AI, Automation, and the Modern Close: What Changes in 2026
As buyer expectations evolve and sales cycles compress, the way B2B SaaS teams close deals is being fundamentally rewritten. In 2026, winning is no longer about adding more tools. It will be about removing friction, increasing speed, and designing buying experiences that feel effortless.
This panel brings together founders and GTM leaders to explore how AI and automation are changing the entire sales journey. We’ll discuss where technology is improving discovery (from deal guidance, pricing, contracting, and buyer experience) and where human judgment still matters most. Expect real-world examples, honest tradeoffs, and practical ideas for building a sales process that scales without becoming impersonal or complex.
If you’re thinking about how your team will sell in 2026, this conversation will help you understand what’s shifting, what to rethink, and how to stay ahead of the curve.
Panelists:
Moderator: Andy Yeo | Salesbricks Head of Product
Panelists: Marty Kausas | Pylon CEO and Co-Founder
Naveen Kumar | KFC Ventures Managing Director
Meet our panelists:
Marty Kausas is the CEO and co-founder of Pylon, the AI-native support platform built for B2B. Pylon supports over 1000 customers today with a platform that helps teams scale their support, customers success, and other post-sales operations all in one place. A former software engineer turned CEO, Marty has built a following of more than fifty thousand on LinkedIn by sharing honest takes about building and scaling a company.
Alex Rosemblat is a seasoned B2B marketing executive best known for serving as Chief Marketing Officer at Datadog for over a decade. Starting as employee 11 and the first go-to-market hire, he helped scale Datadog from a fast-growing startup into a S&P component and leader in cloud monitoring and observability. During his tenure, Datadog expanded globally, launched over 20 products, and built one of the most recognized brands in modern enterprise software.
With deep expertise in product marketing, brand building, demand generation, and go-to-market strategy, as well as previous roles in Product Management and Sales Engineering, Alex has led marketing organizations through hypergrowth while maintaining a strong focus on data-driven execution and cross-functional alignment with sales and product.
Alex is widely known for translating complex technical platforms into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with both technical and business buyers. Today, Alex advises and supports high-growth technology companies on scaling marketing organizations, positioning, and category creation.
Naveen started KFC Ventures as a medium to invest globally in early and growth-stage startups. He founded the Nityo Group of Industries and has over two decades of experience in leading technology. His dynamic leadership style has made Nityo one of the fastest-growing Management Consulting and Technology Services companies globally. Before founding Nityo, Naveen held VP positions in Ness Technologies and Apar Infotech, gaining vital experience leading large businesses. He has an acute sense of identifying opportunities and an ability to nurture them into successful client-centric businesses.
Moderated by:
Hosted by:
Pylon is the support platform built for B2B. We bring together everything a post-sales team needs including a ticketing system, B2B omnichannel integrations (Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams), modern chat widget, AI knowledge base, AI agents, account intelligence, customer marketing, and more.
Salesbricks helps SaaS and AI teams close faster and bill smarter. One seamless platform for quoting, payments, and revenue insights.