AI is entering a new phase
Over the past few years, organizations have become familiar with AI tools that can generate text, summarize information, and assist employees in their daily work. Increasingly, attention is shifting toward AI agents: systems that can independently observe, reason, make decisions, and carry out sequences of tasks in pursuit of specific goals.
The potential is significant. AI agents could help sales organizations automate routine activities, identify business opportunities, support decision-making, and free up time for higher-value customer work. Despite growing interest, many organizations are still trying to understand what these technologies actually mean in practice. Recent industry reports suggest that only a small share of Nordic organizations currently report high levels of competence in AI agents, while many still view their broader transformation as years away.
Why sales?
Sales is an especially interesting setting in which to explore the opportunities and limitations of AI agents. As is well known, B2B sales involves building trust, understanding customer needs, coordinating multiple stakeholders, and maintaining long-term business relationships. These activities are highly knowledge-intensive and interactional. Crucially, they are also among the least easily automated parts of organizational life.
This raises important questions. If AI agents become more capable, how should work be divided between humans and technology? Which sales activities can realistically be delegated to AI agents, and which continue to require human judgment and relationship-building? How should organizations manage responsibility, oversight, and transparency when autonomous systems participate in customer-facing processes? And perhaps most importantly, how do customers feel about interacting with AI agents in business relationships?
The first conversations
The PAWS project was established to study these questions in collaboration with five industrial companies from the Päijät-Häme region. Together with our partner organizations, we aim to understand not only how AI agents can improve efficiency and productivity, but also how they influence work practices, decision-making, customer relationships, and trust.
The first phase of the project focuses on company-specific assessment interviews. These conversations will provide an important baseline for understanding how companies approach this rapidly evolving technological field.
Looking ahead
While discussions about AI agents are getting increasingly more common, both research and practice are still in the early stages of understanding their implications for professional sales. Existing knowledge about autonomous AI in sales remains limited, and many questions concerning implementation, productivity, customer acceptance, and trust are still open.
As our first company interviews get underway, we are looking forward to hearing how organizations are making sense of this emerging technology. We will share observations and lessons learned throughout the project.
