Study shows that an increase in conversion rates, reduced manual work, and improved forecasting accuracy underscore the growing strategic importance of agentic AI in maintaining competitiveness
Outreach, the AI Revenue Workflow Platform, shared findings from a new independent white paper conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), sponsored by Outreach, examining how agentic artificial intelligence is transforming revenue orchestration.
“Frontline managers are emerging as critical catalysts behind agentic AI adoption in revenue organizations. Nearly half of all adoption efforts (44%) are led by managers who weave AI into daily sales workflows”
The IDC survey included 612 respondents across the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany from organizations with 500+ employees and found that 68% of organizations surveyed are currently either scaling or optimizing AI across revenue-related functions. We believe this marks a clear inflection point in how enterprise companies will be approaching AI-powered sales execution.
According to the survey, organizations adopting agentic AI are already seeing measurable improvements:
- 41% of organizations see an increase in conversion rates
- 45% of organizations report a reduction in manual work, as AI-driven agents now handle the heavy lifting
- 38% of organizations report faster onboarding, reflecting how agentic AI accelerates the path to productivity for new team members
IDC’s survey highlights a shift in revenue technology. “The rise of agentic AI is transforming revenue operations from a patchwork of manual tasks into a system of intelligent, autonomous orchestration.” The IDC White Paper goes on to say, “This shift not only accelerates prospecting cycles but also reduces the time and effort spent on preliminary research and manual filtering.”
“Agentic AI represents a structural change in how revenue teams operate,” said Michelle Morgan, Research Manager, Sales Force Productivity and Performance at IDC. “The organizations seeing the greatest impact are moving beyond isolated automation toward intelligent systems that continuously analyze data, execute multi-step actions, and support better decision-making across the revenue lifecycle.”
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According to the IDC White Paper, “frontline managers are emerging as critical catalysts behind agentic AI adoption in revenue organizations. Nearly half of all adoption efforts (44%) are led by managers who weave AI into daily sales workflows, embedding new tools directly into the rhythms and routines their teams already follow.”
Despite 66.2% of organizations reporting their infrastructure is mostly or fully ready for agentic AI, the IDC White Paper states that “to unlock the full potential of agentic systems, organizations must go far beyond technical integration.” Security and data privacy, reliability/accuracy, and loss of human oversight remain top concerns that leadership reported about agentic AI within sales/revenue operations. We believe this reinforces the imperative need for enterprise-grade platforms and experienced partners.
“This research confirms what we see every day with revenue leaders, AI only delivers value when teams trust it enough to embed it directly into how they work,” said Abhijit Mitra, CEO of Outreach. “Agentic AI is about augmenting sellers, the key is automating the operational burden around them with systems that are reliable, secure, and accountable. When teams can achieve these kinds of systems, they become more productive, pipelines become more predictable, and leaders can plan and execute with greater confidence.”
The IDC White Paper asserts that the “disparity between non-investors and early adopters indicates that revenue technology organizations are at an inflection point, where those without agentic AI strategies risk falling behind competitors.” Furthermore, “the competitive advantage accrued by early adopters will compound over time.”
