Sellers are now being evaluated on "AI fluency."
So what does that actually mean?
In most cases, you're being measured on three things:
- Curiosity
- Judgment
- Impact
Most SEs are already strong in one or two of these.
Where many struggle is demonstrating #3 with tangible examples.
Here's how we define each:
- Curiosity: A desire to learn, experiment, and tinker
- Judgment: Knowing when (and when not) to use AI, understanding trade-offs, and being able to explain your decisions
- Impact: Creating measurable outcomes for your team, org, or customers (not just making yourself more productive)
Here's how that shows up in interviews
You'll hear questions like:
"How are you using AI in your professional and personal life?"
HMs at AI-native companies often care just as much about what you're building outside of work.
They want to hear that you're experimenting because you're genuinely curious, not because your employer asked you to.
You'll get exercises like:
Build an agent live or whiteboard a solution to a customer's problem.
(notice a lot of them are now live exercises, not just planned demos)
Interviewers aren't just evaluating the output.
They're evaluating HOW you think.
They're looking for someone who can sell and apply AI with good judgment and create measurable business impact.
The bar has already moved
Zapier's CEO shared their latest AI fluency framework, and it highlights something we're already seeing in interviews and performance reviews.
Companies don't just want you to use AI.
They want you to help define how they use AI at scale.
Instead of "I use AI to do X" (just ok)
They want "I built X that our team now uses to do Y and Z"
They want innovators, builders, and experimenters.
Which is a lot to ask IMHO.
Considering most companies are still figuring out their AI strategy 😅
Which is exactly where the opportunity is
But what's cool here is that you have a chance to differentiate yourself.
Even if you're the least experienced on your team.
Or the underdog in the candidate pool.
Because most people aren't doing much with AI.
Everyone's prompting.
Not everyone's truly building.
So how do you become THAT candidate or employee?
Here's a few ways to think about it:
- Stop getting overwhelmed "feeling behind" → just start experimenting
- Expect it to take 2x longer at first (you're learning + building)
- Turn anything you do twice into a repeatable workflow
- Share it. Get feedback and make your ideas visible.
- Think beyond yourself → make it usable for others
And those are the stories that get you hired and promoted.
Knowing how to prompt AI isn't the differentiator anymore.
Knowing when to trust it, when to challenge it, and how to turn it into real business outcomes is.
P.S. If you're updating how you evaluate AI fluency in hiring, I'd love to chat. We're building some resources for hiring teams right now.