Only a Third of Sales Teams Use AI for Training. The Tools Got Better Anyway.

Highspot’s 2026 GTM Performance Gap Report puts a number on something enablement leaders have suspected for a while: only 30-34% of B2B go-to-market teams currently use AI for training and coaching, trailing well behind other GTM AI use cases like prospecting and forecasting. The gap isn’t about missing capability. Modern sales LMS platforms now offer native CRM integration that ties training directly to real pipeline activity, personalized learning paths that adapt to a rep’s actual skill gaps, real-time feedback loops, and AI-driven role-play simulations for rehearsing objection handling before a live call. Avetta, a supply-chain risk management company, cut its average seller ramp time in half after consolidating training onto one AI-enabled platform — a concrete proof point that the tooling works when it gets used.

The “when it gets used” part is the real story. Highspot published its own execution-assessment checklist less than a week earlier — a 15-question yes/no self-audit spanning pre-deal prep, live-call assistance, and post-call review, with a scoring band that puts reps checking fewer than 8 boxes squarely in “AI isn’t part of your daily workflow yet.” Read against the 30-34% adoption figure, the checklist reads less like a coaching exercise and more like a diagnosis: most reps aren’t failing to use AI well, they’re not opening it at all.

Meanwhile the rehearsal tools keep getting harder to ignore. Second Nature shipped Video Avatars this month — animated personas with lip-sync, eye contact, and head tilt layered onto its AI role-play platform, on the argument that the closer a practice environment mirrors a real call, the more the confidence built there transfers to the actual conversation. It’s English-only and single-persona for now, but Second Nature is giving every existing customer 6,000 free minutes to try it.

None of this closes the adoption gap by itself. But it does mean the reps who treat rehearsal as part of the job — not a tool they were handed and never opened — are training against a bar that keeps rising, while two-thirds of the field stands still.