Revenue leadership is under pressure. Pipeline predictability is eroding, seller productivity is stalling and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated noise is clouding decision-making. While boards demand consistent growth, the operational scaffolding beneath most revenue engines remains outdated, over-reliant on siloed KPIs, fragmented tech stacks and an overpromised customer relationship management (CRM). The complication is not just digital overload, it’s strategic inertia. Many go-to-market leaders are caught in a loop of incremental tooling and rearranged organization charts without fundamentally rethinking how revenue is designed, measured and optimized in today’s AI-disrupted environment. The implication is stark: organizations that fail to align commercial strategy with Revenue Operations (RevOps) discipline and cross-functional intelligence will struggle to scale, miss revenue targets and lose talent to more adaptive competitors. So, the critical question becomes: what must CROs change technologically, culturally and operationally in 2026 to enable durable, AI-augmented growth? The answer starts with a mindset that drives innovation adoption at an agile pace. This will require leaders to draw a clear line between what’s out and what’s next, and act fast to operationalize these shifts.
What’s out? Sales-first forecasting without accountability for marketing influence or partner contribution. What’s in? Revenue intelligence platforms that triangulate across marketing attribution, partner impact and pipeline velocity to give finance and the C-suite a unified view of go-to-market health. CROs can’t afford to treat AI-generated forecasts as a separate stream; they must be embedded within a trusted architecture that is aligned to board-expectation models and actual in-quarter behavior. Revenue leaders who over-rely on seller-submitted data will be outmaneuvered by those who fuse behavioral signals from conversations, engagement trails and intent data into their forecast accuracy model.
What’s out? Sales force automation (SFA)-centric tech stacks that prioritize control over enablement. ISG asserts that through 2027, more than one-half of sales and revenue
What’s out? Standalone enablement platforms with lagging metrics and click-through rates. What’s in? Adaptive enablement flows that are personalized, performance-triggered and embedded in seller workflows. The best teams are already pivoting to coaching at the moment of need, with guided selling tools informed by historical win-loss insights and conversational intelligence. By 2026, forward-thinking CROs will no longer measure enablement by completion rates, they’ll track conversion lift and deal velocity per intervention. If enablement doesn't tie to quota attainment patterns, it’s dead weight.
What’s out? Compensation plans driven by spreadsheets and quarterly retros. What’s in? Incentive design platforms with scenario modeling and real-time performance triggers. AI is enabling the next frontier of incentive optimization, not just for sellers but across the revenue engine. Leading firms are already correlating incentive mechanics with churn, deal slippage and even seller attrition. What once took three quarters of analysis can now be simulated in hours. CROs should challenge their RevOps leads to surface pay-for-performance anomalies and use those insights to inform hiring, segmentation and even product-market fit. Static comp planning is officially out.
What’s out? A belief that RevOps is back-office. What’s in? Treating RevOps as the strategic growth engine that connects execution to board expectations. At high-maturity organizations, RevOps is not a report generator—it’s the control tower. These teams govern pipeline quality, go-to-market tech efficiency and growth scenario planning. ISG data shows that companies with mature RevOps programs outperform peers in pipeline accuracy by over 24% and reduce forecast variance by nearly 30%. That’s not tooling, it’s organizational design. CROs who embed RevOps leaders into strategic planning cycles, not just quarterly business reviews will be better positioned to pivot when the market shifts.
What’s out? Thinking enablement and operations are fixed functions. What’s in? Recognizing that go-to-market infrastructure must be as dynamic as your growth bets. Whether it’s shifting to consumption-based models, layering in PLG or expanding into indirect channels, the operational response must be flexible and scenario-ready. That means CROs must demand agility from their tech stack, their ops teams and their leadership approach. Organizations that can't simulate new models or re-forecast territory impact in real-time will struggle to justify go-to-market investments.
And what else is out? Silence between functions. The next-gen CRO can no longer operate in a sales vacuum. The walls between sales, marketing and customer success must be flattened, with shared metrics and shared accountability. A true 2026-ready mindset requires CROs to shift from sales ownership to revenue orchestration where performance is measured not just in bookings, but in customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiency, net revenue retention and go-to-market scalability.
The pace of change in 2026 will not slow down. The question for CROs is whether they’ll shape that change or be shaped by it. The “what’s in vs. what’s out” framing is more than a content hook, it’s a diagnostic. Walk through your current go-to-market stack, comp plan, enablement motion and forecast process. Which pieces still belong in 2018? Which ones point to 2026 readiness? And more importantly, do your people know the difference?
The future of revenue will not be run from a CRM tab or fixed QBR deck. It will be built through adaptive, intelligence-driven infrastructure, orchestrated by revenue leaders who know when to double down and when to pivot. Those who embrace this dual lens tech and mindset will define what it means to lead growth in 2026.
To start the year off, CROs should move from reflection to execution. Start by commissioning a cross-functional RevOps readiness audit that benchmarks data quality, integration architecture and AI-governance maturity. Next, identify two to three high-impact workflows—forecasting, enablement triggers, incentive modeling—and redesign them using real-time signals rather than seller-entered data. Establish a weekly CRO–CIO/CTO working session to accelerate decisions on integrations, shared definitions and API-first system upgrades. Finally, operationalize accountability: set clear owner-by-owner metrics for marketing influence, partner-sourced revenue and pipeline quality, and socialize these across the executive team. In two months, you won’t rebuild your revenue engine, but you can build the architectural blueprint, eliminate the biggest blockers and create visible momentum that boards and teams will feel immediately.
Regards,
Barika Pace