How Generative AI Will Change Sales

Last month, Microsoft fired a powerful salvo by launching Viva Sales, an application with embedded generative AI technology designed to help salespeople and sales managers draft tailored customer emails, get insights about customers and prospects, and generate recommendations and reminders. A few weeks later, Salesforce (the company) followed by launching Einstein GPT. Sales, with its unstructured, highly variable, people-driven approach, has been a laggard behind functions such as finance, logistics, and marketing when it comes to utilizing digital technologies. But now, sales is primed to quickly become a leading adopter of generative AI -- the form of artificial intelligence used by OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT) and its competitors. AI-powered systems are on the way to becoming every salesperson's (and every sales manager's) indispensable digital assistant.