England, United Kingdom – March 19, 2025 – According to the recent report published by LinkedIn, a significant majority of B2B sales professionals embracing AI in their daily workflows. The "ROI of AI" report highlights the rising role of AI in enhancing efficiency, improving outreach, and driving revenue growth.
Based on a global survey of 1,250 sales professionals, the report reveals that 56% of salespeople are using AI daily, and a striking 74% believe AI represents the future of B2B sales. This report shows that despite much vocal criticism and rejection of the use of AI, especially by LinkedIn users, there is widespread adoption of the technology and growing recognition of its capabilities to tackle challenges in a sales environment that has become extremely competitive of late.
Key findings include:
- Enhanced Research: Vendors using AI for research report significant improvements, with 38% noting substantial gains and saving an average of 1.5 hours per week.
- Improved Outreach: AI-driven personalised outreach has led to a 28% average increase in response rates.
- Efficient Sales Cycles: AI-powered CRM integrations are streamlining workflows, with 69% of sellers reporting an average reduction of one week in their sales cycle.
- Quota Achievement: Vendors who exceed their sales quota are 2.5 times more likely to use AI daily, indicating a strong correlation between AI usage and performance.
- Investment Surge: 98% of sales executives plan to invest in AI this year, prioritising sales intelligence, sales enablement, and AI-powered CRM tools.
The report also stresses AI's impact beyond time-saving efficiencies, influencing critical sales areas such as lead generation, sales cycle management, account management, and reporting. According to the report, AI delivers outsized benefits in these three areas: researching leads and companies, creating personalised outreach, and enhancing sales cycle efficiency and CRM integration.
As this report is commissioned by LinkedIn, it positioned LinkedIn Sales Navigator as a significant tool in this AI-driven transformation, combining cutting-edge AI with its vast professional network to provide vendors with exclusive insights and enhance prospecting, engagement, and deal acceleration. And as a user of the tool, I can confirm that it’s very useful in providing first-party insights.
As businesses struggle to thrive in the current unpredictable economy, the report underlines that AI is becoming a business essential; to that end, consider H.G. Wells’ famous 1945 quote: 'Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative.'
