New York, New York - August 24, 2026 - As sales organizations invest more heavily in artificial intelligence, Francisco Tonarely is encouraging teams to focus on a question that can easily get lost in the excitement around new technology: What should AI actually make better?

Tonarely, a Business Development Representative focused on enterprise technology, believes sales teams can benefit from AI without treating automation as the goal itself. His approach is based on a simple framework: identify repetitive work, determine where AI can improve preparation or decision support, reinvest the time saved into higher-value activities, and preserve human involvement where trust and judgment matter most.

“AI can help you work faster, but working faster is not automatically the same as selling better,” Tonarely said. “The bigger question is what you do with the time and information the technology gives you.”

Recent research suggests that distinction is becoming increasingly important. Gartner reported in May 2026 that AI tools save sellers an average of 4.8 hours each week. However, 72% of sales organizations reported low reinvestment of those time savings into high-value sales activities. Gartner also found that organizations achieving meaningful AI time savings and reinvesting that capacity into higher-impact work were 2.2 times more likely to exceed customer growth goals and 3.1 times more likely to exceed lead-to-opportunity conversion goals.

A Four-Part Framework for Smarter AI Use in Sales

Tonarely's framework begins by identifying work that consumes time without requiring a salesperson's full attention or judgment.

AI can help with tasks such as account research, organizing information, monitoring signals, preparing initial messaging, and helping sellers determine possible next actions. Gartner has similarly identified account research, personalized messaging, signal monitoring, and next-best-action recommendations as areas where AI can support sales teams.

“The first question I would ask is whether the task really needs a person doing every part of it,” Tonarely said. “If AI can handle some of the repetitive preparation, that can create more room for the salesperson to focus on understanding the customer.”

The second part of the framework is determining whether AI is improving the quality of a decision rather than merely accelerating a task.

Tonarely cautions against measuring AI adoption only through activity. Generating more emails, completing research faster, or producing more account summaries may demonstrate efficiency, but those measures do not necessarily show whether customer conversations are improving.

Instead, he recommends asking whether AI is helping sellers enter conversations better prepared, recognize relevant information sooner, and spend more time understanding the customer's situation.

Reinvesting the Time AI Creates

The third part of Tonarely's framework focuses on what happens after AI creates additional capacity.

This is where he believes sales organizations may have one of their biggest opportunities.

“If technology saves someone several hours a week, I would not automatically look at that as the end result,” Tonarely said. “I would ask where those hours are going next. Are sellers having better conversations? Are they learning more about their customers? Are they spending more time building relationships?”

That question reflects Gartner's findings that many sales organizations are capturing time savings without consistently converting those savings into higher-value work.

For Tonarely, reinvestment should be intentional. Time saved through AI can be redirected toward customer conversations, preparation for important meetings, relationship building, follow-up, learning, and other work where a salesperson's attention adds more value.

Knowing Where the Human Seller Still Matters

The final part of the framework may be the most important: identifying moments where AI should support a salesperson rather than replace the interaction.

Recent buyer research supports that distinction. Gartner found that 69% of surveyed B2B buyers preferred to validate AI-generated insights with sales representatives. Buyers were also more likely to report that human representatives understood their needs and helped them feel confident in a purchasing decision than they were to say the same about generative AI.

Tonarely believes those findings point toward an evolving role for sales professionals.

“Customers can find an incredible amount of information without speaking to a salesperson,” he said. “That means the value of the conversation has to be more than repeating information they could already find themselves.”

He sees listening, contextual understanding, communication, and relationship building as areas where sellers can continue to distinguish themselves.

“You need to understand the challenges your customers are actually trying to solve,” Tonarely said. “AI can help you prepare for that conversation, but there is still a human responsibility to listen, ask the right questions, and understand what matters to the person on the other side.”

Using AI With a Clear Purpose

Tonarely believes sales organizations should resist adopting AI simply because competitors are doing so or because a new tool promises greater productivity.

Instead, he recommends beginning with the work itself.

Teams can identify where sellers are losing time, decide which activities benefit from automation or AI assistance, establish what sellers should do with the capacity created, and determine where human involvement remains essential.

The approach also requires experimentation. Not every AI use case will create meaningful value, and sales leaders may need to adjust how tools fit into existing workflows.

Gartner reported that 31% of chief sales officers surveyed cited difficulty proving the return on AI-driven tools as a top challenge affecting their 2026 sales objectives.

Tonarely believes that makes clear objectives especially important.

“AI should have a reason for being in the workflow,” he said. “If you cannot explain what it is helping the salesperson do better, it is worth asking whether you are solving the right problem.”

For Tonarely, smarter AI adoption is ultimately not about choosing between technology and people. It is about understanding what each does best.

“The opportunity is to let technology handle work where it genuinely helps, and then give people more time to do the things that still depend on judgment, communication, and trust,” he said.

About Francisco Tonarely

Francisco Tonarely is a New York-based Business Development Representative working in enterprise technology. His professional interests include artificial intelligence, enterprise architecture, technology sales, business transformation, and the changing relationship between technology and the workplace. He is particularly interested in how organizations can use emerging technology with clear business objectives while preserving human judgment, communication, and customer relationships. Outside of his professional work, Tonarely coaches youth lacrosse and volunteers in the New York community.

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