Theory 2026年度市场进入策略调查启动
Theory公司正式启动2026年度市场进入策略调查，旨在通过对比2022至2025年数据，分析初创企业在销售、营销等领域的演变。本次调查聚焦五个核心假设：人机协同的销售代表表现将优于纯AI或人类团队；AI可能拉大顶尖与末位团队的绩效差距；买方AI的采用比卖方AI更具颠覆性；AI效率提升可能主要导致人员编制缩减而非收入增长；创始人对AI的预期已随现实落地而下调。调查结果将在后续办公时间活动中公布，参与者可获得匿名原始数据。
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 is designed to be rigorously testable with the survey data:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.