Go-to-market teams are being asked to do more with less. Budgets are tighter. Headcount is frozen. And buying decisions have slowed to a crawl: 78% of business buyers say their company is more cautious about spending than ever before.

The odds are stacked against reps, and it’s up to enablement to help them develop new paths that lead to sustainable pipeline growth.

“In the economic times of today, there are not a lot of companies that are still accelerating at the same headcount they had in the past,” said Rick Kickert, global vice president of revenue enablement and velocity at Zscaler. “You have to look for other ways to grow your revenue year-over-year.”

With additional headcount not always an option, many teams are turning to AI for leverage. According to recent research, 81% of sales teams believe AI can help them meet their goals, without expanding their teams.

AI might not replace the human touch, but it does help reps reorient their days and allocate more time to meaningful, pipeline-generating activities.

But becoming AI-powered isn’t an overnight process, and it requires some degree of oversight and guidance.

That’s where enablement comes in.

Enablement’s role in accelerating pipeline generation with AI

Enablement doesn’t own revenue, but it does influence the behaviors that drive it. Without programmatic enablement support, reps may struggle to convert engagement into pipeline momentum.

“Sales enablement doesn’t drive revenue,” said Gerry Hurley, senior director of sales enablement at Tripadvisor. “They’re not accountable for that, but they do influence and impact the inputs that drive the revenue.”

Enablement builds and executes programs that influence revenue-driving inputs, such as pipeline generation. These programs might include:

  • Training on effective prospecting
  • Playbooks on conducting high-impact discovery
  • Workshops on creating personalized demos

These enablement programs build skills. Reps are then expected to put those skills into practice via real-world activities. Eventually, those activities roll up into business impact—more opportunities created, more pipeline generated, and more deals won.

“Sales is accountable for the specific activities that drive revenue,” said Hurley. “Sales enablement is accountable for developing the skills that create a spike in those specific activities.”

This distinction is critical: Enablement doesn’t “own” pipeline or revenue generation. Instead, it empowers the people who do, which is exactly why enablement should be there to help reps build AI into rep workflows.

The AI opportunity in pipeline generation

To accelerate pipeline in a lean environment, AI is key. It removes friction from reps’ workflows and reorients their time and effort around more meaningful, revenue-generating work.

That’s not to say there is a one-size-fits-all approach to implementing AI. Every team’s AI opportunity will look a little different.

For instance, a team just beginning their AI journey may want to start by assessing their existing processes, including how:

  • Reps generate inbound leads
  • Reps engage outbound leads
  • Reps personalize sales content and prospect communications

While investigating the current state of sales execution, they may also want to keep an eye out for gaps in these processes, such as:

  • Where friction appears
  • Where reps spend considerable time
  • What opportunities for efficiency exist

“What day-to-day tasks could be automated or systematized using AI?” said Jonathan Kvarfordt, head of GTM revenue enablement & product marketing at Simetrik. “It’s how your reps will spend more time on strategy than all the things that require menial work.”

While every team’s journey may look a little different, there are quite a few common AI use cases that enablement teams might explore:

1. Prospecting: Sparking interest

Low conversion rates at the top of the funnel often stem from poor prospect qualification or generic outreach. Instead, enablement teams should focus on helping reps build the instinct to identify and engage high-fit accounts.

To simplify early outreach, consider:

  • Automating email generation: Train reps on tools that use recipient details, company context, and shared content to create personalized emails at scale
  • Developing persona-aligned messaging templates: Build and manage a library of AI-augmented templates for different buyer roles and industries, keeping messaging relevant and compliant

2. Engagement: Building connections

Once outreach begins, engagement signals offer clues into buyer interest and intent. But many sellers are still working in the dark and missing the data that could guide their follow-up strategy.

To shine a light on engagement, interest, and intent, try:

  • Real-time engagement alerts: Equip reps with AI-generated notifications that highlight which accounts are active, what they’re engaging with, and how recently. This helps sellers prioritize follow-up and strike while interest is high
  • Supplying follow-up recommendations: Use AI to suggest next-best actions—such as sharing a specific case study or scheduling a demo—based on the buyer’s prior content consumption and behavior

3. Relationship-building: Navigating ongoing conversations

A meeting on the calendar is just the beginning. If messaging doesn’t land—or fails to align with buyer pain—pipeline progress stalls. AI enables reps to prep better, tailor conversations, and practice key moments before going live.

To keep the conversation going, consider:

  • Streamlining meeting prep: Analyze prior calls, shared content, and account activity to generate pre-call summaries. These briefings surface pain points, personas involved, open questions, and suggested next steps, which allow reps to show up ready, not reactive
  • Personalize the follow-up: Ingest call recordings and, based on the discussion, generate personalized follow-up emails that reignite interest and align both buyer and rep on next steps

4. Closing: Maintaining velocity

When deals stall, it’s often because buyers don’t see a clear reason to choose one vendor over another. At this stage, the key to maintaining momentum is relevance. Reps must tell a story that feels not only compelling, but personally tailored to the buyer’s business context, goals, and pain points.

To scale the personalized experiences that progress late-stage deals, use AI to:

  • Construct dynamic digital sales rooms: Engage champions and new stakeholders as they emerge with a personalized deal hub, built with each prospect’s goals and challenges in mind
  • Build auto-generated proposals and pitch decks: Create on-brand, account-specific materials, customized by industry, persona, and use case, without requiring reps to build from scratch.

Augment pipeline generation with AI

Pipeline challenges rarely stem from a single weak spot. Instead, they’re often the result of small inefficiencies that accumulate over time. From prospecting to closing, gaps in rep workflows result in lost time, decreased productivity, and ultimately, less consistent pipeline.
AI closes those gaps.

It’s up to enablement teams everywhere to give their sales teams the AI tools and know-how to resolve leaks in their pipeline and build an AI-powered revenue engine.

“Identifying what you can automate and do better and faster with AI,” said Kvarfordt. “You’ll have more time to do the more impactful activities and requirements of the job.”

With AI reducing time spent on administrative tasks and enablement playing a more strategic role in shaping execution, modern GTM teams are truly equipped to do more with less.

How will you get started?