Exploring the implications of Agentic AI for sales decision-making across product and service-oriented B2B firms in Germany

Sammanfattning

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, Agentic AI represents a key change from traditional supportive systems towards more autonomous technologies, which is programmed with goal-oriented decision-making with lesser human supervision. While existing studies have mainly focused on the technical capabilities of Agentic AI, there remains limited understanding of its managerial implication within business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, particularly across different business model contexts. This study addresses this gap by exploring how Agentic AI's growing autonomy influences managerial sales decision-making processes in product-and service-oriented B2B firms in Germany. According to that, the research question is: What are the implications of Agentic AI's autonomy on managerial sales decision-making processes and how do these differ between product-and service-oriented B2B firms in Germany? Understanding these implications can help managers make more informed decisions regarding the adoption, governance, and effective use of Agentic AI in sales activities. To explore this, a qualitative study was carried out using semi-structured interviews with eight knowledgeable B2B sales managers working in Germany. The collected data was evaluated through thematic analysis and by using the Gioia methodology, resulting in 13 first-order concepts, six second-order themes and three aggregate dimensions. These dimensions include: (1) leveraging bounded autonomy of Agentic AI in managerial sales decision-making, (2) exploring sectoral differences between product- and service-oriented firms through value co-creation, and (3) examining how Germany's national regulatory and organizational environment shapes AI adoption. The results reveal that Agentic AI will not be accepted as a full replacement for managerial authority but rather as a hybrid decision-support system where human supervision remains essential. Product-oriented firms would want to mainly use Agentic AI to increase efficiency, scalability, and process standardization, whereas service-oriented firms want to apply it more cautiously as a supportive tool that augments relational and customer-centric processes. Furthermore, Germany's regulatory environment, organizational conservatism, and governance structures significantly influence the context of AI autonomy. Based on these findings, the study proposes a conceptual model that extends current understanding of Agnetic AI by showing that its managerial implications are context-dependent, balancing technological advancement with human judgement, organizational trust, and strategic control. The study contributes theoretically, practically and societally by offering new insights into the responsible integration of Agentic AI within B2B sales management. Keywords: Agentic AI, B2B sales, managerial decision-making, Germany, product-oriented firms, service-oriented firms.