Q1 2025 AI in Sales Insights Pulse Report

AI won't take your sales job, but someone else could.

Key insights show that it’s time to adopt AI or fear falling behind.

📊Key Themes:

• Does AI actually improve quota attainment?
• Where AI still falls short (and why humans still win)
• What top-performing AI-powered reps do differently

In 2025, the AI market is estimated to be around $638 billion*. AI usage in sales is no longer just a buzzword; it’s a full-blown revolution. To get an idea of what’s going on with AI in 2025, and specifically within sales, we surveyed sales professionals across various industries to uncover what’s working for them, what’s still frustrating, and where AI is truly making an impact.

The results? A staggering 92.5% of sales pros surveyed now use AI daily. The issue; many still struggle with fundamental challenges like finding accurate data, current contact info, personalizing outreach, and hitting quotas. The results confirm what many have suspected: AI isn’t replacing human connection—it’s redefining how businesses and specifically sales teams operate.

One thing is true today, AI will not replace humans in sales any time soon because of the relationship-building that’s required during the sales process.

But here’s the real question: Is AI being used in sales to its fullest potential, or do sellers feel they are leaving opportunities on the table?

While most AI research focuses on broad, general use cases across broad industries over an extended period of time, the Seamless.AI Q1 2025 AI in Sales Insights Pulse Report is different. Instead of offering vague insights, we went straight to the source, surveying sales professionals actively using AI to uncover how it’s transforming real sales workflows in real-time.

This insights report goes beyond the hype of AI as a trend, cutting through speculation to reveal the real impact of AI in sales today. If you’re in sales, this isn’t just another AI report, it’s your AI insights playbook. Whether you’re an AI skeptic or a power user, you’ll walk away with highly relevant, sales-specific insights to sharpen your strategy, optimize your workflows, and future-proof your sales success. 

AI in Sales: Game-changer or more hype?

Artificial intelligence is incredibly popular. Looking at Google Trends data** shows its meteoric rise from nearly nothing to total US coverage in just the past 5 years. 

AI tools are some of the hottest and most sought after tech on the market today. Everywhere you look today consumer products are being incorporated with AI, and while image generators and content producing, like ChatGPT, are highly reported trends, there are tools that are helping sellers close more deals and drive revenue, or just automating busy daily work. 

From prospecting and writing emails to predicting which leads will close (and even creating social media trends like roasting your SaaS product), AI-powered tools promise to make life easier for sales reps.

But does AI stand up today, really? Are we talking revolutionary impact or just modest amusement to fill the day with more technology? Can AI help sellers hit quota, or is it just adding more noise to an already crowded tech stack? We want to hear straight from the horse's mouth.

So, we went to the source. We surveyed top-performing sales pros to uncover:

• Top AI tools sales teams are using today
• AI’s impact on sales quota attainment 
• Sales-specialized AI vs general AI tools (ChatGPT)
• AI’s shortcomings (and why humans still win)
• Future of AI in sales

Keep reading for more interesting trends, a few surprises, and key actionable insights that could change the way you sell in 2025.

Here are the top 6 AI sales trends in Q1 2025:

💡A clear majority of sales professionals (92.5%) have integrated AI into their daily activities. If you are among the other 8% you might need to get caught up and trained on new technologies.

💡More people are using general AI tools vs sales-specialized AI, but the argument for sales-specialized AI tools is gaining traction. Gen-AI is helpful, but AI agents are next level.

💡Sales teams aren’t just using AI to craft outreach. They’re using AI to drive revenue. Prioritize returns and track progress to see gains in specific areas.

💡AI levels the playing field for SMBs against enterprise giants. But individual practical fluency trumps company size in sales AI success. 

💡AI is redefining how we measure sales success. When everyone knows the same song it becomes about how we play it.

💡While sales teams are confident in AI’s personalization abilities, they don’t trust AI’s emotional skills. There are times when AI has hallucinations and hiccups. 

AI in Sales Report Details

Use this report to:

• Benchmark your own AI adoption against other sales teams
• Identify efficiency gaps in your sales process
• Discover new ways to integrate AI effectively into your workflow

We’ve broken down the findings into actionable insights so you can take what we’ve learned and apply it directly to your sales strategy.

Survey Participant Profiles

To get a diverse and balanced understanding of how sales professionals are using AI so far in 2025, we chose to do a mixed research method using SurveyMonkey. 

Sales Roles

Research findings are based on a survey conducted in February 2025. With about 100 survey respondents, the survey captured responses from individuals across 19 unique roles in the sales industry.

‍40% of our respondents hold C-suite, VP, or Director titles, including CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, and CTOs. ‍

About 30% of respondents worked in individual contributor roles including account executives (AE), business development representatives (BDR), sales development representatives (SDR), sales managers, team leads–plus a few marketers. 

And the tertiary audience includes “solopreneurs” (solo business owners) and a few startup founders.

While most research about AI takes a broad approach to how the general masses use generative AI for various use cases. The Seamless.AI Q1 2025 AI in Sales Insights Pulse is unique because we focus on AI use cases within sales. 

Focusing on sales professionals who already adopted generative AI in their workflows, we were able to identify key trends and actionable insights that are highly relevant and specific to the AI transformation of sales across the board.

Sales Industries

There were no restrictions on the type of industry that each audience worked in or what their target industry was to ensure a diverse understanding of how AI is impacting different industry niches, but the main industries the audiences operate in were B2B SaaS, marketing, research, AI, and finance. The main industries that the audiences sell to include healthcare, real estate, construction, and general B2B organizations.

We found that survey respondents associated with organizations ranged in size including enterprise, medium-sized, small-sized, and smaller businesses. We identified organizations as enterprises if they had over 500 employees, medium-sized businesses with 201-500 employees, small-sized businesses with 51-200 employees, and smaller businesses with 1-50 employees. 

‍The bulk of survey respondents work for/associate with small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with 200 employees or less. There were no restrictions on company size to ensure a fair understanding of the AI playing field amongst all company sizes.

Top Sales Challenges

Before diving into AI’s role in sales, we first asked respondents about their biggest challenges in general: the obstacles that slow them down, limit their success, and make their jobs harder. The results revealed clear patterns.

The two biggest struggles? Wasted time on non-revenue-generating tasks and difficulty hitting quota. These overarching pain points break down into six more specific challenges that sales professionals face daily…

Top 3 Time-Consuming Challenges for Sales Professionals:

1. 49% have a hard time finding accurate contact information. 
2. 43% struggle with personalizing outreach messages.
3. 35% say following up with leads is a challenge.

The Top 3 Challenges in Hitting Quota:

1. 61% had difficulty finding quality leads.
2. 40% struggled with personalizing outreach.
3. 34% found it hard to get accurate contact information.

These findings point to deeper, systemic challenges in the sales process. To truly grasp the impact of these obstacles, let’s break down what each of these challenges actually means for sales professionals and why they create such significant roadblocks.

Defining a “quality lead”

A quality lead is a prospect who not only fits the ideal customer profile (ICP) but also has a genuine need for the product or service and the authority and budget to make a purchase. In other words, it's a potential customer who is both a good fit and has a high likelihood of converting. 

Many sales professionals struggle with lead quality because they waste time pursuing contacts who are either uninterested, lack purchasing power, or don’t align with their company’s ideal customer. This directly impacts quota attainment, as poor-quality leads clog the pipeline and reduce conversion rates.

What does personalization in sales look like?

Personalization in sales goes beyond using a prospect’s first name in an email. It means tailoring outreach based on a prospect’s industry, company size, pain points, and even recent activities or interests. 

True personalization involves crafting messages that resonate on a deeper level, showing that the sales rep has done their research and understands the prospect’s specific needs. 

However, with time constraints and limited data, many sales teams find it difficult to scale personalized outreach without AI-driven insights. This explains why personalization remains a top challenge across both time management and quota attainment struggles.

The challenges of getting accurate contact information

Having the right contact information is crucial for effective sales prospecting, yet many sales reps struggle with outdated, incorrect, or incomplete data. Whether it’s phone numbers that no longer work, email addresses that bounce, or contacts who have moved to different roles, bad data leads to wasted effort. 

This issue is compounded by the fact that many businesses don’t update their contact lists frequently, and traditional B2B contact databases often lack real-time accuracy. AI-powered tools can help validate and enrich contact information, but not all sales teams have adopted them fully, leading to ongoing frustration.

With so many sales pros bogged down by time-consuming tasks, personalization struggles, and the challenge of finding quality leads, it’s no surprise they’re turning to AI for help. Whether it’s automating tedious work, sharpening prospecting strategies, or making outreach more effective, AI is stepping in to lighten the load.

Widespread Optimism for Sales AI Adoption

So how many sales teams have embraced AI? The numbers speak for themselves:

AI isn’t just the future of sales; it’s already a core part of how deals get done today.

We split the respondents into two groups: those who are Seamless.AI customers and those who are sales professionals who have never used or are not currently using Seamless.AI.

Out of the respondents who are not Seamless.AI users, a whopping 92.5% of respondents said they use AI tools in their sales workflow. Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed use AI tools extensively, while 44.5% use AI “minimally.”

“Extensive” use of AI in the context of our survey is defined as using AI 60-100% of the time for daily sales tasks, while “minimal” AI use broadly refers to a lightweight use of AI for one-off tasks every now and then.

Of course with any survey, there are always outliers. Even though the majority of respondents used AI to some extent, a small percentage (~1%) of respondents  don’t use AI in their sales workflows in any shape or form, but they indicated that they are interested in using them in the future.

So what problems are people solving with the AI tools that they use? 

Before we get into the details of use cases, first, let’s do a breakdown of the specific AI tools that salespeople are using in their workflows.

The Popularity Spectrum: General AI vs Sales-Specific AI Tools

When we look into the specific tools people are using, the majority are opting to use more generalized AI tools, like ChatpGPT, rather than tools specializing in AI sales like Seamless.AI that are built specifically for sales tasks. 

The AI toolset for sales is still evolving. While enterprise sales teams may have established AI workflows, many sales professionals (especially those adopting AI minimally) are still experimenting with different tools before they presumably commit to a core AI stack.

Top sales-specialized AI tools respondents chose included a variety of sales intelligence tools:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRMs)
• Sales Lead Databases
• Data Enrichment Tools
• Prospecting Tools

Here’s what we found:

Minimal Users

Among minimal AI users, general AI tools dominate  (73.3%). This suggests that beginners or less AI-savvy users tend to stick with familiar, general AI tools like ChatGPT rather than specialized sales tools.

Extensive AI Users

Extensive AI users have a more balanced mix of general AI (62.5%) and sales AI (37.5%). This trend indicates that deeper AI adoption involves both categories rather than relying on just one.

Sales-specific AI tools are underutilized amongst minimal AI users (26.7%), which creates an opportunity for greater education on the benefits of sales AI tools.

👉 AI has become commonplace in everyday sales. Because a majority of respondents use AI, our data suggests that the core question in the ongoing conversation about AI adoption shouldn’t be if sales teams use it but how they use it. Some prefer specialized sales tools for specific parts of their workflow. Others take a flexible approach, experimenting with general AI for a variety of sales tasks.

While some choose sides, it’s clear that top sales earners aren’t choosing between the two. Instead, they’re utilizing both.

Our data mirrors similar trends presented in G2’s 2025 list of the Top 50 Best AI Software Products. In this ranking, general tools prevailed. ChatGPT took the #3 spot, trailing only behind Grammarly and GPTZero. 

Other notable general AI tools that earned a spot on the list include:

• Google Cloud Agent Assist (#16) popular for chatbot automation
• Microsoft Copilot (#33) enhancing productivity within Microsoft’s ecosystem
• Notion AI (#42) streamlining content creation and organization

When we look at AI tools designed specifically for sales teams, we see a different leaderboard emerge.

In G2’s Top 50 Best Sales Software Products, the highest-ranking AI-powered sales platforms included:

• Salesforce Sales Cloud (#1)
• HubSpot Sales Hub (#2)
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator (#3)
• Gong (#6)
• Pipedrive (#9)

By contrast, the most commonly used AI-powered sales tools amongst our survey respondents were:

1. Seamless.AI
2. Apollo.io
3. HubSpot

What’s striking about our findings is that despite the rise of AI-driven sales solutions, the most widely used AI tool in sales remains ChatGPT—a general-purpose AI that wasn’t built for sales but is still being leveraged for tasks like sales email drafting, research, and automation. Canva, Zapier, Claude, and Gemini follow closely behind.

Why Are Sales Teams Choosing Specialized AI Over General AI?

With sales tools gaining traction, the big question is: If ChatGPT is so popular amongst sales pros, why are more and more sales professionals flocking to specialized sales AI tools? 

The answer is simple: Sales teams need AI that integrates seamlessly into their workflow, not just AI that generates content.

According to our survey, among non-Seamless.AI users who use AI tools minimally, the most popular AI-powered sales tools were:

1. HubSpot
2. Hunter.io
3. Apollo.io and ZoomInfo (tied for #3)

For this group, ChatGPT remains the top general AI tool of choice, followed by Gemini and Canva. However, here’s where the gap lies: General AI tools can assist, but they have their limits. Ultimately, they don’t replace the need for sales-specific AI that automates prospecting, lead qualification, and deal tracking.

To further hammer this point, amongst those who prefer sales-specialized tools, a major driving factor for their preference is the precision of sales tools over general AI. 

In addition to precision, here are other compelling arguments for sales-specialized AI tools from some of our anonymous survey respondents:

“Our data showed a 40% jump in successful meeting conversions because these tailored tools understood our sales process inside and out. It's similar to how you'd trust a cardiologist over a general doctor for heart surgery- both are qualified, but one has deeper expertise in exactly what you need.”

“It allows me to get to the decision maker quicker than the other tools…”

Tracie Crites, CMO of Heavy Equipment Appraisal, adds:

‍“AI-powered CRMs allow us to segment leads more effectively and send highly relevant content that aligns with the prospect's needs.”

While general AI tools like ChatGPT provide broad, adaptable assistance, AI tools specialized for sales offer deeper insights tailored to customer behavior, purchase history, and preferences—leading to more effective prospecting and close rates.

If your budget is tight, and you can’t afford to integrate both general and sales AI tools in your sales workflow, when you’re evaluating solutions think: Right tool, Right job. General AI tools can assist, but specialized AI tools are built for action. 

So do you need AI that helps you work faster and boost productivity, or AI that helps you sell better and drive results? The answer could make all the difference in hitting quota this year.

It’s Seamless.AI against the world. 

So in a space where general and sales AI rule, where does Seamless.AI fit in? 

The data shows that while general AI tools help with productivity, sales teams leveraging Seamless.AI see an edge in lead intelligence, automated prospecting, and real-time data accuracy. 

Unlike ChatGPT, which requires manual prompt crafting to get useful sales data, Seamless.AI automates and enhances the entire sales pipeline—from finding verified contacts to streamlining outreach.

Seamless.AI ranks #1 on G2’s 2025 list of Best AI Software Products for Highest Satisfaction.

We also scored some clout-worthy rankings on these other lists:

• #1 in the Top 100 Highest Satisfaction Products
• #5 in the Top 50 Marketing and Digital Advertising Products
• #16 in the Top 50 Small Business Products‍
• #25 in the Top 100 Best Software Products‍
• #49 in the Top 100 Global Software Companies
  

We won’t toot our own horn (you can read more about why these rankings matter to our customers and to us here), but we share these rankings just to point out how diverse of a tool Seamless.AI really is. Seamless.AI is a leading pioneer and well-regarded not just as an AI tool, but a sales software tool users love.

Winning #1 in G2’s Top 100 Highest Satisfaction Products is a testament to how satisfied our customers are in terms of product quality, ROI, customer service, and everything in between.

But it’s not just G2 that’s showing Seamless.AI love. We also landed on Capterra’s Top Lead Generation Tool shortlist. 

Here’s what Seamless.AI customers use the platform for:

• Prospecting: Finding high-quality, verified contact information for target prospects.
• Crafting Outreach Messages: Using our AI Writer for easy personalization.
• Market Research: Identifying high-intent buying signals or job changes that provide context around an individual, company, or industry in general.

It’s no surprise that these use cases align with some of our survey respondents’ most favored features:

• Seamless.AI Prospector
• Seamless.AI Chrome Extension
• Buyer Intent Data

While Seamless.AI is seeing a season of wins,  as we all know, tech stacks are diverse, and salespeople are always on the hunt for the best AI tool out there. When comparing Seamless.AI to other sales-specialized AI tools (like Apollo.io or Zoominfo), the data skewed heavily positive, with the most popular answer being: “Equal in comparison” or “Somewhat better.”

Every sales tool is built differently, but some of the differentiating values of Seamless.AI that we believe drive this positive sentiment are our consistently glowing customer reviews, our proprietary Total AI (a real-time confidence score that measures the accuracy and reliability of contact information you find on the Seamless.AI platform), and our dedication to constant improvement.

When we reviewed AI use cases, that brought up totally different insights. The same users who compared Seamless.AI to a general AI tool like ChatGPT found equal or a bit lackluster satisfaction when it came to prospecting, market research, and crafting outreach messaging.

Sales AI Use Cases

Sales professionals have a varying array of uses for AI, but the top three AI use cases for minimal, everyday usage we found were crafting outreach messages, prospecting, and outreach automation.

Survey respondents cited these actionable strategies to using AI for their outreach communication:

• Training AI on your voice. Teach it your tone, phrasing, and messaging style.
• Using AI for message variation—not final drafts. Ask AI for multiple versions, then mix, match, and refine.
• Treating AI as a GPS, not an autopilot. AI helps navigate the sales process, but you’re still in control of the conversation.

By contrast, the most successful sales teams who use AI extensively aren’t using AI to write messages. Instead they’re using it for:

• Data analysis and market research: Identifying buyer intent signals and engagement trends.
• Precision timing: Knowing exactly when to reach out based on behavioral triggers.
• Personalization at scale: Surfacing key insights, so messages feel tailored—not templated.

While sales pros are using AI to analyze, automate, and personalize, they also realize that it can’t replace the human connection. In fact, when we consider messaging, the most effective use of AI takes a balanced approach…

Our survey respondents said it best:

“While AI improves precision in personalization, it’s the human element that adds empathy and understanding to client interactions.”

- Yarden Morgan, Lusha’s Director of Growth

“For example, if a prospect has engaged with multiple case studies on marketing attribution, we’ll send them a tailored message discussing how Improvado helps companies optimize their attribution models. AI helps us identify the right moment and topic, but the actual conversation is always led by a human.”

-Ronan Ye, Head of Content at Improvado

“AI should be a conversation starter, not a replacement for genuine connection…A quick voice memo or short video instead of a text-heavy email can make interactions feel more human and less automated.”

- Olivia Tian, CEO of Funraise

It’s tempting to let AI take over message writing entirely. After all, it can generate hyper-personalized outreach in seconds. But personalization isn’t the same as connection.

As Paul Posea of Superside puts it, 

“Humans should own the performance; AI should merely act as a stage.” 

If you use AI to write sales or marketing messages, reserve it for the top-of-the-funnel early stages of the sales process. After all, you don’t want to use AI to spit out a generic message for your follow-up messages that could cost you a customer renewal.

The AI-Automated Playing Field: Company Size vs AI Education

One of the greatest benefits of AI has always been its ability to even out the playing field. It doesn’t matter who you are. AI isn’t biased. AI doesn’t care if you’re a Fortune 500 company or a scrappy two-person sales team trying to break through. AI will produce consistent results no matter what. But here’s the catch: Having AI alone isn’t enough. The real competitive advantage comes from knowing how to use it.

AI: The Great Equalizer? 

No matter what industry you work in, the market is more competitive than ever. It can be challenging for small, scrappy startups to break through the noise. With this in mind,  AI in theory, evens the odds. 

53% of survey respondents agree that AI gives smaller teams a fighting chance against enterprise giants. But 15% still believe size matters, citing budget and adoption speed as clear advantages for larger organizations.

‍‍

While enterprise sales teams may have deeper pockets, more resources, and structured AI training, AI itself has become the great equalizer by making it a “free-for-all” resource. With so many AI-powered sales tools available, small and mid-sized teams can now compete at a level that was once unthinkable. 

AI will automate a lot of selling at the SMB and Mid Market level, freeing reps up to focus on larger accounts.”

- Anonymous survey respondent

Enterprise sales teams, with more resources, are also combining AI with human-led selling, reserving personal interactions for high-value deals. 

With SMBs using AI to shorten the gap with enterprises,  a central question isn’t who has access to AI and who doesn’t, but who has substantial expertise? And more importantly, how does your command of AI or lack thereof affect the results you’re able to generate? 

The Education Gap: Who’s Really Winning With AI?

AI won’t make you a better seller by default. It simply amplifies the skills (or gaps) you already have. In other words, AI doesn’t instantly create winners. It helps those who help themselves and take the time to learn how to get the best value out of it. 

In order to use AI as the amazing efficiency tool that it is, you need certain skills. And that’s where we see a divide forming.

• Some reps are taking AI into their own hands, self-educating and optimizing their sales workflow. 
• While others are waiting for their companies to dictate best practices. 

And what are the specific skillsets that sales professionals are learning in order to use AI? It’s more than just learning how to write a command. Right now, 68% of sales professionals surveyed say AI-powered predictive analytics have transformed how they identify high-potential prospects. But that’s just step one. Knowing how to act on those insights will separate top performers from the rest in 2025.

This contrast in agency makes all the difference because we’re finding that sales teams relying on company-led AI training risk falling behind those who take a proactive approach to their AI training.

In fact, the most successful AI-driven sales professionals aren’t just using AI tools, they’re AI operators and people who: 

• Identify inefficiencies in their sales process that AI can fix.
• Write effective prompts to automate real tasks.
• Teach and enable teammates to use AI in their daily work.
• Stay ahead of AI advancements, always experimenting and optimizing.

To clarify, we define practical fluency as knowing how to identify problems, implement AI solutions, and then teach others to do the same. 

In addition to practical fluency, company size may also influence AI adoption, but the real factor behind AI success in sales is whether reps are passive users or strategic operators who know how to solve real sales problems with AI. As we mentioned earlier, the future of sales isn’t about who has AI, it’s about who’s using it best.

AI’s Impact on Sales Quota Attainment

The data is clear: 70% of sales professionals say AI tools help them hit their quota more consistently.

We can’t stress enough what a  big deal this finding is! This confirms that AI isn’t just a time-saver, it’s a performance driver. And sales teams that integrate AI-powered insights, automation, and predictive analytics are seeing tangible improvements in their ability to close deals.

Most sales professionals are aware of this new AI standard of higher outputs with over 57% of respondents saying, “Yes, if AI could handle 90% of the workload, sales teams expect higher quotas from leadership.”

But here’s where it gets even more interesting: 53% of sales reps said that if AI could guarantee quota, they would focus more on relationship-building.

That single stat flips the entire AI conversation on its head. AI isn’t just a task manager that boosts productivity and drives efficiency. It’s shifting the role of the salesperson from a quota-chaser to a relationship architect.

As AI sales tech improves and ROI not only increases but becomes more predictable, there’s an opportunity to shift the focus from the robotic tasks of prospecting to nurturing, turning prospects into lifelong customers, and injecting human connection back into the sales profession. 

Ironically, AI can potentially make sales more human again. 

Breaking Down the AI-Quota Connection

AI eliminates busy work, but not the need for sales acumen.

Automating CRM updates, lead scoring, and email sequencing frees up reps to focus on actual selling.

AI-generated insights provide smarter prioritization, reducing time wasted on low-intent prospects.

The human element becomes the X-factor.

If AI ensures quota, what defines top performers isn’t just who sells more, but who builds stronger long-term relationships.

Sales pros who master emotional intelligence, trust-building, and human connection will be the ones who thrive in an AI-powered landscape.

AI won’t just help salespeople hit quota. It’s changing our perception of what quota even means.

If AI can all but guarantee quota attainment, sales teams will be forced to rethink what success actually looks like. Making more calls or sending more emails won’t be a competitive edge anymore. Building better rapport, trust, and strategic partnerships that AI alone can’t replicate will be the money maker.

The Paradox of AI-Driven Sales Personalization

According to our survey, 74% of respondents stated that they use AI to craft personalized messages or outreach. This includes tasks such as emails, phone call scripts, and LinkedIn messages. They use AI tools to better align with specific customer needs and behaviors. But here’s a complication in the AI use case of personalization…

In fact, only 18.37% of respondents expressed trust in AI's ability to accurately interpret emotional cues in customer interactions.

If personalization was just about inserting the right person’s name into outreach emails, we think respondents might have had a different sentiment. But personalization also depends on picking up emotional nuances, niche exclusivity, and above all, creating memorable interactions. 

But what happens to personalization when sales teams everywhere start mass-producing sales call scripts, email messages, texts, and more solely using AI?

Whether using ChatGPT to come up with a sales email outreach template to mass send to an entire B2B contact list or using AI to build an AI-assisted chatbot with templated responses, the increased use of AI for personalization in sales creates the inevitable sales personalization paradox:

1. The rise of mass-produced, one-size-fits-all, AI-generated sales outreach. 

As AI is tasked with scaling sales outreach volume, outreach might become less about emotional cues, niche nuances, and charisma, and more about the volume and extent of outreach sales teams can achieve to expand their target addressable market (TAM).

2. An increased craving for deeply nuanced and personalized human-to-human connections in sales.

The general public is very savvy at spotting content produced by artificial intelligence. As sales teams integrate more AI into their daily workflows, their target customers become more wary of vague messaging that doesn’t feel personal to them. Customers will consequently crave the opposite: interactions with organizations or individuals who make them feel energized. 

In a world flooded with mass-produced promotional offers, trust may become more important than fancy premium features or clout-worthy brand names. Customers might start asking, “Do you really understand what my best interests are?” rather than “What is your best product?”

According to our survey responses, here are the top reasons why AI falls short in personalization.

Reason #1: AI personalizes, but it doesn’t persuade.

AI can craft a compelling message, but persuasion requires emotional intelligence, real-time adaptability, and human intuition. 

“AI helps us identify the right moment and topic, but the actual conversation is always led by a human.” - Ronan Ye, Head of Content at Improvado

“Messages that focus too heavily on features rather than solutions, or fail to address the prospect's unique situation, tend to feel impersonal.” - Vishal Shah, Sr. Technical Consultant at WPWeb Infotech

Reason #2: AI optimizes efficiency, but humans build trust.

AI-generated messages can help start conversations, but they often lack the warmth and nuance that foster real relationships.

“I can tell it by analyzing response rates and monitoring the sentiment of response. For instance, if the majority of responses are negative or uninterested, it could indicate a lack of human touch in the outreach message.” - Kevin Baragona, Founder of DeepAI

“Too formal, too generic, or unnervingly "data-driven" wording.”

Reason #3: Automation can backfire when misused.

Over-reliance on AI leads to robotic outreach. Using AI to churn out follow-up messages might feel efficient, but it can alienate prospects if it feels generic or tone-deaf. Sales professionals must ensure AI enhances (not erodes) trust.

“If a message could be sent to anyone without changing a word, that’s a red flag. I always look for context-specific details, such as mentioning a prospect’s recent LinkedIn post or referencing a challenge unique to their industry. If an email lacks warmth, humor, or personality, it’s time to add a human touch before hitting send.” - Dhanvin Sriram, Founder of Luppa AI

“I always tell my team: If you wouldn’t say it in a real conversation, don’t send it. A great sales message should feel like it was written for one person, not a list of 1,000” - Pieter Wellens,  CTO and Co-Founder of Apicbase

AI’s shortcomings in emotional understanding doesn’t mean it’s completely useless for analyzing data and customer interactions. So what’s the answer?

Sales professionals can use AI tools to personalize their outreach using the info they already have to inform future customer interactions. 

Here’s what some of our anonymous survey respondents had to say:

“AI can be used to personalize outreach without losing the human touch by leveraging customer interactions to build a dynamic knowledge base that informs future engagements. This can be done via AI to analyze past conversations, objections, and pain points from CRM data, support chats, and previous sales calls, allowing us to craft outreach that feels genuinely relevant rather than templated.”

“Before automating any actionable tasks, like sending messages or emails, sales teams should use AI to better study their audiences. They need to base their approach to customers on real data related to not only demographics, but their behaviour.”

“We use AI tools to gather data on prospects – their industry, company, role, recent activities, even their online behavior. But then, our human sales team analyzes this data to identify genuine points of connection and personalize the outreach accordingly. It's about using AI to inform, not dictate, the conversation.”- Priyaansha Dubey, Product Manager at Knee Expert Solutions

The Future of AI in Sales: Adapt or Fall Behind

After gathering and analyzing respondents’ answers, we can conclude that AI is changing sales, but not in the way most people think.

Here’s what sales professionals are excited about for the future of AI:

• (42%) Predictive analytics for better lead scoring
• (25%) Conversational AI for automated follow-ups
• (21%) AI-driven personalization at scale

What these aspirations aren’t showing are the nuanced challenges that come with AI advancements to come.

There’s a lot of hype around AI automating everything, but when you look at how sales teams are actually using it, a different story emerges. AI is transforming not just how organizations operate, but also how sales professionals work, strategize, and succeed. The rapid adoption of AI is boosting efficiency, but also introducing new challenges around integration, accuracy, and responsible usage.

While the industry buzz focuses on AI’s potential to automate everything, the reality for sales teams is more nuanced. The tools making the biggest impact aren’t just the most popular; they’re the ones designed specifically to enhance sales workflows. 

General AI platforms like ChatGPT offer speed and accessibility, but sales-focused AI is what’s driving real revenue impact–helping teams find and qualify leads, personalize outreach at scale, and close deals more effectively.

Our data confirms this shift. Sales teams that integrate AI-powered CRMs and sales-specific platforms are seeing better results because these tools help segment leads, analyze customer behavior, and craft more relevant messaging. The difference isn’t just about convenience, it’s about capability.

For organizations, this shift means rethinking tech stacks, training sales teams to use AI strategically, and balancing automation with human expertise. For sales professionals, it’s about leveraging AI to work smarter—freeing up time for deeper relationship-building, refining sales strategies, and ultimately, outperforming the competition.

This report isn’t just about which tools are trending. It’s a roadmap to understand why sales professionals are making these choices and how to navigate the future of sales in an AI-powered world.

The takeaway? AI isn’t here to replace salespeople. It’s here to make the leaders of the pack even better. The best sales teams aren’t just using AI; they’re mastering it. Those who adapt and use AI as an asset rather than a crutch will gain an undeniable edge.

Related: Interested in a career in sales, check out our job center for available positions. Join Seamless.AI today for free to learn more about the tools or contact us for a demo to see how we can help your sales grow.

References:

* AI Market Data: Precedence Research, Feb 10, 2025 - https://www.precedenceresearch.com/artificial-intelligence-market

** Google Trends, March 25, 2025 - https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F0mkz&hl=en