Guest: Cliff Simon, CEO & Founder of Polaris Ops

AI may be everywhere in SaaS right now, but most go-to-market teams still are not ready to operationalize it.

In this episode of SaaS Backwards, Ken Lempit talks with Cliff Simon, CEO and founder of Polaris Ops, about what it really takes to make AI useful inside revenue operations. Cliff explains why pressure from boards, CEOs, and private equity firms is pushing companies to adopt AI faster than their systems can support it.

They dig into the real blockers to AI readiness, including poor CRM hygiene, undocumented business processes, disconnected data, and weak visibility into the customer lifecycle. Cliff also shares how leading teams are measuring AI impact through time saved, operational leverage, and even revenue contribution from RevOps.

The conversation also explores agentic AI in SaaS go-to-market, from lead routing and TAM analysis to signal detection and workflow automation. Along the way, Cliff highlights the security risks, vendor dependencies, and build-versus-buy decisions SaaS leaders need to think through before moving too fast.

Key takeaways:

Most SaaS GTM teams are being told to use AI before they have the operational foundation to support it
AI readiness starts with clean data, documented workflows, and clear success metrics
RevOps teams can become revenue contributors when AI is applied strategically
Agentic AI can improve routing, targeting, and automation, but only with human oversight
SaaS leaders need to weigh speed, security, and long-term ownership before deploying AI tools

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Ep. 193 - SaaS AI Readiness: Why Most GTM Teams Aren’t Ready for Agents