The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) can help sales teams save time and money. Thanks to machine learning, natural language processing, and predictive analysis, AI for sales tools can process large datasets and perform specific tasks—like prospect tracking and sales forecasting—to make sales processes more efficient overall.
Here’s how to leverage AI to automate repetitive tasks, generate real-time insights, and better predict customer behavior.
Table of contents
How to use AI in sales
- Automated tasks
- Sales engagement
- Sales training
- Lead scoring
- Customer service
- Churn prediction
- Goal setting
Here’s how to incorporate AI into your sales process:
Automated tasks
AI applications streamline repetitive tasks—like scheduling meetings and emails, generating reports, and eliminating manual data entry—freeing up valuable time for sales reps to focus on high-value activities like closing deals and building customer relationships.
Sales engagement
Sales engagement platforms use AI tools to track and analyze customer interactions such as email opens and clicks, website visits, and social media engagement. AI tools then analyze customer behavior across various channels to personalize outreach and tailor messaging based on individual needs and interests.
This can foster deeper engagement and improve sales conversion rates. For example, AI algorithms can analyze customer behavior and recommend products or services relevant to past purchases or browsing history.
Sales training
AI can analyze sales calls and interactions to identify areas of improvement for follow-ups with new sales leads. You can also use this data to identify coaching opportunities for sales reps.
AI can also analyze data to identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling, giving your sales team more chances to boost revenue. Sales managers can also focus on qualified leads, optimizing their time and improving sales conversions.
Lead scoring
AI analyzes customer data and interactions (like emails, phone calls, and chats) to perform sentiment analysis and assign scores indicating a lead’s likelihood of converting. This helps sales reps understand sales performance, identify patterns, and inform their decisions to prioritize efforts targeting qualified leads.
Customer service
AI-powered tools like chatbots can serve as customer service reps and personal assistants by qualifying leads and scheduling meetings, freeing up sales reps for more strategic tasks.
Churn prediction
AI can analyze customer behavior to identify customers at risk of churn (canceling services), helping sales teams proactively retain these customers.
Goal setting
AI analyzes historical sales data and customer interactions to forecast future sales opportunities and market trends. This allows for better resource allocation, demand anticipation, and realistic goal setting.
AI sales tools, in no particular order
There are various AI sales tools on the market, each catering to specific needs. Here are the most popular options:
1. Claap
Built for team collaboration, Claap touts itself as the ultimate video recording tool. It allows sales teams to record meetings with AI-powered notes and centralize their best practices in a video library. The platform uses AI to generate summaries from meetings, which you can use to send follow-ups to potential clients to keep the conversation going.
Cost: Free Basic plan; Starter plan, $8/month; Pro plan, $24/month.
2. Gong
A revenue intelligence platform, Gong specializes in conversation analytics and Salesforce training tools. The platform records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls and meetings to provide insights and data-driven feedback for sales teams.
Not only does this save sales reps time on mundane tasks like note-taking, it can help organizations identify sales process improvements. Gong provides AI-fueled conversation insights, catering to enterprise sales teams with larger budgets.
Cost: Customizable to each team. Contact Gong directly for pricing.
3. HubSpot
HubSpot, a customer relationship management (CRM) data platform, offers a suite of AI tools for sales teams, including forecasting software, predictive lead scoring, and a content assistant for more effectively generating sales content and outreach messages. It also includes ChatSpot for automating manual sales tasks (data entry, note-taking, and scheduling), which integrates with HubSpot CRM data to streamline processes.
Cost: Plans start at $800/month.
4. Einstein
Software giant Salesforce prides itself on having one of the most comprehensive customer relationship management software platforms out there, and the company is aiming to lead the way in AI sales tools next. Its tool Einstein pulls together all of the AI capabilities within the CRM data platform to provide predictive analytics, lead scoring, and personalized recommendations so that sales teams can optimize their strategies. Salesforce caters to businesses of all sizes, but given its brand name recognition, potential customers should expect to pay more for its services as well.
Cost: Customizable to each team. Contact for Salesforce directly for pricing.
5. Salesloft
Salesloft consolidates email, phone, SMS, and social media messaging into one central platform. The sales engagement platform then uses AI to automate sales tasks, share customer interactions, track the performance of sales collateral like presentations and proposals, and provide key insights to sales reps so that they accelerate their sales cycles and drive more revenue.
A leading sales engagement platform with advanced functionalities for large teams, Salesloft comes with a corresponding price tag.
Cost: Customizable to each team. Contact Salesloft directly for pricing.
6. Yesware
Yesware uses AI to enhance email communication by drafting, proofreading, and shortening copy. It can also tell users when recipients open their emails, click on links, or view attachments.
Yesware centralizes operations—from email templates to calendar apps to email campaign performance with detailed reports and analytics. Ideal for small-to-midsize businesses, Yesware operates at a competitive price point for subscribers.
Cost: Free Forever plan; Pro plan, $15/month; Premium plan, $35/month; Enterprise plan, $65/month; custom plans also available.
7. ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo includes a sales and revenue intelligence tool that provides customer data on potential clients, such as data points that can be used to categorize organizations (i.e., industry, technologies used, geographic location, clientele numbers, etc.) and identify website behavior among consumers.
ZoomInfo includes a tool called Chorus that uses AI and machine learning to transcribe and analyze sales calls. It draws out deal analytics and insights from customer interactions and generates better training materials for sales reps. Because it targets enterprise-level customers, it also comes at a premium cost.
Cost: Free Standard plan; customizable plans also available. Contact ZoomInfo directly for pricing.
8. Shopify Magic
Shopify Magic is an AI-powered tool that simplifies running an online business. It can optimize email correspondence by suggesting the best times to send emails and generating subject lines and copy. Magic not only crafts SEO-friendly product descriptions and edits or removes backgrounds for more professional images, it also enhances customer relationships by suggesting personalized FAQs and responses and transforming live chats into digital shopping carts and seamless checkouts based on relevant queries.
Cost: Included with every Shopify account.
AI for sales FAQ
How can AI be used for sales?
AI can automate sales tasks and generate data-driven, real-time insights, letting sales teams work smarter and close more deals.
Will AI replace salespeople?
The future of sales lies in a collaborative approach where human salesperson expertise meets intelligent automation. AI is not designed to replace salespeople but to act as a powerful and helpful assistant. By automating repetitive tasks, AI frees up valuable time for sales professionals to focus on more fruitful sales tasks.
Does Shopify offer AI sales tools?
Shopify offers a growing portfolio of AI sales tools to empower entrepreneurs and sales managers. Among those offerings are two AI sales tools directly supporting sales professionals: Shopify Magic and Sidekick.
