It’s no secret that sales training and enablement programs are key to seller success. But delivering effective programs that boost seller performance is getting more complicated.

Sales reps are working in increasingly complex environments with constant product offerings, market changes and buyers who are more informed than ever before. It’s hard to keep pace and balance the need to train reps while still giving them plenty of time to be in the field selling.

While there’s clearly a big need for sales training, many training and enablement teams have faced budget cuts and headcount reductions in the past 12 months. While their resources have been reduced, their expectations haven’t.

In 2024, many training teams will tap into artificial intelligence (AI) to create and deliver effective training and enablement at scale. Read on to explore three key ways we predict AI will transform sales training in the coming year.

Just-in-Time Self Enablement Will Ensure Sellers Are Ready to Conquer Any Sales Scenario

Many training and enablement teams are entering 2024 feeling strapped. They’re expected to accomplish more — often with limited resources.

The problem is, sales training and enablement effectively tends to be a labor-intensive endeavor. Training and enablement teams along with marketing teams create content and resources sellers need for success. Then, they must develop and deliver training to ensure teams know how to use the content and resources available to them. In addition, enablement and subject matter experts must be “on call” to address questions and help sellers overcome barriers.

All of these efforts are necessary, but they require a substantial amount of time and human power — which many teams are short on.

In the coming year, more organizations will tap into just-in-time self-enablement. This approach will help ensure customer-facing roles can always find what they need when they need it. But they won’t have to rely on others to do so.

For example, let’s say a prospective buyer poses a product-related question to a sales rep and the rep isn’t sure how to answer. Traditionally, that seller might post their question in the organization’s dedicated channel for product-related questions and then wait for a response from a colleague. The response might not come for a couple of days, and this eventually slows the deal down.

But if that organization leverages AI for just-in-time enablement, the seller can ask their question and get a real-time response. Essentially, AI reviews and makes sense of a high volume of content — and then provides a succinct answer. The response may also include content and training relevant to the seller’s query so they can learn even more information on the topic in question.

Organizations that adopt a self-enablement approach in 2024 will find it’s a win-win. End users can easily find the information they need to be successful in any scenario and training teams no longer have to be directly involved with every query.

AI Will Ease the Burden of Creating Complex Training Content

One of the most common use cases for AI is summarization. For example, an organization might leverage AI tools to summarize what happened during a customer call. In addition, AI can ingest a piece of content and then provide a succinct summary. Both applications are an effective way to save time for sellers.

Summarization will continue to be a key use case for AI. However, in 2024, the application of AI will go beyond summarizing a call or a piece of content.

In the coming year, more training and enablement teams will start tapping into AI to create complex training content. For example, consider an organization launching a new product. Of course, the field needs to be enabled on this new offering. Traditionally, marketing, product and technical teams would create the content about the new product and partner with enablement to turn this content into training programs, an initiative that is extremely labor intensive.

In 2024, training and enablement teams will compile the materials that have been developed for the product launch — including sales presentations, one-pagers and whitepapers. AI will then take that material and turn it into a training program that informs and tests employees on the new product offering. Training programs will be engaging and interactive, incorporating elements including videos, questions and assessments.

With AI, organizations can deliver engaging, effective training and enablement programs that improve outcomes for end-users — without the labor typically associated with creating such programs.

Data Will Be Translated Into Impactful Action

Most training and enablement teams have plenty of data available to them. Just about every platform has its own set of dashboards and analytics.

But the reality is, many organizations are downright overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data at their fingertips. Many teams lack the time and resources required to analyze it all — much less identify what actions they should take based on it. As a result, data often adds noise, rather than value.

For example, consider a dashboard that provides an overview of a sales team’s performance. Sure, the sales manager can see which sellers are excelling and which aren’t. But they don’t have any insight into what actions they can take to improve performance across the entire team.

In 2024, training and enablement teams will leverage AI to make sense of their data and determine what to do about it. AI will collate data from multiple sources. Then, it will provide recommendations for actions to take based on the data.

For example, let’s say a sales team has recently started selling a new product offering. The training team digs into the data and sees that there’s a high drop-off rate on a specific training module. Reps who don’t complete the training aren’t performing as well as those who do. AI synthesizes this information and provides recommendations for increasing engagement on the specific training module. More sellers complete the revised training, and performance improves.

Tap into AI to supercharge your sales training in 2024 and beyond

Let’s face it: training and enablement teams are entering the new year feeling strapped for time and resources. Yet, expectations for these teams remain high.

In 2024, the most successful training and enablement teams will identify innovative ways to leverage AI. By strategically tapping into AI, they’ll increase efficiency — while still delivering effective, engaging programs that improve seller performance.