It’s time for the 2026 Annual Theory Go-to-Market Survey. This is a brief 25-question survey.
Our goal is to understand how startups have evolved their sales, marketing, customer success, and cash management over the last several years by comparing these results to our surveys from 2022 through 2025.
We will publish these results and answer questions about them at upcoming Office Hours.
This year, we’re focused on five key hypotheses — each designed to be rigorously testable with the survey data:
H1 — Augmented reps outperform both autonomous AI and unaugmented humans. As AI tools mature, companies face a choice: deploy AI alongside SDR teams, replace them with autonomous tools, or forego AI entirely. We expect augmented teams — humans plus AI — will show the best conversion rates and productivity gains.
H6 — AI is widening the performance gap between top and bottom quartile GTM teams. The companies investing most heavily in AI may be pulling ahead, widening the efficiency, growth, and conversion gap between quartile-one and quartile-four sellers.
H7 — Buyer-side AI adoption is the bigger GTM disruptor than seller-side AI. While most companies focus AI investment on their own GTM teams, an emerging dynamic is buyers using AI themselves: automated RFPs, AI-assisted evaluations, and even AI negotiation. We expect this shift will lengthen sales cycles and create new objections.
H9 — AI efficiency gains are being captured as headcount reduction, not revenue growth. When companies report “AI productivity” gains, the primary result may be flatter SDR hiring — not faster pipeline or higher revenue. The headcount flattening signal, not cost savings, is the real story.
H10 — Founder expectations on AI have reset downward as reality caught up. In 2024, the most optimistic respondents expected 500% efficiency gains from AI and recorded 0%. We expect this perceived-measured gap has narrowed as companies recalibrate what AI can realistically deliver.
With this data, we should be able to draw broader conclusions about the continued shift from growth to efficiency, measure the real impact of AI on GTM teams, and understand the emerging dynamics of AI-to-AI selling.
If you complete the survey, I will share with you the anonymized raw data so you can perform your own analyses. If you have questions, just message me on Twitter or send me an email.