People-Centric Leadership in an AI-First World: A CRO’s Guide for Sustainable Growth

As AI reshapes how we sell, strategize, and serve, one truth remains: you don’t grow revenue, your people do.

By Kelley Hippler, guest blogger

The Ways We Work

Volume 1, Number 3

The CRO Challenge in an AI-First Era

While dashboards and data have their place, it’s People-Centered Leadership that fuels performance. Not soft skills, but strategic ones. The kind that drive consultative selling, boost engagement, and unlock client loyalty.

Earlier this month, Mary Shea’s blog From Pink Slips to Power Plays: Make AI Your Next Teammate encouraged leaders to approach AI with curiosity and a growth mindset. Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) need to lead from the front here, which is a tall order given that they are receiving pink slips at an unprecedented rate. According to the Sales Benchmark Index, the average CRO tenure is just 19 months.

Many will feel pressure to replace headcount with technology to improve the bottom line. But those who do will miss the opportunity to drive engagement and build trust by adopting a strategy that leverages AI as both a tool and a teammate. Done right, this makes sellers more productive and ultimately drives sustainable growth.

Engagement Isn’t a Perk, It’s a Profit Driver

In North America, just 31% of employees feel actively engaged at work (Wellable, 2025). For CROs, that’s like tuning the sales engine with three flat tires. The fix is trust.

• 80% of employees say a trustworthy manager keeps them engaged

• Engagement drives retention. Retention drives profitability

• A 31% drop in attrition could flip your entire forecast

The Service-Profit Chain Still Wins

Harvard Business Review nailed this in 1994: Invest in your employees → they deliver better client experiences → clients stay and grow → your bottom line flourishes.

And yet, companies still miss this. They focus on efficiency and acquisition while ignoring the one thing that drives both: their people.

Instead of asking which jobs can be replaced with AI, the more strategic question is what tasks can be taken off the plates of sellers so they can spend time being truly consultative with clients.

I saw this firsthand at a recent event. A peer shared that despite good feedback on a sponsored event, there were concerns about renewing because many of the host company’s reps were openly venting about turnover and internal chaos. That’s the ripple effect of disengaged teams.

Leading Differently Starts with Listening

Start by inviting honest feedback, anonymized and facilitated by a third party. No matter how “approachable” you are, power dynamics matter.

At Forrester Research, upward feedback reshaped how I led. It was both uncomfortable and transformative.

Next, invest time in understanding your team’s experience. A few ways to learn what slows them down and what enables more client time:

• Sales Advisory Councils

• Virtual office hours

• Skip-level meetings

• Floor walks (yes, those still matter)

  
  

Consistent forums for connection reveal where the friction is, and where you can take sand out of the gears.

We measured rep productivity by the hour globally. These insights drove process and technology changes that freed time for client-facing work. AI fits here: note-taking, activity capture, client research, and customized presentations can all be streamlined. This gives reps back the hours they need to develop skills and build client trust.

Final Frame: Sustainable Growth Is Still Human

This isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters. As AI elevates sales strategy, the real differentiator is human. CROs who lead with trust, who connect employee and client experience, won’t just survive this shift, they’ll shape it.

Follow our journey at trymeerkat.ai and connect with us on LinkedIn to get the latest resources, insights, and updates.