The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation. In sales tech, it’s easy to assume incumbents like Salesforce and Hubspot have the edge. First, they are embedded as “systems of record,” so sales leaders are loath to rip them out and replace them. Second, these incumbents (and their well-entrenched peers) are not sitting out the AI revolution; conscious of protecting their competitive moats, they are rapidly adding AI features to stay relevant. We believe AI will so fundamentally reimagine the core system of record and the sales workflows that no incumbent is safe. Instead of a text-based database, the core of the next sales platform will be multi-modal (text, image, voice, video), containing every customer insight from across the company. An AI-native platform will be able to extract more insight from a customer and their mindset than we could ever piece together with the tools we have today. Sales workflows will fundamentally change. With AI, sales teams will no longer need to spend endless hours researching new leads or prepping for calls — AI will be able to do it in seconds. Reps won’t have to suss out the readiness of potential customers because AI will have automatically compiled a ranked list of primed buyers, and will keep it constantly updated. Need personalized marketing collateral for a deal? Your AI wingman will produce whatever assets you need and feed you live tips while you’re on a call to help you close.
Full commentary : Why AI Will Transform the Next Generation of Sales Tech.
