Second Nature's sale coaching platform analyzes a simulated client conversation and identifies strengths and weaknesses of a salesperson's pitch. This is the dashboard a trainee sees after completing a simulation. Another assistant just got a significant chunk of money to make her name just as familiar. Jenny is a virtual assistant who specializes in training salespeople. Second Nature, the company that created this conversational robot, announced a $12.5 million round of investment Wednesday, Jan. 11 to build out the conversational artificial intelligence service.

As remote and hybrid work becomes commonplace, companies are investigating ways to train salespeople one-on-one virtually -- typically over video chat platforms like Zoom. Even before the pandemic, 59% of learning and development professionals were spending more of their budget on online training than in-person, according to LinkedIn. But not every department is devoting an equal amount of time to coaching, surveys show -- and this can be to the detriment of sales. A recent RingDNA report found that 45% of salespeople have received less coaching than usual or no coaching since moving to remote work during the pandemic. It's estimated that 75% of sales organizations waste resources due to random and informal coaching, besides, the opportunity costs being substantial.