notes/20260923-ai-replace-sales-reps-poll"

df = pd.read_csv(f"{cur_dir}/data/poll-results.csv", delimiter=",", encoding="utf-8")

geom_mean = exp(df["estimate_yrs"].apply(log).sum() / len(df))

data = df.groupby(["estimate_yrs"]).size().reset_index(name="responses_cnt")
data = data.sort_values(by="estimate_yrs")

x = data["estimate_yrs"].values
y = data["responses_cnt"].values / len(df) * 100

# Create the plot
plt.bar(x, y, color="skyblue", edgecolor="black", width=0.95)
plt.xlabel("Years")
plt.ylabel("% of responses")
plt.title("When will AI mostly replace human B2B sales reps?")
plt.gcf().set_facecolor("white")


plt.axvline(
    geom_mean, color="red", ls="--", label=f"Geom. mean ({geom_mean:.1f} years)"
)
plt.legend()
plt.show()
# plt.savefig("poll.png", dpi=300, bbox_inches="tight")
plt.close()