Welcome to Agentic GTM: The AI Revolution in Sales

Tim Zheng, CEO and Founder of Apollo.io, unveiled the transition of AI in sales from hype to reality during the ApolloNEXT keynote on October 9, 2025.

This event marked the launch of Apollo’s next-generation, end-to-end agentic go-to-market (GTM) platform, introducing a transformative approach called “Vibe GTM.”

Drawing parallels to “vibe coding” in engineering—where complex software is built through casual conversation—Zheng positioned Vibe GTM as a way to make sophisticated sales and revenue operations accessible to anyone, from solo founders to enterprise teams, without requiring specialized skills or trade-offs between scale and quality.

The Shift from AI Hype to Reality in Sales

Zheng highlighted how traditional GTM processes are plagued by complexity, disjointed tools, and manual drudgery, forcing teams to choose between volume (e.g., blasting generic outreach) and conversion (e.g., personalized but time-intensive efforts).

AI has long promised to fix this, but early tools often fell short—impressive in demos but disconnected in practice, limited to single functions like email generation or basic automation, and unable to handle real-world messiness like inaccurate data or evolving strategies.

The reality emerges with agentic AI: systems that don’t just assist but autonomously execute multi-step tasks, adapting in real time while staying connected to high-quality data and tools. Apollo’s platform achieves this by unifying everything under one roof, powered by an “Agentic Engine” that turns plain-English instructions into complete revenue motions.

As Zheng stated, “AI has rewritten what’s possible. Look at what’s happening in engineering. ‘Vibe coding’ now lets anyone build software through simple conversation.” He emphasized that this isn’t futuristic hype—it’s deployable now, with early adopters like RapidSOS using it to identify lookalike accounts and book meetings in minutes during a commute, reducing manual research by 70% and boosting efficiency by 300% in some cases.

Key Features of the Agentic GTM Platform and Vibe GTM

Vibe GTM reimagines sales as “as easy as texting a friend,” where users converse with the system to design and run campaigns. The platform integrates five core pillars, all agentic (meaning AI agents handle reasoning, planning, and execution):

• Agentic Engine: The core co-pilot that scales conversions as volume grows. It includes “AI Projects” (smart workspaces for defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs), messaging, and strategies) and a Prompt Library for building end-to-end workflows. For example, a prompt like “Find me qualified accounts and launch a personalized sequence” triggers the system to match prospects, research buying signals, score leads, and generate outreach—all in minutes.
• Agentic Outbound: Automates demand generation with tools like Waterfall Enrichment (pulling from multiple data sources for 5% more emails, 7% more phones, and 45% fewer bounces), a Deliverability Suite (for mailbox warming and optimization), and a Parallel Dialer (handling multiple calls simultaneously with AI-generated prep notes). This eliminates manual list-building and boosts outbound efficiency.
• Agentic Inbound: Converts website intent into pipeline instantly by shortening forms (boosting conversions by 40%), identifying anonymous visitors, enriching data, and routing leads automatically. It bridges inbound and outbound for seamless funnels.
• Agentic Deals (Deal Execution): Handles meeting prep (generating insights and talking points), post-call summaries, automated follow-ups, task creation, and CRM updates (e.g., to Salesforce or HubSpot). This reduces non-selling busywork, which Zheng noted consumes 70% of sellers’ time.
• Data Enrichment: Provides always-updated, AI-researched profiles for accurate prospecting, ensuring agents work with reliable intel rather than outdated databases.

Built on Apollo’s foundation (used by over 2 million professionals and powering $150M+ in ARR), the platform launched with a beta AI Assistant that attracted 10,000+ users in three weeks. Zheng explained its agentic nature: “What ‘agentic’ really means for go-to-market” is AI that performs complex, long-horizon tasks autonomously, like a full sales workflow from prospecting to close.

Real-World Impact and Framework for Adoption

In the keynote, Zheng shared a fireside chat with Glean’s VP of Enterprise Sales, Ryan Priem, who described how the platform amplifies high-value work by removing friction—leading to 3x more meetings, 23% more sales-qualified opportunities (SQOs), and 20% higher win rates.

Zheng offered a practical framework for teams: Identify friction in your funnel, quantify its revenue impact, define AI-driven outcomes (e.g., faster pipeline generation), and build a “future state” where AI handles rote tasks while humans focus on relationships.

As Zheng concluded, “The future of go-to-market has arrived. It’s Vibe GTM, and it’s for everyone.” This launch positions Apollo as a pioneer in making AI actionable for sales, moving beyond isolated tools to a cohesive system that delivers measurable ROI.