AI in sales. Opportunity or threat?
“Deals are taking forever. Selling is getting more complicated. AI in sales isn’t really on my radar.”
How would you sum up selling in 2025?
This is what we are hearing from senior leaders, so let’s unpack it.
Is it taking longer to close sales deals?
Yes, there’s a lot of evidence that deals are taking longer. It’s a function of many factors, with the key ones being:
- It’s a tough market. Business is hard-won right now so organisations are cautious about non-essential purchases
- Multiple stakeholders. The number of decision-makers needed to sign off a purchase certainly isn’t getting shorter
- Product complexity and self-service buyers. There’s a twin thread here about more research being needed before committing to buy – alongside buyers choosing to do their own research before contacting sellers. Selling actually comes later in the process than it used to
Selling is getting more complicated
We do love simplicity. And you can take a very simple view of this assessment. People buy from people, and nurturing relationships will always stand your sales line in good stead.
But study the points above and it’s undeniable that the process of selling is getting more complicated.
You’re increasingly obliged to deal with buyers across a multitude of sales and marketing channels. That adds both complexity and cost. Buyers, not sellers, are calling the shots on this.
This challenge is amplified when multiple stakeholders expect you to tailor information and messaging to their individual needs, on their timescale.
AI in sales isn’t really on my radar
Of those three observations about selling in 2025 this is the one that worries us most.
When we hear talk about AI in sales, most leaders are thinking about using ChatGPT to write LinkedIn posts or polish up emails. It’s really helpful for that. But it misses the bigger point.
Corporations (Enterprises if you call them that) are all over AI in selling. They’re not using AI to save a few minutes on admin or research tasks. They’re using it as a revenue driver.
If you’re a medium-sized business in that next level down it’s time to fight back. In a tough market you can’t allow the biggest players in your sector to hoover up share.
How are these corporations using AI to drive sales? They are creating agentic tools that help
- Qualify leads faster and more accurately
- Spot buying signals you’d otherwise miss
- Automate personalised follow-ups
- Provide real-time coaching to sales teams during calls
- Analyse deal progression and predict where to focus effort
[“Agentic AI” refers to automated tools that you train to carry out your low level sales activities. In old tech you might think of them as the sales execs or sales admin who free up time for your top performers to spend more time selling]
Once you realise this is what your biggest competitors are up to it’s obvious that using ChatGPT to polish LinkedIn posts is as good as surrendering.
The good news is that it’s still early days for AI. Here’s how you can embrace it to move forward faster in 2026.
1. Sales strategy: Define AI as a sales growth driver
This is the start point from which everything else flows.
It focuses the minds of your cross-functional team on why it’s important, and their role in customer success.
It gives your sales team the framework to start experimenting and licence to learn.
This in turn highlights the importance of having a clear policy on AI use. It’s something both your customers and your team need to know. There are some key decisions wrapped up in this strategic approach:
- Sales and Marketing strategy that prioritises the tools your team are supposed to use – and which are off limits
- IT strategy giving absolute confidence you’re ringfencing the security of customer data
- People strategy setting out how you’re supporting the team (not taking away their jobs!) by having them embrace new tools
- Customer strategy assuring them that their interests remain at the heart of your selling approach
2. People strategy: Ensure excitement trumps fear
You don’t have to look far to see speculation that AI will result in job losses in any given function or sector. As usual, headlines can be misleading.
All the same, your team needs to know that AI is here to enhance their role, not eliminate it. The best salespeople have always been relationship builders and strategic thinkers. AI handles the grunt work so they can do more of what they’re actually good at.
Most sales teams complain that account admin and internal systems stop them from doing the “real” job of selling.
AI offers a genuine opportunity to remove some of this internal-focused distraction and replace it with more time spent with customers.
It will challenge some of your people for sure. You’ll realise some used the admin excuse to hide not being all that effective. And this is where AI can help you with training.
There are already tools that create numerous training interventions in the sales process:
- Identifying which sales tools are used by which sales person and which customer
- Tracking customer responses to identify buying signals or causes of discontent during sales calls (virtual calls, obviously)
- Providing prompts for follow-up questions based on customer behaviour in the meeting
If you can measure the proportion of time sales people spend with customers, and the improvement they make in sales effectiveness, then you have the basis of a compelling people strategy.
3. Tools: Integration beats innovation
The positive with AI is that you don’t need a costly IT investment to start using it. It’s not like that wave of CRM systems that swept the market a couple of decades ago with ludicrously expensive set-up and seat fees.
The real value comes from weaving AI capabilities into your existing processes and systems. Your CRM, your email platform, your call recording system: The tools your sales team are already using.
You don’t need to buy a new workshop, you need to sharpen the tools already at your disposal.
This in turn means you shouldn’t look to upgrade everything at once.
Identify one sales process or measure that can be improved and focus on that.
Maybe your priority is
- A CRM assistant that identifies insights from your existing data
- Meeting intelligence tools that automatically capture action items and tell your team what could be better next time
- Email automation that personalizes at scale while staying human
- Proposal and content generation that personalises your approved materials
Large corporations have already made their choice. They’re investing in sales enablement and AI because it delivers measurable ROI. They’re closing deals faster, identifying better opportunities, and freeing their best sales people to do what they do best.
You can’t match their budgets. But you can move faster, with less bureaucracy, and with more focus.
The question isn’t whether AI will transform sales. It’s whether you’re shaping that transformation or explaining it in retrospect to your board.
The bus is leaving but it’s not too late to get on board.
If you want to explore how use AI as a sales growth driver then get in touch with us.