Where AI Meets the Human Touch

Discover how AI-powered strategies, aligned automation, and agentic AI can elevate efficiency, personalization, and client relationships.

September 03, 2025

In today's Sales Pulse, gain insight into how:

  • AI and human collaboration can transform go-to-market strategies, ensuring efficiency without losing the essential personal touch.

  • Misaligned automation is costing businesses more than they realize, and how alignment is the key to unlocking its true potential.

  • Agentic AI is redefining client relationships by delivering scalable, personalized, and proactive engagement strategies.

For the uninitiated: Sales Pulse is a free, biweekly newsletter designed for the innovative sales leaders of today and tomorrow. Each article featured below is penned by a member of Forbes Business Development Council, a community of successful sales executives shaping the future of business.

Let’s dive in!

AI + Humans: Finding the Perfect Go-To-Market (GTM) Balance

Pairing AI with human expertise is the key to crafting a winning GTM strategy. While AI offers speed, scale, and efficiency, solely relying on it risks creating impersonal buyer experiences.

The real advantage lies in blending the strengths of AI with the nuance and empathy humans bring to sales and marketing.

Here’s how to strike the right balance:

💡 Insight Generation: Use AI to analyze data and surface strategic account insights.

🧑‍💻 Automation of Admin Tasks: Free sellers from repetitive work, letting them focus on building trust and navigating complex deals.

✍️ Content Assistance: Let AI draft messaging frameworks, but always tailor them with human creativity and industry experience.

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Stop Automating Chaos: Align First, Automate Second

Automation isn’t a silver bullet—it often fails because businesses skip the hard work of alignment. Misaligned tech doesn’t just hurt adoption; it wastes resources, frustrates teams, and erodes trust. Success lies in automating workflows that mirror real business operations, not just organizational charts.

Here’s why automation often misses the mark—and how to fix it:

🔄 Adaptation Overload: Rolling out tools faster than teams can adjust leads to workarounds, such as reverting to spreadsheets.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Lack of Collaboration: Tools fail when frontline users aren’t involved early in the design phase.

⚙️ Disconnected Systems: Processes break when operational teams, tech, and customer-facing teams don’t align.

What works?

  • Map Real Workflows: Automate what’s actually happening—not idealized processes.

  • Frontline Engagement: Include users in the build process to boost adoption.

  • Iterate Intentionally: Build flexible systems that can evolve with your business.

Agentic AI: Redefining Relationship Development

Agentic AI—the ability of AI to act autonomously—is reshaping how businesses approach client relationship management. By combining intelligent data analysis with automation, this technology enables personalized, scalable, and proactive client engagement. Across many global companies, agentic AI is already transforming how client relationships are nurtured, while preserving the human touch.

Here’s how agentic AI is redefining relationship-building:

🤝 Personalization at Scale: AI analyzes client data to deliver tailored, timely messages and recommendations, enhancing engagement through hyper-relevant touchpoints.

📊 Proactive Insights: It anticipates client needs by identifying patterns, such as flagging key milestones or emerging trends, and generates timely outreach plans.

📈 Scalability: Manage a growing client base without sacrificing the quality of interactions, empowering small businesses to compete with larger players.

⚙️ Task Automation: From scheduling follow-ups to crafting outreach strategies, agentic AI frees up teams to prioritize meaningful, high-value engagements.

Wrapping Up

If these articles sparked your interest, we have a network that you will love: Forbes Business Development Council.

This exclusive, vetted community brings together seasoned sales and business development leaders.

Put yourself at the forefront of innovation with access to publishing opportunities on Forbes.com, a personalized, SEO-friendly Executive Profile, and the chance to network with other respected leaders in the field.

Join Forbes Business Development Council today, and become part of a group driving meaningful innovation in business.