The Future of B2B Sales: How AI Is Replacing SDRs

‍What does the future of B2B sales look like? Will AI replace SDRs? How will these changes affect go-to-market teams? 

More and more revenue leaders are asking themselves these questions, and in hopes of shedding light on these difficult questions, we sat down with an expert: In this episode of The B2B Revenue Executive Experience, host Cory Cotten-Potter welcomes Kraig Swensrud, Founder and CEO of Qualified.com. Together, they share insights on the transformative impact of AI agents on B2B marketing and pipeline generation, particularly in replacing traditional SDR functions.

‍

Will AI Replace SDRs? Here's What We Uncovered:

• How AI agents like Qualified's Piper are revolutionizing lead qualification and follow-up
• Why traditional marketing automation platforms need to evolve into agentic marketing platforms to stay relevant
• How to implement AI agents using a "crawl, walk, run" approach to build trust and validate effectiveness
• Why the speed of AI advancement means companies can't afford to wait on experimentation and implementation
• The future of marketing orchestration through intelligent agents rather than traditional journey builders
• How to measure AI agent performance by putting them on traditional SDR leaderboards for pipeline generation

Kraig Swensrud is the Founder and CEO of Qualified.com, a conversational sales and marketing platform revolutionizing pipeline generation for businesses. With over twenty years of experience in tech entrepreneurship, he previously served as the CMO of Salesforce, where he played a crucial role in driving the company's growth from $500 million to over $3 billion in revenue. His entrepreneurial journey includes founding GetFeedback (acquired by SurveyMonkey) and pioneering integration between Google AdWords and Salesforce.

Timeline:

00:00 - Intro 

01:34 - From Oracle to Entrepreneur

06:05 - The Salesforce Rocketship

07:55 - The Qualified.com Origin Story

14:01 - Why Human SDR Teams No Longer Scale

18:07 - Meet Piper: Your AI SDR

21:23 - The Fall of Marketing Automation?

25:43 - Metrics That Matter in an AI World

27:01 - Common AI Adoption Concerns

33:01 - The Future of Marketing Is Agentic

36:16 - Kraig’s Advice to His Younger Self

‍

Why Human SDR Teams No Longer Scale

For over 15 years, companies have relied on entry-level SDR teams to handle lead follow-up in the marketing funnel, not because they were ideal, but because there was no better alternative. The model was expensive, slow, inconsistent, and restricted by human limitations. These reps, often fresh out of college, were tasked with qualifying leads they barely understood, and turnover meant teams were constantly in flux. However, now, for the first time, AI agents offer a scalable, cost-effective, and always-on solution that finally solves the SDR problem.

“It's probably an inevitability that the marketing SDR job function within two years is going to go away because AI agents can just do this job in a scalable way, in a high-quality fashion.”

Kraig Swensrud, Founder and CEO of Qualified.com

Meet Piper: Your AI SDR

The future of lead gen is AI-driven, and the shift is already underway. Instead of replacing your entire SDR team overnight, think of it as a phased evolution. Start by letting AI agents like Piper handle nights, weekends, or low-quality leads your team avoids. As you grow comfortable, you'll likely realize these agents can do even more, all while never taking a break and constantly improving. The result? CMOs can reallocate budget toward higher-impact marketing efforts, generate more pipeline, and build smarter, leaner teams.

“Only an AI can be smart enough to do that. Only an AI agent like Piper can be smart enough to do that.”

Kraig Swensrud, Founder and CEO of Qualified.com

Why AI Will Replace Marketing Automation as We Know It

Marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua aren't dying, but they are transforming. Considering AI agents can analyze every customer interaction in real time, score leads dynamically, and initiate hyper-personalized conversations instantly, there's no longer a need for rigid, rule-based workflows or manual SDR handoffs. The next evolution? Agentic marketing platforms are AI-powered systems that act, learn, and engage on their own. Companies like Qualified are already fusing AI agents like Piper into legacy tools, and it’s changing the game.

‍

“My call to action, in general, whether you're in marketing, or you're in sales, or you're listening to the show and you're in some other function of the company, you have to stick your toe in the wall and you have to educate yourself, and you have to try to move your company forward because it's going to take some time, but the industry is moving so fast you have to act now.”

Kraig Swensrud, Founder and CEO of Qualified.com

Now that you know how AI agents are transforming the way companies handle lead qualification and pipeline generation,, discover the full list of episodes at The B2B Revenue Executive Experience. If you enjoy the show, instructions to rate and review it are found here.