Overcome The Challenges Of Adopting AI In Sales And Boost Your Revenue
More and more businesses are turning to artificial intelligence to boost productivity and efficiency and to speed up a wide variety of work processes, but can AI in sales as well? Given that sales is arguably the business function most reliant on human interaction, it comes as a surprise that the answer is yes.
AI is having a huge impact on the sales process, for example, analyzing customer data to personalize product recommendations, pricing, and marketing messages, and boosting engagement and conversion rates. By providing insights into customer behavior, market trends, and sales performance, AI helps sales teams to make better informed decisions and optimize their sales strategies.
Adam Lyons, founder of Upsells.com, believes AI sales agents could be a game-changer for entrepreneurs who don't enjoy the sales element of running their business. He came up with the idea of building AI sales teams for businesses after realizing that people were turning to AI, not to handle mundane tasks, but for creative pursuits instead.
He says: 'That got me thinking; what is something that is regarded as a soft skill, a social skill, that AI would be very good at, and that humans don't like doing? The answer I came up with was sales.'
As he points out, AI doesn't mind doing the work and is extremely good at mimicking human emotion. ChatGPT 4.5 beat the Alan Turing test a few months ago, which means that when dealing with the highest-level AI, a human can't differentiate between whether they're communicating with an AI or another human.
'That means an AI can sell just as well as a human, with some exceptions,' says Lyons. 'An AI doesn't get tired or bored, and it's more than willing to keep a conversation going.'
However, integrating AI into sales processes has its challenges. Render3DQuick.com provides 3D rendering and architectural visualization services for residential and commercial projects. The company has been integrating AI into its sales process for some time and found one of the biggest challenges is ensuring the AI tools actually 'understand' the business and its clients.
Co-owner and manager Alex Smith says: 'Architectural visualization isn't a one-size-fits-all service. Every project is unique, and the way we communicate with clients must reflect that. Early on, I noticed that automated follow-ups sometimes sounded robotic or missed important context, which can be a turn-off for potential clients.'
Key to overcoming these challenges, he says, is the customization of AI tools, which involves working closely with developers to 'teach' the system about their industry, their typical project flow, and even their preferred communication style.
Other issues included training the team to trust and use the AI tools effectively. Smith focuses on showing them how AI can make their lives easier, not harder, for example, AI can handle repetitive follow-ups and schedule calls, freeing up the sales staff to build genuine relationships and focus on creative solutions for clients.
He says: 'Ultimately AI in sales is a powerful tool, but it's not a magic bullet. It works best when it's used to support and enhance the personal connections that drive our business.'
One of the challenges of integrating AI into sales is preserving the personal touch, including the tone and style of an organization's 'brand voice'. Chartered accountant Sam Hoyle uses AI, including ChatGPT, as a core element of her sales strategy at Harmony Accounting, where she works with female online service providers to help them scale profitably.
She says: 'I use it to draft sales page copy, map out launch content and write email sequences that move potential clients from interest to action. AI helps me articulate the value in a clear, compelling way, a lot faster. The main challenge has been ensuring the content sounds personal and aligned with my brand voice, which is warm, jargon-free, and straight-talking.'
Hoyle's best results are achieved by using AI as a first-draft tool, then refining and layering in the emotional connection that drives sales. 'It's helped me save hours on content creation and show up more consistently in my sales efforts, without ever compromising on authenticity,' she says.
Humanizing AI in sales
Until recently, replicating natural-sounding human conversations over voice was technically impossible. AI voices could sound robotic or awkward, especially in complex, lengthy sales calls, and people are twice as likely to trust a human voice over AI. This presented the sales function with its biggest challenge in harnessing the power of AI. But with advances in LLMs (large language models) and voice synthesis, forecasts predict that agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without any human intervention within the next four years.
Berlin-based startup Solda.AI is building fully autonomous voice agents with just a 1% detection rate, meaning almost no one realizes they're speaking with AI. Solda.AI agents are trained to handle the complete telesales cycle autonomously, calling 10,000 leads per day, managing follow-ups, handling callbacks, and closing.
The firm's content consultant Daria Kireicheva says: 'This trust enables real conversions. Our agents now close deals across sectors, from fintech to marketplaces, without human handoff. Sales involves long, branching conversations with real emotional intelligence, for example, handling objections, following up, and calling back. Existing conversational AI just wasn't built for that.'
Other challenges facing business leaders include integration of AI with existing systems and ensuring data quality and availability. Josh Pigford, CEO and founder of Maybe Finance, who has firsthand experience integrating AI into various aspects of business operations, including sales, says: 'Aligning AI tools with legacy systems or existing workflows can be a logistical nightmare. The solution is to invest in tools that integrate seamlessly with existing platforms, such as CRMs, etc.
'In terms of data quality, AI is only as good as the data it's fed. Ensuring clean, relevant, and sufficient data is a constant hurdle. Starting small with AI tools that solve specific pain points, for example, lead scoring or email personalization, before scaling up.'
Cost and resource allocation can also present challenges, especially for small firms looking to adopt AI in sales. 'For small businesses, the upfront investment in AI tools and the ongoing need for expertise can be a significant barrier,' adds Pigford. 'Leveraging open-source AI tools or platforms will help to reduce costs while still gaining valuable insights.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
a minute ago
- Fast Company
Meta spent $27 million protecting Mark Zuckerberg last year, more than any other CEO
The targeted murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December put the business world on alert. Companies beyond the insurance and healthcare industries began ramping up security for founders and CEOs, worried that Thompson's death (and some of the public's reaction to it), along with rising cyberattacks and death threats, could increase real-world risks for any business leader. That has led to a substantial increase in security spending, and a new study from the Financial Times finds that no company is spending more to protect its CEO than Meta. Security spending was up more than 10% last year at the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with $27 million spent to protect Mark Zuckerberg—$3 million more than in 2023. 'We believe that Mr. Zuckerberg's role puts him in a unique position: He is synonymous with Meta and, as a result, negative sentiment regarding our company is directly associated with, and often transferred to, Mr. Zuckerberg,' the company says in its 2025 proxy statement. Google parent Alphabet and Amazon also saw increases of more than 10% in protection costs last year. Altogether, the 10 major tech firms spent more than $45 million to protect their leaders. Meta's spending dwarfed all others. The next highest was Alphabet, which allocated $6.8 million to protect Sundar Pichai. Coinbase spent nearly as much, dedicating $6.2 million to guard CEO Brian Armstrong. The big question on many minds, though, is how much is being spent to protect Elon Musk, arguably the most polarizing of the tech CEOs. The answer isn't entirely clear. Only one of his companies, Tesla, is public, and it disclosed spending $500,000 to protect Musk last year (down from $2.4 million in 2023). SpaceX and xAI are private and did not disclose figures. Musk also owns his own security company, Foundation Security—described as a mini Secret Service, run in part by a former Army special forces weapons sergeant. While some companies have boosted spending, others have scaled back, perhaps due to one-time expenses in previous years. Here's what other corporations reported: Nvidia: $3.5 million to protect CEO Jensen Huang, up from $2.2 million in 2023 Apple: $1.4 million for Tim Cook, down from $2.4 million in 2023 Amazon: $1.1 million for CEO Andy Jassy, and $1.6 million for Jeff Bezos, an amount consistent for at least 15 years Palo Alto Networks: $1.6 million for CEO Nikesh Arora, down from $3.5 million in 2023 JPMorgan: $882,000 for CEO Jamie Dimon, up slightly from $866,000 in 2023 Some companies declined to break out their security costs but offered hints. Fox, for example, said it was spending more to protect CEO Lachlan Murdoch as partisanship grows. Lockheed Martin now requires its CEO to fly exclusively on private corporate jets. And Alex Karp, CEO of AI and military intelligence company Palantir, always travels with at least four bodyguards. For some executives, the threat is very real, and not always tied to corporate activities. Musk, for example, told shareholders last year: 'We actually did have two homicidal maniacs in the last roughly seven months come to aspirationally try to kill me.' The number of businesses protecting their CEOs continues to rise. Intelligence firm Equilar found that 34.4% of companies in the S&P 500 offered executive security last year, compared to just 28.2% in 2023. Median spending rose 6% overall, with an average of $105,749.
Gizmodo
a minute ago
- Gizmodo
Game Streaming Will Never Be the Same After Nvidia's GeForce Now Update
What if game streaming was your main way to play your games? That idea—once merely a pipedream—is inching closer to reality with Nvidia's latest update to GeForce Now. Come September, players will be able to rent out a server worth 100GB or more to play whatever game they want, so long as they already own it. Even with more games and better streaming visuals, streaming can't replace all your gaming gear. But if you were feeling antsy about how much that new PC upgrade or future console could cost, a $20-per-month sub may seem like a bargain in comparison. This 'Install to Play' feature will be available to all paying members of GeForce Now sometime next month. A publisher needs to 'opt in' to let their game be streamed remotely, so you may need to wait for your entire Steam library to be available. When the service is up and running, any compatible games can then be downloaded to a remote PC and played during a single session. But say you want to continue your game without needing to redownload it? Nvidia said it will allow users to effectively rent out 200GB of persistent cloud storage starting at $3 extra per month. More download space will cost more. Microsoft has made similar moves recently with Xbox Game Pass service. Subscribers can stream some select PC and console games they already own on the Xbox PC app. Compared to that, Nvidia's Install to Play could make a massive windfall of titles available to stream from any place with a good-enough internet connection. There are other streaming services like Shadow PC, which allow you to effectively rent out a remote PC and operate it like your own, but those can cost between $38 and $50 per month. If the streaming quality holds up, Nvidia's Install to Play, plus the already sizable library of games available to stream, could effectively max out your PC games library. GeForce Now already has apps on PC, Mac, and mobile, along with a dedicated application on Steam Deck. Nvidia also plans to release a specific app for the Legion Go S handheld with SteamOS. This version will allow you to play at 4K and 120 fps connected to a TV via HDMI. There are several major changes coming for those who subscribe to the GeForce Now Ultimate subscription. Everybody spending $20 a month will be able to access RTX 5080-level graphics capabilities through the cloud, a jump up from the previous RTX 4080. The new GPU will be hosted on Nvidia's servers at no additional cost to users. Finally, users will be able to play games at 5K resolutions. That will mean additional widescreen support for massive curved monitors like LG's 5K2K UltraGear monitors. The big benefit now for paying the $20 subscription is access to 'Cinematic' quality streaming mode. Essentially, the mode promises even better visuals than what you normally get with streaming. For those enjoying 100 Mbps download speeds, in-game trees will no longer look like a pixelated collage of stems and leaves. Streaming has the tendency to wash out colors and make details less distinct. Nvidia claims Cinematic quality mode will even make in-game HUDs and menus more legible. The mode could result in more accurate colors for games that support HDR, or high dynamic range, for better contrast between darks and lights. SDR content will still look better, but to a lesser degree. How much better performance you will get from various titles will depend on the game. In our tests of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, we saw the card could get around 8% better frame rates on average compared to the RTX 4080 Super. Nvidia has a bad habit of showing off multi-frame gen capabilities on its GPUs and comparing the improvements to older graphics cards. Multi-frame gen is a technique where the GPU can insert multiple generated frames in between two rendered frames, increasing the overall responsiveness of a game. Older GPUs like the RTX 4080 could only do 2x frame gen, while the 50-series can handle up to 4x. Yes, a GPU doing twice as much frame gen will result in higher frame counts, if that's the only thing you care about. There are drawbacks to frame generation. The technology can introduce small visual glitches that aren't there when the game is rendered fully natively. Frame generation also introduces latency between what you're seeing on screen and what's rendered by the graphics processing pipeline. Latency can be a real killer for game streaming, but Nvidia told Gizmodo it upgraded the CPU and memory in its SuperPOD servers with new technology, which will offset frame gen latency. Nvidia also changed its formula for data packets, the unit of data formatted for telecommunication networks, to 'intelligently,' which will result in fewer dropped packets. The company is working with major telecom companies like CableLabs and Comcast, as well as T-Mobile and its L4S network, for this new data technique. Look, Nvidia isn't going to go to communities and set up quality internet. GeForce Now still can't completely replace a console or PC, not when the service is so dependent on your home internet speeds. Late last year, Nvidia added support for 1440p streaming and the ability to save graphics settings between games. The rub was the new limitation of 100 hours of playtime each month. The company has yet to raise streaming prices, but when every major streaming service's prices are ballooning every year, you shouldn't expect to keep shelling out the same amount for much longer.
The Verge
2 minutes ago
- The Verge
Nvidia's app gets global DLSS override and more control panel features
The Nvidia app is getting improvements to DLSS override, more control panel features, and Project G-Assist changes this week. Nvidia has been gradually improving its new app over the past 18 months since its release, and it's getting closer to fully migrating all the legacy control panel options. This week's Nvidia app update will include anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, and ambient occlusion options, meaning you won't have to navigate to Nvidia's older control panel app to improve classic games. The setup tool for Nvidia Surround will also be part of the Nvidia app now. You also won't have to configure DLSS override features on a per game basis anymore, as Nvidia is now adding a global option. You can set your DLSS preferences across all override supported games, and Nvidia's overlay will also show which DLSS settings are active if you toggle this option on. Nvidia is also bringing its new Smooth Motion feature, which was previously exclusive to RTX 50-series GPUs, to all RTX 40-series owners. It's a driver-based AI model that enables smoother gameplay for games that don't support DLSS Frame Generation. Smooth Motion can be applied to games running with DLSS Super Resolution, at native resolution, or even titles with other upscaling technologies. Nvidia says it will typically double 'the perceived frame rate.' If you're a fan of Nvidia's G-Assist AI assistant, Nvidia is changing the AI model behind the scenes so it will use 40 percent less memory. The smaller footprint won't affect performance either, as it's designed to respond even faster to queries. These latest Nvidia app changes will arrive on August 19th for beta users at 9AM PT / 12PM ET, followed by a general release next week. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Tom Warren Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Nvidia Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PC Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
