The results of the “Sales Capabilities in the Age of AI Survey 2026,” jointly conducted by Education Tech Graduate University and Wilson Learning Worldwide, showed that while AI improves operational efficiency, its direct impact on results remains limited. The group with both strong interpersonal sales skills and high AI adoption reported the greatest sense of achievement, with the strength of their self-directed growth ability identified as a factor driving the difference.
This was Japan's first publicly available survey and study to examine the effects of AI adoption, interpersonal sales skills and self-directed growth ability on sales performance, covering 1,057 sales professionals nationwide. The survey was conducted from 26 to 28 August 2026, with 841 sales representatives included in the analysis.
The benefits of AI use were concentrated mainly in improved operational efficiency, such as reducing the time required to prepare materials, while an average of only 6.0% reported benefits directly linked to results, including higher order-win rates and higher average deal values. In particular, 50.9% said they saw an effect from reduced time spent preparing materials.
The “AI-collaborative” group, with high levels of both interpersonal sales skills and AI adoption, reported an improvement in results at a rate 2.7 times that of the low-scoring group (48.8% vs. 17.8%), indicating that combining human capabilities with AI is important for improving results.
The proportion of respondents using time created by AI to research customer issues and deepen proposals reached 41.4% among those with strong interpersonal sales skills and high AI adoption, a significant difference from the 7.3% recorded among those with low levels of both.
The proportion reporting an improvement in results was 52.2% among those with strong self-directed growth ability, exceeding the 38.6% among those with low ability. This was interpreted as indicating that verifying AI output while using it contributes to results.