sales
30 articles about sales in AI news
Salesforce Acquires AI Agent Platform Fin for $3.6B; Agents Resolve 76% of
Salesforce acquired AI agent platform Fin for $3.6B. The platform resolves 76% of support volume autonomously, signaling a major shift toward agent-first customer service in CRM.
GrubMarket Launches AI Agent for Food Distributor Sales Teams
GrubMarket launches an AI agent for food distributor sales teams, offering real-time data and automated recommendations to boost efficiency. This applies directly to retail and luxury supply chain sales operations.
Ethernet AI Switch Sales Double, InfiniBand Rebounds 22% in Q2
Ethernet AI switch sales doubled YoY as InfiniBand rebounded 22%. Ethernet now captures 41% of AI interconnect revenue, up from 28%.
Costco’s personalized product recommendations drive $500M in digital sales
Costco’s personalized product recommendation carousels generated nearly $500 million in digital sales in Q3 2026, with 3x higher conversion rates. CFO Gary Millerchip highlighted AI’s potential as a major sales driver, as digital traffic surged 37%.
US Clears Nvidia H200 Sales to 10 China Firms, Reversing Ban
US cleared Nvidia H200 sales to 10 China firms on May 14, 2026, reversing a ban that had reduced Nvidia's China share to zero.
SalesSim: LLMs Score Below 79% on Retail Persona Alignment, RL Boosts 13.8%
SalesSim benchmarks MLLMs as retail customers; top models score below 79% on persona alignment. UserGRPO RL boosts alignment by 13.8%.
Kering Reports Q1 2026 Revenue Decline as Gucci Sales Fall 14%
Luxury group Kering reported a 6% year-on-year revenue decline to €3.5bn in Q1 2026. The drop was driven by a 14% fall in Gucci sales, with declines in Asia-Pacific and Western Europe offsetting North American growth. CEO Luca de Meo called it a 'first step in our recovery' as a comprehensive brand reset continues.
HubSpot's Agentic AI Strategy Challenges Salesforce and Microsoft in CRM
HubSpot is making a strategic push into agentic AI for its CRM platform, aiming to automate multi-step business processes. This represents a direct challenge to the 'old guard' of enterprise CRM, primarily Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
AI Sales Agent 'SalesOS' Automates Full Outbound Pipeline
An AI agent called SalesOS has been developed to automate the full outbound sales pipeline, including lead sourcing, personalized outreach, and meeting scheduling. This represents a push toward fully autonomous sales operations.
Money Printer AI Automates Outbound Sales: URL to Outreach
A new AI tool called Money Printer claims to automate B2B outbound sales. Users paste a website URL, and the system finds target companies, identifies decision-makers, writes personalized outreach, and initiates contact via email and phone calls.
YC Startup Aviary Launches Autonomous AI Agent for Outbound Sales
Aviary, a Y Combinator startup, has launched an AI agent designed to run a company's entire outbound sales process autonomously. This represents a significant push toward fully automated, agentic workflows in enterprise SaaS.
YC-Backed Ava Raises $36M for Fully Autonomous AI Sales Rep
Ava, a Y Combinator startup, has raised $36 million to develop an AI 'employee' that runs entire outbound sales processes autonomously. The system aims to replace human sales development representatives (SDRs).
Hasan Toor Announces 'First AI Sales Tool That Does the Whole Job' in Cryptic Tweet
AI influencer Hasan Toor posted a tweet claiming a new AI sales tool is the first to handle the entire sales job, not just data or enrichment. No product name, company, or technical specifications were provided.
Explee Launches AutoGTM: AI Sales Tool Claims Full Cold Outreach Automation in Under 2 Minutes
Explee has launched AutoGTM, an AI-powered sales automation tool that promises to handle the entire cold outreach process—from research to personalized email generation—in under two minutes.
Study Reveals Which Chatbot Evaluation Metrics Actually Predict Sales in Conversational Commerce
A study on a major Chinese platform tested a 7-dimension rubric for evaluating conversational AI against real sales conversions. It found only two dimensions—Need Elicitation and Pacing Strategy—were significantly linked to sales, while others like Contextual Memory showed no association, revealing a 'composite dilution effect' in standard scoring.
TikTok Shop's Real ROI: Why Brands Must Measure Cross-Platform Demand, Not Just In-App Sales
A case study of sun-care brand Carroten argues TikTok Shop's primary value is as a demand engine for Amazon and retail, not a standalone sales channel. The strategy reframes ROI measurement to capture the halo effect across the entire digital shelf.
Salesforce Adds Agentforce Agentic AI to SMB Packages
Salesforce is integrating its Agentforce agentic AI capabilities into packages for small and medium-sized businesses. This move aims to make autonomous AI agents more accessible for tasks like customer service and sales automation.
Tulip and Salesfloor Merge to Scale AI-Powered Retail Engagement
Tulip, a mobile retail platform, and Salesfloor, a clienteling and virtual selling solution, have announced a merger. The combined entity aims to scale AI-powered customer engagement for retailers, focusing on unifying in-store and online experiences.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Reports Zero Net Engineering Hires in FY2026, Citing AI Coding & Service Tools
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff stated the company added zero net new engineers in its 2026 fiscal year while slightly reducing service roles, attributing the flat headcount to internal AI coding and service tools. This marks a concrete, large-scale example of AI's impact on enterprise workforce planning and productivity.
Coinbase CEO Reveals Internal 'Oracle' AI Agent That Reads All Slack, Docs, and Salesforce Data
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong detailed an internal AI agent system connected to all company communications and data, which he calls the 'Oracle of Coinbase.' The system aggregates Slack, Google Docs, and Salesforce to answer questions and surface strategic insights through what he terms 'reverse prompting.'
Salesforce Bets on Agentic AI to Reaccelerate CRM Growth
Salesforce is making a strategic push into agentic AI, aiming to automate complex workflows and drive sales growth. This reflects a broader industry trend where autonomous AI agents are projected to handle a significant portion of enterprise tasks and transactions.
Salesforce Launches Agentforce Contact Center, a Native CCaaS Platform
Salesforce has launched Agentforce Contact Center, a fully native contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) platform built directly into its CRM. This eliminates the need for third-party telephony integrations, unifying voice, digital channels, AI agents, and customer data on a single screen.
Salesforce Launches Agentforce Contact Center, Unifying AI Agents, Voice, and CRM
Salesforce introduces Agentforce Contact Center, a native platform integrating voice, digital channels, CRM data, and autonomous AI agents. It aims to solve integration complexity and improve AI-human collaboration for customer service.
Costco Attributes $470M in Quarterly E-commerce Sales to Digital Personalization Engine
Costco's CFO directly tied $470M in Q2 e-commerce sales to personalized recommendation carousels. This quantifies the ROI of modern digital enhancements, showing how personalization drives traffic and sales for a major retailer.
Nvidia's Record Earnings Mask China Dilemma: H200 Sales Frozen Amid AI Boom
Nvidia reported record quarterly revenue of $68.1 billion, up 73% year-over-year, driven by surging demand for data center processors. However, the company has generated zero revenue from its H200 chips in China and faces ongoing uncertainty about future sales in the critical market.
AI-Native CRM Revolution: How Lightfield Automates Sales Workflows Beyond Traditional Systems
Lightfield introduces an AI-native CRM that automatically updates customer data by connecting to email, calendar, and meetings, eliminating manual upkeep and transforming how sales teams manage relationships.
Shopify opens AI sales channels to all merchants as ChatGPT drives 20% of Walmart referral traffic
Shopify launched its Spring '26 Edition on June 17, expanding agentic storefronts to millions of merchants and opening its catalog infrastructure to brands on any platform. The release arrives as AI referral traffic to U.S. retailers jumped 393% in Q1 2026, with ChatGPT now accounting for 20% of Wal
Google Opens TPU Sales to Select Customers, Raises Capex Forecast
Google sells TPUs to select customers, raising capex forecast for Q1 FY2026, monetizing in-house chips beyond Cloud.
MoEngage Buys Aampe for Tens of Millions, Bets AI Agents Replace Campaigns
MoEngage acquired Aampe for tens of millions to embed per-customer AI agents, targeting migrations from Salesforce and Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Shopify's Catalog API Goes Self-Serve as Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft Back Its Commerce Protocol
Shopify launched its Spring '26 Edition on June 17, 2026, opening its Catalog API and Universal Commerce Protocol to any developer or brand without prior approval. Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Stripe joined the UCP Tech Council in April, alongside founding members Google, Etsy, Target, a