Overtime demands are backfiring on businesses, with new research showing that those who avoid doing extra hours are more likely to hit their sales targets and quotas.

CRM provider Pipedrive’s latest State of Sales and Marketing report found that last year, slumps in business performance saw just over half (57%) of salespeople reaching their sales targets, the lowest figure in five years.

But that meagre number comes despite many staff clocking in some considerable overtime. Pipedrive’s study, which polled more than 1,000 respondents in 82 countries, found that three-quarters (75%) of employees exceeded their planned hours, with many adding over twenty additional hours every week.

The survey reveals a trend of overtime creep year-on-year, with one in five (21%) working ten or more extra hours a week, compared to 16% last year. Digging deeper, almost one in ten (9%) of employees admitted to working more than twenty hours of overtime, compared to just 7% last year.

However, as with every other industry, AI could offer a solution to the overworked masses. 

Pipedrive found that 36% those already using AI in their sales and marketing work were saving an average of two hours every week, while another third were able to save between three and five hours on average.

For salespeople, AI is cutting manually intensive time sinks, like writing emails (74%), preparing sales materials (46%), transcribing calls (37%), and researching potential prospects or leads (35%).

Marketers, on the other hand, are using AI to help them produce creative materials more quickly, with tasks like generating social media posts (62%), or creating ad copy (58%), blog articles (56%), and images (43%). 

Just 5% of those surveyed said AI was saving them no time at all, but despite the productivity gains, Pipedrive found that 59% of respondents have not yet implemented AI in their sales or marketing processes. 

Fuelling concerns are data privacy, security and trust issues regarding AI outputs, with around 35% – 40% of respondents saying they don’t fully trust the results produced by AI.

Recommended reading

• NatWest Appoints Bank’s First Chief AI Research Officer
• Most Tech Workers and Execs Pretend to Know More About AI Than They Do
• AI Adoption Stumbles as Report Highlights Employee-leadership Disconnect

However, the bigger roadblock is the growing fear of AI displacement. Around 60% of all respondents have at least some concerns about AI replacing people, with 8% very concerned, despite only 6% having experienced a reduction in team size due to AI.

“On one hand, AI opens exciting possibilities: automating repetitive tasks, freeing up time, surfacing smarter insights and allowing teams to focus on building real customer relationships,” said Sean Evers, VP of sales at Pipedrive.

“On the other hand, not embracing AI puts companies at risk of falling behind in a highly competitive landscape. The real value lies in using AI to enhance – not to replace – the human side of sales and in building processes that help teams sell smarter and faster.”