How to Use AI in Sales and Marketing

Think about your best friends. 

How do you feel? Warm and fuzzy inside? Grateful for their unwavering support? Thankful for all the quality lead generation they send your way? 

Wait – are you telling us you have best friends other than your marketing team?! 

If you answered yes, we’re going to stop you right there. The relationship between sales and marketing should be nothing short of a close, intimate bond where each team’s success benefits the other. If you wouldn’t say your marketing team sits within your inner circle, you need to keep reading. We’ve got just the solution for your sorry state of affairs. 

The answer lies with AI. Now, we know how weird that looks – machines and human relationships aren’t necessarily a natural pairing, after all – but bear with us. AI is brilliant at strengthening the output of both sales and marketing teams and supporting the relationship between the two. Rather than replacing people or reducing human interaction, AI within sales and marketing can improve our efforts and make them even more powerful in the process. Here’s what we’re going to talk about today: 

• AI in Sales: Enhancing, Not Replacing
• AI in Marketing: Smarter Targeting & Personalization
• How AI Enhances Sales & Marketing Alignment
• The Balance: AI + Human Expertise

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll understand how AI can be used to strengthen sales and marketing efforts while improving collaboration between the two. Let’s get started. 

AI in Sales: Enhancing, Not Replacing

Let’s talk sales first of all. AI works best here as a co-pilot. As a sales professional, you want to focus on what you do best – which we’re going to guess is building relationships and closing deals – and let your AI assistant handle the other stuff. 

We’re sure you’re aware that some businesses have reduced headcount in the hopes that AI can take over and save them a bit of cash. This is not a good strategy. We repeat: this is not a good strategy. 

At its heart, sales is about human relationships – and we’ve already mentioned that those can’t exactly be taken over by AI. Instead of reducing headcount, businesses should use AI to: 

Identify High-Intent Buyers 

AI agents are your best friend here. You can use them to keep an eye out for buyer intent signals unique to your business – these could be anything from a recently closed funding round to an ICP spending a lot of time on your pricing page. 

Prioritize Leads

Your AI agents should also use these buying signals to organize your leads based on engagement and likelihood to convert. If they pick up on multiple buying signals from one prospect, for example, they should rank this prospect more highly than others who have only shown one or two. Doing so makes sure that sales teams are always focused on the right prospects – which makes things faster and more efficient in one go. 

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Think about all the stuff you have to do that’s easy, repetitive, and (dare we say it) a little bit boring. CRM updates, scheduling, follow-ups, that kind of thing. Go right ahead and give it to AI. Feels good, right? 

Generate Personalized Outreach

AI is great at helping with message personalization. The faster you can get at personalizing outreach (without compromising on scalability, of course), the more likely you are to reach your prospects before your competitors do.

AI in Marketing: Smarter Targeting & Personalization

When it comes to marketing, AI is brilliant at helping teams create more precise, data-driven campaigns. Let’s run through a few examples of what that can look like: 

Analyzing Customer Data

We all know that AI is better at analyzing customer data than humans ever could be. It can scrutinize millions and millions of data points, if your heart so desires, and tease out insights that your average Joe might miss. Crucially, it can do so quickly – unlike humans, our AI friends don’t have to stop to eat or allow their brains to recover. The customer insights AI uncovers can then be used to predict trends and buyer behaviors. 

Personalizing Content at Scale

You can create the most heart-wrenching campaign in the world, but if it doesn’t speak to the pain points of its recipients, you may as well not bother. AI is great at making sure each and every customer feels spoken to, without having to work one by one as a human would. 

Optimizing Ad Targeting 

By analyzing all this data, AI sets itself up very nicely to identify patterns in human behavior and make sure ads reach the most relevant audiences. It also continuously refines targeting by learning as it goes, making ads more effective over time. This approach 1) reduces ad spend and 2) increases conversion rates. Winning. 

Automating Social Media and Email Marketing 

Now, we’re not suggesting you let a bot take over your inbox or your social accounts entirely, but AI can help with speeding the repetitive stuff up by automating your social media: think follow-ups, commenting, drafting first drafts of social posts, you get the picture. The faster you can complete these tasks, the more likely you are to stay consistent and keep your communication timely. 

Using AI for Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

AI is particularly powerful when your strategy includes an account-based marketing (ABM) approach. In a nutshell, ABM involves targeting high-value accounts with personalized campaigns rather than casting a wide net. It focuses on building strong relationships with key decision-makers to drive higher conversion rates and long-term revenue. 

A good ABM strategy involves knowing everything – and we mean everything – about what these key decision-makers are up to. AI helps sales and marketing teams working on an ABM strategy by: 

• Identifying high-value accounts that are most likely to convert. 
• Tracking engagement signals to personalize outreach at the right moment. 
• Making sure marketing delivers sales-ready leads, reducing wasted effort. 
• Helping sales teams tailor messaging based on account activity.

How AI Enhances Sales & Marketing Alignment

AI is also a wizard at helping bridge the gap between sales and marketing. This gap is a common problem – 44% of B2B marketers cite problems with marketing and sales alignment as a top challenge. It’s not necessarily the fault of one group or the other, but it does stop both teams from reaching their full potential.  

Instead of thinking about AI use cases for the two distinct teams, consider how it can improve key areas of collaboration: 

• Lead qualification and handoff: AI can help with lead qualification, making sure that marketing delivers highly qualified leads to sales. 

• Intent-based prioritization: AI identifies which prospects are ready to buy, so both teams focus on the right people from the get-go. 
• Real-time customer insights: AI gives both teams visibility into prospect activity, so messaging always stays up to date. 
• Personalization at scale: AI helps marketing craft the right message, while sales delivers it at the perfect time.
• Data-driven decision making: AI provides insights on what’s working (and what’s not not), so teams can review and adjust strategies faster.

The Balance: AI + Human Expertise

It’s worth noting that while AI makes teams more efficient, it’s not a substitute for human creativity, strategy, and relationships. For example, AI may be able to surface a high-intent account – but you still need marketing’s content to build trust and sales to close the deal. 

The best way to introduce AI is to use it to handle the data-heavy, time-consuming tasks – which frees up teams to focus on high-value interactions. Simple.

Let’s Wrap It Up: The Future of AI in Sales and Marketing

AI is not a replacement for sales and marketing teams – it’s a tool to make them faster, smarter, and more aligned. 

The businesses that integrate AI effectively will see higher productivity, better targeting, and stronger customer engagement. Tick, tick, and tick. 

Now – time to go and share what you’ve learned with your new best friends 😉 

AI in Sales and Marketing FAQs

How Can AI Improve Sales Performance?

AI acts as a co-pilot for sales teams, handling the repetitive, time-consuming tasks so reps can focus on building relationships and closing deals. It helps prioritize leads based on buyer intent signals, ensuring sales teams focus on the most promising prospect, and can also automate CRM updates, follow-ups, and scheduling. Plus, AI-powered personalization tools make outreach more relevant and timely – which is crucial in a world where being faster than your competitors really matters. 

How Does AI Help With Marketing Personalization?

AI takes marketing personalization to the next level by analyzing large amounts of customer data to understand behaviors, preferences, and intent. It can tailor content and messaging at scale – making sure every prospect receives the most relevant information without requiring a manual, one-by-one approach. AI can also improve ad performance by identifying patterns in user behavior, improving audience segmentation, and continuously optimizing campaigns. For email and social media marketing, AI can help teams keep on top of comments, first drafts, and follow-ups. 

How Can AI Improve Sales And Marketing Alignment?

AI helps sales and marketing teams work together more effectively by improving lead qualification, prioritization, and handoff. It tracks real-time buyer intent signals, making sure marketing delivers highly qualified leads while sales focuses on prospects who are ready to buy. AI also provides shared customer insights, so both teams stay aligned on messaging and strategy. This data helps marketing to craft targeted campaigns and sales to engage prospects at the right moment. As a result, teams will see less wasted effort, better communication, and stronger overall performance. 

Will AI Replace Sales And Marketing Teams?

No – AI is best used as an assistant, not a replacement. While it can automate data-heavy, repetitive tasks, it can’t replicate human creativity, strategic thinking, or relationship-building. AI helps teams work faster and more efficiently by handling tasks like lead scoring, personalization, and campaign optimization – freeing up sales and marketing pros to focus on high-value interactions. Businesses that find the right balance will see increased efficiency, stronger customer engagement, and better results across the board.

What Are The Best Ways To Start Using AI In Sales And Marketing?

Start by identifying time-consuming tasks that AI can handle. Think lead scoring, CRM updates, email automation, and ad targeting, to name just a few. Then, integrate AI tools that enhance your existing workflows. The key is to start small, measure impact, and scale as you see results. AI works best when it supports human expertise, so focus on efficiency and alignment rather than full automation.