AI is already changing the way salespeople work. But where is it making the biggest difference right now?
In this episode of the Sales Chat Show, we discuss one of the standout findings from the State of Sales 2026 Report from The Growth Hub: sales leaders are seeing some of the strongest positive impact from AI in the area of customer intelligence.
The discussion explores how AI can help salespeople research customers faster, understand buying organisations more deeply, personalise outreach, identify useful business insights and prepare more effectively for important sales conversations.
But the message is clear: AI is not there to replace great salespeople. It is there to make great salespeople more effective.
Simon, Anthony and Steve discuss how AI can remove the old excuse of “I haven’t got time to research properly” by making customer research faster, sharper and more practical. They explore how sales teams can use AI to understand external pressures, company strategy, buyer priorities, market trends, competitor activity and potential conversation starters before making contact.
Key topics discussed include:
- Why customer intelligence is one of the strongest current use cases for AI in sales
- How AI helps salespeople research faster and personalise at scale
- Why there is no longer an excuse for poorly researched outreach
- The difference between using AI as a shortcut and using it as a sales advantage
- How “research sprints” can help account managers prepare more effectively
- Why AI should support human judgement, not replace it
- How AI-generated meeting notes can improve CRM data quality
- Why better data leads to better insight and better sales action
- How leaders can encourage AI adoption without overwhelming their teams
- What sales teams can learn from sport about the power of data-driven performance