The spread of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative tools is accelerating another wave of change in sales. AI-powered customer service, generative marketing and automated sales funnels are rolling out quickly; so far overall commercial and sales volumes have not fallen and are actually creeping up.
Historical context: what 35 years of data show
This is not entirely new. Globally, traditional sales roles have been shrinking for decades. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data and Harvard research, classic sales occupations declined to roughly half their share of total employment between 1990 and 2024. During the first wave of e-commerce (around 1995–2000) the number of B2B salespeople needed to produce one million dollars of real GDP halved — sales did not disappear, but transactional "order taker" and catalogue-reading roles migrated online.
The second wave arrived in the mid-2000s with CRM systems, social media and increasingly targeted online advertising. Companies found that well-designed marketing systems could generate leads continuously, reducing the need to expand sales headcount. In Hungary, for example, about 73 percent of purchases began online searches around 2007, encouraging firms to invest in webshops and SEO rather than human resources.
Domestic figures and examples
Hungarian data show similar attrition. The Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) reports that financial intermediaries fell from roughly 40,000 in 2007 to around 24,000 today. The decline is partly technological, partly social: selling is often a fallback career and the pipeline of motivated entrants is uneven.
The third wave: AI, automation, and information noise
Gartner's 2026 B2B research finds that 67–70 percent of corporate buyers now deliberately avoid salespeople during their information-gathering phase, and 45 percent use generative AI to pre-screen suppliers. By the time a buyer speaks with a salesperson, they have already completed more than 60 percent of the decision process on their own.
At the same time the web has lowered barriers to entry: a website, AI-generated product photos, ad copy, videos and newsletters can be created in minutes. This leads to an abundance of low-quality, automated "pre-salesmen" and a flood of templated offers — and buyers grow tired. Gartner reports that 56 percent of enterprise buyers regretted their largest technology purchase in the past two years because of information chaos.
Where human sellers still matter
The human element has not disappeared. Buyers — 69 percent according to the same research — want a live expert to interpret and validate the mountains of data AI produces. Studies by McKinsey, Harvard and MIT show AI speeds routine tasks by 25–30 percent, but it has a serious downside: when faced with questions beyond its competence, software can still make confident, persuasive errors. Fast but wrong AI recommendations can steer business decisions the wrong way — a daily risk in the Hungarian SME sector.
Many small and medium-sized business owners find that the problem is not lack of templates or product demos, but that sellers fail to understand customers' real problems, do not ask enough questions, give discounts too quickly, and lack managerial systems that enforce quality closes. AI can generate presentations, but the negotiation and final close must be done by people.
What will distinguish successful salespeople?
The market is changing rapidly rather than simply shrinking. The old mechanical sales model — where the goal was to crank out calls, meetings or paperwork — is dying. The strongest positions will go to sellers who:
- Use technology for background research and preparation, but own the relationship-building.
- Understand the customer's underlying problem and sell demonstrable business value rather than products.
- Take responsibility for a recommended decision and prevent buyers getting lost in uncertainty.
- Maintain a strong, live network of relationships.
The author predicts the profession will be further thinned, but those who remain could see a renaissance: specialist sales expertise will become more valued.
(Author: Kovács Sándor, business consultant and member of the expert team at Piac & Profit business magazine and portal. He focuses on developing Hungarian SMEs and has more than 25 years of practical experience.)
