AI is everywhere in tech sales right now. Demo decks are packed with it. Sales tools promise it. And leadership teams are under pressure to “leverage it” before competitors do.
But here’s the thing most vendors won’t admit: AI in sales is still very much in the “early adopter” phase. Some companies are seeing meaningful gains. Others are drowning in dashboards, overwhelmed by outputs, or simply… not seeing much impact at all.
So where are we, really?
Let’s cut through the hype, acknowledge the headaches—and figure out where the hope actually lives.
- Most sales teams aren’t ready for AI—because their fundamentals are still broken.
There’s a pattern I’m seeing across a lot of scale-ups and mid-sized tech firms: they’re rolling out AI tools into environments that still struggle with CRM hygiene, inconsistent messaging, and unstructured sales processes.
So what happens?
- AI ends up automating chaos. Creating faster noise. And serving up insights that no one’s sure how to act on.
- Take forecasting tools, for example. They promise “deal health scores” and “AI-driven close predictions.” But if your reps are inconsistent in how they log activities—or if your sales stages aren’t clearly defined—the outputs are unreliable at best, misleading at worst.
- AI doesn’t fix a broken process. It amplifies it.
Which is why I believe the companies seeing the biggest returns from AI right now aren’t the most tech-savvy. They’re the ones who’ve already nailed the basics.
They know what good looks like. So when AI starts surfacing trends, suggesting next steps, or flagging risk—they can trust it. Because it’s built on clean, consistent inputs.
In other words: before you plug in AI, fix the foundation.
- When used well, AI isn’t replacing reps—it’s freeing them up to actually sell.
Here’s the real hope: AI is helping good sellers sell more—by taking repetitive, low-value work off their plates.
The best implementations I’ve seen aren’t flashy—they’re practical:
- Call summarisation that actually works. Reps aren’t spending 30 minutes writing follow-ups or updating the CRM after every discovery.
- Account insights that go beyond job titles. Tools that surface intent signals, org changes, and buying triggers before the rep starts prospecting.
- Coaching enablement that’s actually used. Platforms that flag key moments in call recordings—objections, pricing pushback, competitor mentions—so managers can coach efficiently without reviewing hours of tape.
These are time-savers. Focus-sharpeners. Things that let reps spend more time in conversation, and less time in admin.
But the key is this: AI should enhance human judgment—not replace it.
Buyers still want connection. Still want context. Still want someone who listens, challenges, and guides.
AI can tee up the play—but it’s your reps who make the sale.
So what should sales leaders do now?
If you’re a Sales Director or CRO trying to navigate the AI landscape, here’s a great place to start:
- Audit the bottlenecks. Where’s your team spending time they shouldn’t be? What tasks are repeatable, low-risk, and ripe for automation?
- Get ruthless about use case over vendor hype. Don’t get sold on AI for AI’s sake. Focus on tools that solve real problems in your workflow.
- Upskill your managers. AI can give them better data and richer insights—but only if they know how to use it to coach and course-correct.
- Pilot, don’t plunge. Start with small test groups. Measure adoption, output, and feedback before rolling out org-wide.
At the end of the day, AI isn’t a silver bullet. It’s a set of tools. And like any tool, its value comes down to how (and why) you use it.
If we want AI to drive real impact in sales, we need to stop treating it like a trend—and start treating it like a system we design around.
That’s not hype. That’s leadership.
