LeanData Customer Research Reveals the AI Reckoning Unfolding in GTM Teams

70% of Survey Respondents Say Bad Data Is Undermining Their AI GTM Execution

• Problem: There’s a serious gap between the widespread adoption of AI, including AI agents, and improvement in GTM results, according to a survey of 157 GTM practitioners.
• Cause: Respondents named the top reasons that GTM AI initiatives underperform or stall: bad data, undocumented processes and siloed teams.
• Reason: The problem isn’t with the quality of the AI models or agents, but with the readiness of the underlying GTM infrastructure that the AI runs on.
• Reality: This is the AI Reckoning: All the promise of ambitious technology is being hamstrung by the reality of shaky infrastructure.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- LeanData, the backbone for AI-ready go-to-market infrastructure, today released findings from its AI GTM Customer Survey, spotlighting the AI reckoning unfolding across go-to-market teams. The survey, the first in an ongoing series, found that while 79% of revenue operations, marketing operations and sales professionals are already scaling or deploying AI agents, 70% say that poor data quality is undermining the results.

“AI models are now both powerful and incredible. Yet, we all know they work only as well as the infrastructure that lies beneath them,” said Katy Keim, CEO of LeanData. “Executives told GTM teams to move fast on AI, and they did. Now those same teams are reporting that their data is not clean, their business processes live in people’s heads and everyone is thin-slicing different views of the customer. An AI reckoning happens when you move fast without AI-ready execution infrastructure. Our customers are sharing the pain of living through this.”

Data Quality Cited as the Root Cause, Lack of Control as the Biggest Fear

The survey, conducted in May 2026 among GTM practitioners at companies of all sizes and across multiple industries, revealed a widening gap between AI’s promise and its production reality.

More than half of respondents, 55%, reported that the main things blocking their AI transformation are bad data and not being ready for AI. When asked why AI initiatives stall or underperform, 45% pointed to inconsistent or incomplete CRM data, 37% blamed undocumented business processes and 32% mentioned siloed teams. These three root causes are infrastructure and coordination problems, not shortcomings in the AI tools themselves.

GTM professionals surveyed made it clear they want more control, not more AI agents: 60% are afraid their AI agents will act on inaccurate data or wrong records, or that they would violate ownership rules. This fear signals a concern about control and a desire for a complete audit trail rather than an AI agent capability issue.

“You know you need to move fast with your AI GTM implementations, and operations leaders don’t want to put the brakes on ambition,” Keim said. “But we’re seeing that when our customers implement a more thoughtful backbone for their AI agents, they can run at full speed and also trust the output.”

AI GTM Customer Survey Details

The May 2026 AI GTM Customer Survey polled 157 LeanData customers in GTM roles, weighted toward hands-on practitioners who build and maintain GTM systems. RevOps or Marketing Ops professionals made up 57% of respondents, with the rest spread across sales, marketing, IT and sales operations. View the full report on LeanData’s website.

Many of LeanData’s customers will share their stories at the annual OpsStars gathering for B2B GTM and revenue operations leaders, to be held October 5 and 6 at the Intercontinental in San Francisco. This year’s theme, “Power Your AI GTM,” recognizes that AI has moved from experimentation to execution inside GTM revenue motions. For the first time in its 10-year history, OpsStars will run as a fully standalone conference, instead of alongside Dreamforce.

About LeanData

LeanData provides the backbone for AI-ready go-to-market infrastructure. More than 1,000 leading B2B companies and a community of 5,000-plus OpsStars rely on LeanData to fuel efficient growth by aligning marketing, sales and customer service execution with the entire AI-enabled customer journey. LeanData’s Intelligent GTM Orchestration platform acts as the connective tissue across the revenue lifecycle, integrating and normalizing buyer data, automating signal-driven workflows and delivering AI-powered insights.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260831839066/en/

Media Contact
Colleen Martell for LeanData
Martell Communications
[email protected]
+1 408-832-0147

Source: LeanData

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