Sales is a Judgement Game. Sales is a Creative Act.
Devi Jha, Co-Founder
July 27, 2026
4 min read
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Sales Is a Judgment Game
It’s mid-2026, and AI agents are being well adopted across certain verticals - software development is leading the charge by a mile. Coding and other industries like customer support are often treated as intelligence work. They require logic, pattern recognition, and the ability to solve defined problems inside a known system, all converging to the same output. There is usually a right answer, or at least a narrow range of good ones that can be taught to a model.
Sales is different. Sales is a judgement game.
It’s mid-2026, and AI agents are being well adopted across certain verticals - software development is leading the charge by a mile. Coding and other industries like customer support are often treated as intelligence work. They require logic, pattern recognition, and the ability to solve defined problems inside a known system, all converging to the same output. There is usually a right answer, or at least a narrow range of good ones that can be taught to a model.
Sales is different. Sales is a judgement game.
The Outcome Stays the Same
In sales, the objective is constant. You want attention, trust, a conversation, momentum, a meeting, and ultimately revenue.
But the path to get there is never fixed. It changes from company to company, and often from account to account within the company.
One prospect may respond to ads, then email, then a follow-up bump. Another may need direct outreach. Another may need a warmer introduction. Another may simply need time. Another may not move unless their agent recommends the next step.
The goal is always the same, but the route is not.
That is why sales is not a fixed process with a fixed answer. It is a creative sequence of decisions made inside changing conditions. Capturing that context is critical.
In sales, the objective is constant. You want attention, trust, a conversation, momentum, a meeting, and ultimately revenue.
But the path to get there is never fixed. It changes from company to company, and often from account to account within the company.
One prospect may respond to ads, then email, then a follow-up bump. Another may need direct outreach. Another may need a warmer introduction. Another may simply need time. Another may not move unless their agent recommends the next step.
The goal is always the same, but the route is not.
That is why sales is not a fixed process with a fixed answer. It is a creative sequence of decisions made inside changing conditions. Capturing that context is critical.
The “AI SDR” Blip
AI SDR failed because it misunderstood what selling actually is.
It treated sales like a process problem when a lot of sales is really a judgment problem. On paper, the workflow looks simple: find prospects, send an email, follow up, book the meeting. But in practice, none of those steps work in isolation. The right message, the right timing, the right channel, and the right amount of persistence all change depending on the account.
That is where the first wave of AI SDRs broke down.
They were built around the idea that sales could be standardized too early. If one sequence worked, the assumption was that the same sequence could be repeated everywhere. This reasoning combined with limited context being captured to train the model caused poor results by the agent.
Sales is not that uniform. A message that feels relevant to one buyer can feel generic to another. A follow-up that works in one market can feel pushy in another. A motion that creates replies in one category can create noise in another.
The problem was not just that the tools were imperfect. The deeper problem was that they tried to automate a motion before understanding the judgment underneath it.
AI SDR failed because it misunderstood what selling actually is.
It treated sales like a process problem when a lot of sales is really a judgment problem. On paper, the workflow looks simple: find prospects, send an email, follow up, book the meeting. But in practice, none of those steps work in isolation. The right message, the right timing, the right channel, and the right amount of persistence all change depending on the account.
That is where the first wave of AI SDRs broke down.
They were built around the idea that sales could be standardized too early. If one sequence worked, the assumption was that the same sequence could be repeated everywhere. This reasoning combined with limited context being captured to train the model caused poor results by the agent.
Sales is not that uniform. A message that feels relevant to one buyer can feel generic to another. A follow-up that works in one market can feel pushy in another. A motion that creates replies in one category can create noise in another.
The problem was not just that the tools were imperfect. The deeper problem was that they tried to automate a motion before understanding the judgment underneath it.
Sales is a creative act
Sales is a creative act because the best motions are rarely obvious in advance. They are usually discovered by reps in the field, then turned into something repeatable by passing on context and tribal knowledge across the team.
One company selling a developer tool realized that engineers often didn’t want to feel sold to directly; they wanted to feel like they had found the product themselves. So the team used a simple sequence: a one-line email to the engineer first, and if that person opened it, a follow-up to the VP of Engineering.
Another team found that running ads while reps were making calls made the company feel everywhere to SMB buyers, creating familiarity and trust that a single channel couldn’t. Another discovered that for a specific ICP - or even a specific account - immediate email paired with retargeting ads on the website was the right motion for their buyer.
None of these worked because they were universally correct. They worked because they reflected good judgment and context by the rep: noticing what changed the buyer’s perception, then encoding that insight into a motion that could be repeated.
Sales is a creative act because the best motions are rarely obvious in advance. They are usually discovered by reps in the field, then turned into something repeatable by passing on context and tribal knowledge across the team.
One company selling a developer tool realized that engineers often didn’t want to feel sold to directly; they wanted to feel like they had found the product themselves. So the team used a simple sequence: a one-line email to the engineer first, and if that person opened it, a follow-up to the VP of Engineering.
Another team found that running ads while reps were making calls made the company feel everywhere to SMB buyers, creating familiarity and trust that a single channel couldn’t. Another discovered that for a specific ICP - or even a specific account - immediate email paired with retargeting ads on the website was the right motion for their buyer.
None of these worked because they were universally correct. They worked because they reflected good judgment and context by the rep: noticing what changed the buyer’s perception, then encoding that insight into a motion that could be repeated.
Why agents matter
Agents become useful when they can execute that encoded judgment.
They are not valuable because they eliminate the need for thought. They are valuable because they can carry out the parts of the sales motion that have already been learned and structured by capturing context across salespeople.
The best use of agents is not to impose one rigid process on every company. It is to help each company store & scale the judgment it has already earned.
Agents become useful when they can execute that encoded judgment.
They are not valuable because they eliminate the need for thought. They are valuable because they can carry out the parts of the sales motion that have already been learned and structured by capturing context across salespeople.
The best use of agents is not to impose one rigid process on every company. It is to help each company store & scale the judgment it has already earned.
Revenue Agents on Cardinal
Coding and customer support are more intelligence-heavy because the work is more defined.
Sales is different. The outcome is constant, but the path is always changing and requires encoding the judgement of the best sellers to build revenue agents that outperform and evolve. That is why sales is a creative act, and why the companies that win are the ones that can turn their context into a repeatable system.
Coding and customer support are more intelligence-heavy because the work is more defined.
Sales is different. The outcome is constant, but the path is always changing and requires encoding the judgement of the best sellers to build revenue agents that outperform and evolve. That is why sales is a creative act, and why the companies that win are the ones that can turn their context into a repeatable system.
Account expansion
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The discovery framework that cut their sales cycle in half
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The best GTM teams sell differently than everyone else.
Design how you sell with Cardinal.
Stop Reading.
Start Running Plays.
Stop Reading.
Start Running Plays.
Stop Reading.
Start Running Plays.
The best GTM teams sell differently than everyone else.
Design how you sell with Cardinal.
The best GTM teams sell differently
than everyone else. Design how you
sell with Cardinal.
The best GTM teams sell differently than everyone else.
Design how you sell with Cardinal.
Stop Reading.
Start Running Plays.
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The AI Revenue Platform built for
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© 2026 Cardinal. All rights reserved.
© 2026 Cardinal. All rights reserved.
