S7E13 – Scaling SaaS in 2026: AI, Talent, and the Future of People Operations with Hotske Wesselius

Scaling SaaS in 2026: AI, Talent, and the Future of People Operations is becoming a core focus for growing B2B companies as AI reshapes how teams work, how customers buy, and how leaders build the next generation of SaaS organizations. In this episode of the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast, recorded live at SaaS Summit Benelux in Amsterdam, host Joran speaks with Hotske Wesselius about how AI will reshape scaling in 2026. With a background in marketing and a career shift into people and talent acquisition, Hotske supports SaaS companies in hiring and retaining top talent. Their discussion explores how AI is changing the buyer journey, customer success, people management, culture, team structures, search behavior, partnerships, go to market strategies, efficiency, and the overall pace of competition. The theme is consistent. AI will not remove the need for people, but it will transform how teams work, what skills matter, and how leaders manage and support their organizations. The episode also offers advice for founders at various revenue stages and the mindset shifts needed to thrive in a fast changing environment.

The Defining Factor for Scaling in 2026: An AI Mindset

When asked what will separate scaling SaaS companies in 2026 from those that stall, Hotske is direct. AI will change the entire organization. Companies will still need people, but in a different way. This begins with skills. Teams will need people who can collaborate with AI and AI agents. Technical fluency will become more important across roles. At the same time, leaders will need stronger human centered skills as AI takes on more cognitive and repetitive work. People leaders will focus on understanding, supporting, and enabling their teams to succeed. This balance between AI fluency and human leadership sits at the center of future growth. Underneath it is mindset. Teams must constantly ask where AI can take over and where humans offer the most value. Without that mindset, companies miss the real opportunity.

The Buyer Journey Is Changing Everywhere

AI is shifting the buyer journey at every stage. Search behavior is changing as buyers use AI tools instead of relying only on Google. Companies must ensure that the AIs their customers use can find and understand their product. Customer service will change as AI handles more repetitive questions. When customers face challenges, they often want quick answers, and AI can deliver them faster and more consistently. Leadership and internal operations are also affected. AI can analyze engagement and performance data, helping managers understand what is happening with their teams and enabling more meaningful conversations about what drives outcomes. The buyer experience, customer interactions, and internal processes will all evolve, not at one point but across the entire journey.

From Data to Dialogue: How AI Changes People Management

AI is already reshaping how leaders manage teams. Hotske highlights tools that analyze engagement and activity to help managers see results more clearly. This shifts conversations from metrics to understanding the human factors behind outcomes. Instead of spending hours reviewing dashboards, leaders can focus on the reasons behind performance. This is not about micromanagement. It is about using data to support better, more human conversations. With clearer insights, leaders can respond faster and more effectively to what their team members need.

Will Headcount Shrink or Simply Change

Predicting headcount changes is difficult. Hotske expects many cognitive tasks, like analysis and reporting, to shift toward AI because it performs these tasks faster and without fatigue. That will reshape roles. Where additional people will be needed is less clear. While AI can handle much of what we consider intelligence, humans still need to design, train, and develop AI systems. What is certain is that roles will evolve. Human work will shift toward judgment, leadership, and system design.

Culture in Motion: Smaller Teams and Intentional Design

Culture is always moving. Adding one person changes it again. Scaling companies must be intentional about culture because change is constant. Leaders should actively design the culture they want instead of letting it drift. There is also a structural side. If companies can grow with fewer people because of AI, culture may be easier to manage. Smaller teams reduce complexity. But when large companies pivot, such as moving from traditional SaaS to AI first, the mindset shift is significant. Aligning everyone requires deliberate effort.

Using AI to Improve Communication and Empathy

AI can also support better communication. Hotske shares an example of using ChatGPT as a personal coach to help reframe feedback when she felt emotional. The AI returned a kinder, more thoughtful version that changed the impact of the message. Even skilled people leaders experience emotion, and AI can help soften or clarify messages so they land well. This can go further. You can train AI on your team’s personalities and communication preferences. If you use color based personality types, you can feed these into your AI to tailor communication. A well trained AI can frame messages in ways that match how each person prefers to receive information.

Search, Discovery, and the Shift Away from Google

Buyer discovery is shifting beyond Google. More buyers will use AI systems to find answers and tools. Companies must ensure these AI systems can retrieve accurate and relevant information about their products. This introduces a new kind of discoverability. It is not about keyword optimization. It is about making sure AI agents understand your product and can match it to buyer intent. Discovery is changing fast, and companies need to adapt.

Efficiency and Growth: Finding the Balance

Efficiency remains central to scaling, and AI can help significantly. Many people are drawn to efficiency, even if not everyone wants to be highly optimized. The balance for 2026 lies in using AI to remove friction while maintaining a strong focus on growth. AI is a tool to scale what works. The most successful companies will make efficiency a habit while keeping their attention on the actions that move revenue and retention.

The Mindset for 2026: AI First and Human Focused

Founders need an AI mindset. The shift is already happening. Leaders should build the habit of asking where AI can take over and where humans add value. This becomes a simple but powerful decision making framework. Companies that embed this thinking will scale. Those that ignore it risk falling behind.

Educating Teams: Critical Thinking and Trial and Error

AI requires teams to maintain a critical mindset. There have been cases of AI content causing problems when not properly checked. The solution is cultural. Teams should encourage vulnerability, questioning, and experimentation. Trying things, sharing what works, and iterating remain essential. This mindset is not new, but it is more important than ever. AI adoption is not linear. Teams must build the habit of testing, refining, and trying again.

Go To Market in a Faster World: From Product Led to Partnership First

Markets move faster than before. There is less time for deep research and long planning cycles. Staying close to the market is essential. Leaders must stay connected to what customers and competitors are doing. Hotske highlights a shift toward partnerships earlier in the journey. Many companies relied heavily on product led growth, but with markets evolving quickly, working with partners who build complementary solutions may be a faster path. By partnering with others solving similar problems, companies can avoid building duplicate solutions and reach the market faster.

Sponsor Note: Efficient Growth Through Affiliate and Referral

The episode includes a sponsor message from Reditus, a platform that combines an in app referral program with an affiliate network of more than twenty thousand SaaS affiliates. It uses AI powered recruitment to find affiliates and offers a unified system for tracking, payouts, fraud detection, and migration support. The goal is to build a scalable growth channel without high upfront cost, which complements the episode’s broader theme of efficient, AI driven scaling.

Practical People Tactics: Training AI on Personalities and Communication

One of the most actionable tactics is using AI to tailor communication based on personality types. If you know your team’s profiles, you can feed that information into an AI system. The AI can help frame feedback and messages in ways that match how each person best receives information. This reduces friction and improves clarity. For direct communication cultures, the AI can soften messages while keeping them clear.

Rethinking Team Structure: Technical Fluency and Human Leadership

As AI takes over more cognitive and repetitive work, teams will need a different mix of skills. Companies will need people who can work effectively with AI and leaders who understand people deeply. This combination ensures teams can leverage AI while maintaining strong collaboration and leadership. Companies that invest in both capabilities will scale more smoothly.

Stage Specific Advice: From 0 to 10K MRR

For early stage founders, if you have found product market fit and can manage growth without burning out, you are in a strong spot. To double from there, consider whether you need someone beside you to drive more revenue or whether building an AI agent can take over part of your work. The question is about leverage. What addition will free you to focus on revenue driving activity.

Stage Specific Advice: From 10K MRR to 10M ARR

As companies move toward larger scale, the priority is understanding the root of success. Identify what is working. It may be a strong product in a growing market or a few niche customers driving results. Once you understand the driver, shift more time and resources toward that area. The path to scale is to find what works and double down.

Embracing Nonlinearity: Experimentation Over Perfect Planning

There is no linear path to scaling. Markets and AI evolve too quickly for perfect plans. The companies that win will stay close to the market, experiment often, encourage critical thinking, and treat AI as a partner for both efficiency and empathy. Culture must evolve intentionally. Trial and error remains the core method for learning and scaling.

Closing Thoughts: Build the Habit Now

The conversation repeatedly returns to habit and mindset. The practical shifts in search, customer service, people management, and go to market motion all rely on one discipline. Leaders must consistently ask where AI can help and where humans add value. This lens will guide decisions in 2026 and beyond. Companies that adopt an AI first mindset while staying human centered will be in the strongest position to scale. If you want to connect with Hotske Wesselius, she is available on LinkedIn. If you enjoyed the episode, the podcast welcomes subscriptions, guest suggestions, topic ideas, and sponsorship inquiries.

Key Timecodes

• (0:00) – AI Breakthrough Intro: B2B SaaS in 2026, Scaling, Buyer Journey, Customer Success, People Leadership
• (0:47) – Talent Secrets: Hotske Wesselius on Marketing, Recruiting, Hiring Top SaaS Talent
• (1:12) – Scaling Revolution: What Will Separate Winning B2B SaaS in 2026 (AI-Driven Orgs)
• (1:26) – Skill Upgrade: New Capabilities for the AI Era — Agents, Enablement, Leadership
• (2:13) – Buyer Shift: AI Search, Findability, and Customer Support Automation
• (3:11) – Data Reality Check: People Analytics Built on Engagement + Results
• (3:33) – Automation Wave: Headcount vs AI, Cognitive Tasks, Reporting, AI “Brain” Roles
• (4:31) – Human-in-the-Loop: Training, Building, and Governing AI Inside SaaS Companies
• (4:52) – Culture Reset: Designing Strong Company Culture in the Age of AI
• (5:29) – AI-First Shift: Changing Mindset at Scale (Miro Example)
• (5:56) – Leadership Hack: Using ChatGPT for Feedback, Tone, and Empathetic Communication
• (7:03) – Hyper-Personalization: Tailoring Communication via Personality Types (DISC)
• (7:44) – Empathy Engine: How AI Improves Manager Communication & Employee Experience
• (8:15) – Pro Tip: Use AI as Your Personal Empathy Coach
• (8:29) – Sponsor Spotlight: Reditus — B2B SaaS Affiliate & Referral Growth
• (9:25) – Efficiency Mode: Growing Fast in 2026 with AI Automation
• (10:05) – Mindset Shift: AI-First Thinking & the New Human Value-Add
• (10:54) – AI-Ready Teams: Critical Thinking, Experimentation & Guardrails
• (11:43) – GTM Evolution: Partnership-Led Growth vs PLG
• (12:58) – 0–10K MRR Playbook: PMF, Hiring vs Building AI Agents
• (13:37) – 10M ARR Blueprint: Diagnose What Works and Double Down
• (14:14) – Connect: Hotske Wesselius on LinkedIn for Talent & People Strategy
• (14:25) – Outro: Subscribe, Sponsorships, Guest Requests, Reditus Info

Transcription

[00:00:00.000] – Joran

Welcome back to the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast. Today, I’m joined by Hotske Wesselius, who started in marketing before moving into people and talent acquisition, helping SaaS companies to hire and retain top talent. In this episode, we’ll explore how AI will reshape scaling in 2026, from the skills companies need to how AI will change the buyer journey, customer success, people management, and team structure. We will also discuss how AI will impact search behavior, partnerships, go-to-market, efficiency, and the speed of market competition. So there’s going to be a lot in this episode. The episode is recorded live at SaaS Summit Benelux in Amsterdam. Without further ado, let’s dive in. Welcome to the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast. Could you quickly introduce yourself Who are you and what do you do, Hotske?

[00:00:47.320] – Hotske

Okay, so I’m Hotske Wesselius. I have a background in marketing, but I change to people and especially talent acquisitions. Yeah, that’s what I do. Hire the best people and retain them, please.

[00:00:58.160] – Joran

Well, let’s see. I guess we still need to hire people with AI coming up, but we’re going to dive into that. We’re going to talk about scaling. What do you think will separate the SaaS companies which are going to scale in 2026 and the ones which don’t?

[00:01:12.100] – Hotske

Well, you already said it. Ai is a big topic, so that’s going to change the whole organization. Yes, we absolutely still need people, but in a very different way.

[00:01:24.160] – Joran

Different way? What do you mean?

[00:01:26.120] – Hotske

Well, you need, say, different skills. The people need to be able to, say, better interact with the AI and the AI agents. You need people with pretty technical skills as well. But then the other side, people leading people need to be people that are much more into human-centered leadership. They need to know how to deal with the people.

[00:01:48.120] – Joran

We’re going to dive more into that as well. I guess if we take it one step back again. The path to scaling, I guess, a SaaS company will change. I think we got that. But if you look at the journey of a client, of the buyer journey, where do you think is the journey of a client, of the buyer journey? Where do you think it’s going to change the most? Is it, I guess, at the beginning where people find out about your product, or is it the sales part? Is it the customer success part? How things will change per?

[00:02:13.620] – Hotske

At the end of the day, I think on every part because the whole search changes by itself. People start searching very differently. It’s not Google anymore, but it’s via AI, so you need to make sure that all the AIs that they are using can find your product. But of course, it’s also the customer service. There’s a lot of repetitive questions that come in that can easily be answered. At the end of the day, when someone has a problem with your product, they don’t want to talk to a person so much. They just want the answer. It’s also going to change there a lot. But I believe that also in managing people, it can change a lot. I already see some AI tools that help leaders to better understand what’s going on with people and that help them analyze the human behavior and helps them then to set their people up for success by giving them already the data.

[00:03:05.320] – Joran

The data about how somebody behaves, or is it the data what they did during the day? How can we see that?

[00:03:11.570] – Hotske

Well, I think at the moment, it’s mostly about the engaging, so how much, how active they are, or what actions. I think it’s also easier to see the results of it, so you can really talk about what’s behind the results instead of go through all the numbers, all the conversion rates yourself as a leader.

[00:03:33.440] – Joran

When we talk about people, we know AI will change things. We know, I guess, automation will have impact on scaling. Will it reduce headcount or are we just going to find different type of people who can manage the AI, as you mentioned.

[00:03:48.240] – Hotske

I find that very difficult to predict, to be really honest, because I think a lot of, say, very cognitive tasks, like analyzing or reporting, that these jobs are completely going to change because you have crazy brains in an AI that can do things much quicker and much better and without any exhaustion, without any holidays. That’s going to change where we will need more people that I find very difficult to predict because I think part of what we as humans, the intelligence part, can be taken over quite a lot. But we still need people to train and build these AIs.

[00:04:31.230] – Joran

I think people is a big concept in what you do on a daily basis, and we now established you can leverage data to manage people. But do you think it’s also going to affect the culture of a company? Because we get more data, we have things trained. We want to be more productive, more efficient. The culture is going to change with that as well, right?

[00:04:52.620] – Hotske

Well, the culture is always changing. As soon as you add just one person, the culture is already changing. It’s always evolving, and especially when you’re scaling. You have to be very intentional also about it because it’s not a problem that the culture is changing. You just have to be intentionally thinking upfront about how you want that culture to be. I think if you can run a smaller company, in a sense, a growing company with less people, I think it’s easier to maintain the culture or to manage the culture because it’s less people, too.

[00:05:29.150] – Joran

That’s as well, right? The more people you have, the harder it is to change your culture, the harder it is to change mindset. I did an event at Miro, big company, and they went from traditional SaaS to AI first. They needed to change a lot of mindset from different people to actually get them on board. Do you have any experience or any thoughts about that? Changing the mindset of people within the company to go, for example, AI native and really go for it?

[00:05:56.980] – Hotske

The AI does also help to, say, improve culture. The other day, I was wanting to give feedback to someone. I must admit, a little bit mad, and I had quite some emotions about it. Then I thought, Okay, let’s first check with my personal coach, Chet G. P. T. Chet G. P. T, she refrained it so nicely that I thought like, Wow, if I would have said it myself with all my emotions, I’m sure that it would have landed completely differently. Then now I said it in a more nicely human way. I must admit that I was pretty shocked myself about it because I think I’m really good with people, but I’m also a person with emotion. In that sense, if you add more AI in your company and you also let AI help on your people management skills, it can help you to soften messages, tell it differently. You can also train AI on your people and how they are and personality types they are. You can frame your messages really tailor-made to the person you’re talking to.

[00:07:03.090] – Joran

That’s interesting. I have folders for everything, like our positioning, like the podcast, how to write newsletters, things like that. But I never actually thought about this to almost create folder for your people.

[00:07:17.040] – Hotske

Yeah. People have their own personality types, their own way of talking. I think a lot of people know these colors, blue, yellow, red, and green. But if you already feed it into your AI, you don’t have to think about it yourself anymore.

[00:07:32.880] – Joran

This is a good trick, right? I think we all, especially SaaS founders, look at how to grow and how to do certain things and how to become more efficient, but not actually take the human aspect into it.

[00:07:44.070] – Hotske

Well, that’s a funny thing because a lot of people say, Yeah, AI, it’s a machine, it’s a robot. Then I started training, at least by AI, on how to say this kindly. I think also by default ChatGPT says, Hey, this is a really good remuner. Really nice question. It’s much nicer to talk with them sometimes, to be honest. My manager was like, Do this, do that. It’s built in to be more… I cannot find the word. Empathetic. Yeah.

[00:08:15.630] – Joran

Nice. Sorry. You can almost have your own empathy coach just by giving it what you want to say, probably very direct as Dutch people are, and then it will just write it out a bit more.

[00:08:26.320] – Hotske

As long as you train it well and you feed it well.

[00:08:29.540] – Joran

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[00:09:13.960] – Joran

When we look about scaling companies, and especially, I guess, efficient growth has been a hot topic. How do you see the balance going in 2026 between efficiency and still focusing on growth?

[00:09:25.630] – Hotske

Well, in your growth journey, efficiency is always a big topic, and I think AI can super help in that. I think people are also intrigued by that. I think most people like efficiencies as such. Nobody wants to be super efficient.

[00:09:46.800] – Joran

I think with all the changes now, you need to have a different mindset, I guess. I mean, first it was really traditional. Now so many things are changing. If you have to give somebody advice and say, You really need to have this mindset if you want a skill in 2026, what would you say? What would you recommend to SaaS owners?

[00:10:05.340] – Hotske

Well, you have to have, I believe, an AI mindset, first of all, because that is the big change in the world, and it’s happening right now. It’s not anymore like how will we do it? But most are already doing it. You need to have it like your habit to think like, Hey, where can AI take this over? Where does the human then add value? You’re missing the game if you’re not in that mindset.

[00:10:30.660] – Joran

Then if we talk about people, it’s also a bit of education. You’ve seen, I think, the LinkedIn post or the stories where all these consultancy firms, they charge a lot of hours and a lot of things were AI written and found out that some quotes weren’t true. How do you educate what you can and cannot do with AI? Should we educate? How do we make sure that things still are good enough, I guess?

[00:10:54.620] – Hotske

I think one of the most important skills you need is to have a critical mindset and to be able to be questioned and be questioned. So don’t be shy to be vulnerable. Speak it out, try things, but also don’t be afraid if it doesn’t work. I think that is still the same, just the trial and the error. Why can’t you just try to use AI? And if it’s not working, and if it’s not showing the results, then take it back, try it again.

[00:11:24.470] – Joran

Yeah, so in the end, running a company normally, experiment, and then figure out what is working.

[00:11:29.390] – Hotske

There is no It’s a linear path. There’s no…

[00:11:31.820] – Joran

When we talk about scaling or growing or go-to-market, what is one growth loop which you think is going to be super powerful for SaaS companies to leverage in 2026? Or is there any you can even think of?

[00:11:43.800] – Hotske

One of the most important things is still don’t forget to go out, see what’s going on in the market. I think a lot of focus on the product, also busy on doing this. But yeah, the market is changing now much faster than before, so you don’t have time to fully research and analyze everything. Keep your pulse in what’s going on and what’s out there, because it doesn’t make sense all of us to build products next to each other. I think now you go into partnerships much quicker. I think a few years ago, it was really like all product first, product led companies, product led growth. As long as we have our free trial products and they adopt it and they will be ambassadors about it, we will grow our company. I think now it’s like the partnership first. Who knows to partner quickly enough with others that are building similar products or complementary products. I think that’s it. Who has similar ways of solving. No, not similar ways, but has different ways of solving the same problem and whom can you partner with.

[00:12:44.430] – Joran

Nice. Final two questions which are more revenue-related questions, the famous questions from the podcast. If you could give advice to a SaaS founder who’s just starting out and growing from 0 to 10K monthly recurring revenue, what would you tell him or her?

[00:12:58.320] – Hotske

Well, if you already found your product market fit and you can do it yourself, it doesn’t cost you your whole life, then I would say, wow, that’s already amazing if you’re already there. If you want to grow it to doubling it, then you need to think, Okay, where’s the success? Should I add someone next to me, I don’t know, in finding more revenue because it’s already pretty clear who’s our customer, or should I build an AI agent that can take over part of my job?

[00:13:27.240] – Joran

Yeah, because that was going to be the next question, I guess. If you then get to 10K MRR, what advice would you give SaaS founders who are on the way growing to 10 million ARR?

[00:13:37.020] – Hotske

You need to figure out, Okay, what’s my success? What’s causing my success? What’s the root of my success? Is it already the great product and there’s just an open market? Or is it, I found a few very niche customers that bring my success? Yeah, so you need to dig into that. Where can you release your time so that you can focus even more on finding this right spot?

[00:14:03.090] – Joran

Knowing what’s working and doubling down on that.

[00:14:05.700] – Hotske

Yeah, that would be a predomin opportunity.

[00:14:07.450] – Joran

Thank you for coming on. Thank you. If people want to get in contact with you, how can they do so?

[00:14:14.400] – Hotske

Yeah, That easy as it is. I think Linkename, Hotske, Veselius, and that’s him.

[00:14:19.320] – Joran

We’re going to add a link so people can just click it so they don’t have to spell it. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, Hotske.

[00:14:24.560] – Hotske

Okay, you’re welcome. Cheers.

[00:14:25.940] – Joran

Thank you for watching this show of the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast. You made it till the end, so I think we can assume you like this content. If you did, give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel. If you like this content, feel free to reach out if you want to sponsor the show. If you have a specific guest in mind, if you have a specific topic you want us to cover, reach out to me on LinkedIn. More than happy to take a look at it. If you want to know more about Reditus, feel free to reach out as well. But for now, have a great day and good luck growing your B2B SaaS.