Sales team headcount at many technology companies is contracting due to mid-market coverage models being rebuilt around automation, contributing to the elimination of many entry-level positions.
Yet compensation for the go-to-market (GTM) roles that remain is moving in the opposite direction. Technical sellers are increasingly commanding premiums that a few years ago would have been reserved for engineering leadership.
This blog draws on The Future of GTM in the Age of AI and the 2026 Betts Compensation Guide to explain why sales teams are getting smaller and more expensive. It also explores what this means for how your company should structure and budget for your sales team starting now.
Why Fewer Sales Roles Means Higher Tech Sales Pay
The mechanism connecting the two trends is straightforward once the components are laid out. AI agents are absorbing the work that previously required larger go-to-market teams of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) and mid-market Account Executives (AEs): high-volume outreach, templated follow-up, routine pipeline updates, and early-stage qualification.
What remains for human sellers is the work that automation cannot replicate. This includes navigating early-stage deals, establishing technical credibility with sophisticated buyers, coordinating multiple stakeholders, and managing the agent layer itself.
Our research projects that sales teams will trend toward being 2 to 10 times smaller at equivalent revenue levels. In this model, each rep will manage between 2 and 8 AI agents responsible for research, outreach, follow-up, and data analysis tasks.
Individual sellers will spend roughly half their time on relationship and deal work and the other half managing their agent stack. As a result, compensation will rise to 2 to 5 times current levels for the roles that remain. This is because each remaining rep will be accountable for more revenue per head. Hiring managers will also expect them to bring a broader and scarcer set of skills, including technical fluency, agent orchestration, and complex enterprise stakeholder navigation.
Which Tech GTM Roles Will be Replaced, Transform, or Grow
The pre- to post-AI role map we have developed is a set of predictions rather than guarantees, and the pace of change will vary by company size, sector, and buyer sophistication. Based on current trends, however, here are some of the most likely role change scenarios:
Roles most likely to be absorbed by agents
The SDR, BDR, and mid-market AE functions are the most exposed to automation. Agent-based workflows are increasingly handling sequencing, prospect research, and templated outreach.
Some companies are removing these positions entirely, while others are consolidating them around AI-native skill profiles. New titles such as Sales Development Analyst describe positions that require AI-tool fluency and prompt engineering skills from day one.
Roles that will transform and contract
While Enterprise Account Executives (EAEs) will remain, our research projects roughly 10 times fewer positions. As a whole, EAEs will become meaningfully more technical sellers than the average today.
We also predict that Channel and Partner Sales roles will contract by roughly half. Sellers in these roles will function as technical relationship builders rather than traditional partner managers.
Additionally, the responsibilities of the current VP of Sales position will transition to VP of Sales Engineering. Professionals who come up through technical roles rather than traditional sales paths will increasingly hold sales leadership roles.
Roles being created or elevated
Sales Engineers (SEs) and Solutions Architects (SAs) are moving from support functions to core GTM roles. In fact, SEs at several AI companies are already serving as primary customer-facing sellers.
GTM Engineers are also growing rapidly to build and maintain the agent infrastructure replacing traditional SDR capacity. At many tech companies, Sales Operations is transitioning into GTM Engineering, with the function becoming focused on agent effectiveness rather than dashboard reporting.
What Future Tech Sales Compensation Will Look Like
The projected compensation trajectory for the remaining roles can be illustrated by applying the 2–5× multiplier from our research to 2026 target compensation data for AEs, EAEs, and SEs.
Account Executive
The 2026 target base salary for an Account Executive with at least 3–5 years of experience sits at approximately $115,000, with $230,000 in OTE.
Under the projection, the remaining AE seats could reach ranges currently applied to senior leadership. Technical EAEs will increasingly take these roles rather than generalist sellers.
Additionally, the candidates who fit the role as it evolves are already commanding stackable premiums. Among these are a +10% technical background premium and a +20% vertical AI experience premium.
Enterprise Account Executive
The 2026 target compensation for an experienced EAE sits at approximately $175,000 in base salary with $350,000 OTE on average. Some top performers are even reaching $400K+. We project that the EAE role will contract most sharply in headcount, thus driving compensation upward.
Under the 2-5x projection, top Enterprise Account Executive packages could reach ranges typically associated with Director or VP of Enterprise titles today. Companies planning EAE searches on 2024-2025 comp benchmarks are likely to find themselves outbid for top candidates.
Sales Engineer
Current 2026 compensation for AI-focused Sales Engineers ranges from $160,000 to $250,000 in base salary and $210,000 to $325,000 in OTE. This is already the highest-leverage sales role at many AI companies, where SEs lead customer conversations rather than support them.
Under the projection, the trajectory continues upward as the role moves from specialized support function to core GTM leadership. Senior SEs are becoming increasingly in line for the emerging VP of Sales Engineering role.
The Talent Acquisition Question This Raises
If entry-level positions contract, technology companies will need to rethink how they develop the next generation of senior sellers. The traditional SDR-to-AE-to-EAE progression worked because each rung existed in volume and the skills compounded naturally over time. If the bottom rungs thin out, the pipeline disappears.
The most promising model emerging in response is the consulting firm approach. In this model, companies structure associate roles as long-term talent investments. Their purpose is to support senior positions rather than generate immediate revenue.
This is a significant mindset shift for technology companies accustomed to hiring for immediate output. However, it may become the only viable way to develop the technical sales leaders these organizations will need by 2028 and beyond. Companies that start building associate programs now will have a meaningful advantage in developing internal talent by the time the senior-level scarcity hits its steepest point.
What This Means for Hiring Managers Today
The practical implications for hiring managers working on 2026 searches are concrete enough to act on. Compensation budgets built on 2024 or 2025 assumptions will underbid for the candidates that fit the roles as they are evolving. This is particularly true at the Enterprise AE and Sales Engineer levels, where stackable premiums for technical and vertical AI experience are already pushing target packages well beyond historical benchmarks.
Team structure planning should assume fewer heads carrying more revenue. This structure changes how ramp timelines, territory design, and quota-setting should be calibrated. A team built to support a 2022 coverage model will not function the same way when agents handle the volume work and senior sellers carry the remaining relationship and technical layers. Restructuring earlier gives companies first access to a talent pool of technical sellers, Enterprise AEs, and GTM Engineers that was undersized even before most organizations recognized they needed them.
The candidates commanding the premiums at the top of the ranges are already operating in AI-native environments. They are fluent in the tools and workflows that define the next phase of GTM work. Sourcing them takes longer than sourcing traditional AE or SDR candidates and the screening criteria are meaningfully different. Hiring managers treating these searches like standard GTM hiring will consistently come up short against companies that have adjusted their evaluation criteria and compensation frameworks to match where the market is heading.
Build the Sales Team Your Company Will Need for What Comes Next
The shrinking-team, rising-pay dynamic is a reality that will continue to shape GTM budgets, team structures, and candidate expectations through the rest of this decade.
Betts Recruiting has spent 15 years placing go-to-market talent at technology companies and specializes in the technical sales roles at the center of this transition. We have the network, data, and expertise to help you hire ahead of the curve rather than behind it.
Contact Betts here to start building the sales team your organization needs to compete with what comes next.