Shaping the Future of Digital Sales: 5 Takeaways

The Future of Digital Sales event brought together experts from across telecoms, AI, and consumer behaviour to explore how businesses can stay ahead in a world shaped by rapidly evolving consumer expectations and emerging technologies.

With keynote insights from business futurist Kate Ancketill, a fireside chat with Vodafone’s Duncan Knight, and a panel of experts from GSMA, Verizon, and the University of Sussex, the event sparked powerful conversations around where digital sales is heading and what it will take to lead the transformation.

Here are five key takeaways from the day.

1. AI Agents Are Moving Beyond Support - Slowly but Surely

A central question across the sessions was: Why has AI been embraced so fully in customer support, but not in sales?

The panel discussion tackled this head-on. Daniel Gurrola, Former Chief Strategy Officer Verizon Consumer, shared that while support interactions lend themselves easily to AI through FAQs and troubleshooting scripts, sales conversations are inherently more complex, personal, and outcome-driven.

“Sales involves understanding motivation, needs and emotions - and making recommendations based on context,” he said. “But we’re now seeing AI reach a maturity point where it can start to deliver in these areas too, especially when paired with the right behavioural data.”

The takeaway? Sales might be harder for AI to crack, but it’s not impossible. Businesses that begin piloting AI agents in pre-purchase journeys now are positioning themselves as early movers in a space that will only grow more competitive.

2. Consumer Trust and AI: A Work in Progress

While the potential is clear, user acceptance remains a sticking point. Professor Ana Canhoto highlighted a dual challenge: consumers are curious about AI, but many remain wary. In research studies and real-world trials, some users express discomfort with fully autonomous agents or decisions being made on their behalf.

“What builds trust is clarity - why is this agent here, what does it know, and how is it helping me?” she said.

Even subtle UX decisions - such as whether the AI appears human-like or bot-like  can shape user comfort. Being transparent about what the AI can and can’t do actually increases engagement. Users don’t expect magic but they expect honesty.

AI-driven sales comes down to designing with psychology in mind. It’s not just what the agent does, it’s how it makes the customer feel - confident, in control, understood.

3. The Future Is Personal, Predictive and Proactive

Keynote speaker Kate Ancketill, CEO of GDR Creative Intelligence, painted a vivid picture of the AI-infused future of commerce. Drawing on over two decades of experience advising global brands like Google and Coca-Cola, Kate explored the rise of “Agentic AI” - intelligent systems that can act independently to assist, recommend, or even purchase on behalf of users.

“We’re heading towards a world where your AI assistant doesn’t just respond to needs, it anticipates them,” she said. “Imagine an AI that knows your preferences, habits, and goals so well, it curates options before you even ask.”

Kate referenced examples from retail and hospitality where AI agents are already shaping proactive, personalised experiences. But she also stressed the need for a human-centred approach.

“With great personalisation comes great responsibility. If customers feel manipulated or surveilled, they’ll walk away. Trust and transparency must be engineered into every touchpoint.”

4. The Vodafone Story: Change from the Inside Out

The most candid and practical insights came from the fireside chat between Tom Cox, CEO of 15gifts, and Duncan Knight, Head of Digital Product & Sales UK at Vodafone. Their discussion traced the journey from Vodafone’s early use of guided selling to the significant decision to adopt a Virtual Sales Agent (VSA).

For Duncan, the shift to a VSA was driven by a clear goal: to enhance customer engagement while minimising friction in the digital sales process. However, the decision to implement the VSA was not made lightly. It required internal alignment across product, compliance, and commercial teams, alongside a compelling demonstration of ROI.

“We had to tackle some tough internal questions,” Duncan shared. “What’s the long-term value? Which KPIs should we prioritise? And how do we measure customer experience, not just conversion rates?”

Duncan also emphasised that Vodafone seeks technologies that provide more than surface-level functionality. "We’re not looking for a fancy filter," he explained. With his strong sales background, Duncan highlighted the importance of solutions that can address objections and understand customer psychology, moving towards sales tools capable of delivering more human-like interactions. The perceived ability of emerging technologies to offer genuine sales capabilities, rather than basic filtering, is key to their adoption.

The discussion offered a behind-the-scenes look at implementing cutting-edge AI within a global telecom giant. It reinforced a critical lesson: deploying transformative technologies is about more than innovation -it’s about aligning strategy and delivering clear, actionable results.

“If we’re not doing these things first, then we’re watching one of our competitors do it first”

5. AI and Human Expertise: Better Together

AI and human insight together create unmatched potential - a recurring theme across Kate’s predictions, the Vodafone use case, and the panel debate. While AI delivers speed, precision, and scalability, it’s the human touch that ensures solutions are meaningful, relatable, and impactful. This powerful combination enables businesses to achieve outcomes neither could accomplish alone.

The most effective solutions do more than automate tasks, they elevate the customer experience, fostering trust and loyalty. Successful digital sales strategies are those that feel genuinely helpful, highly personalised, and consistently build confidence and connection.

Harry Morphakis, Partner at Artefact suggests that in some services, "people want the human touch", and implementing Gen AI solely to make the process quicker and cheaper might not align with customer desires. Sales often involves building relationships and understanding emotional cues, areas where human interaction remains crucial and where customers might be less receptive to AI-driven experiences that lack this human connection.

Kate summarised it best in her closing remarks: “The most innovative companies aren’t chasing trends; they’re focused on leveraging technology to improve lives faster, easier, and smarter, while staying human.” This insight underscores a vital shift in innovation. Businesses should avoid technology for technology’s sake and embrace solutions that empower people, strengthen relationships, and solve real problems.

For companies looking to lead, the message is clear: the future belongs to those that balance advanced AI with the human element. By thoughtfully integrating technology, businesses can build solutions that resonate with the end user and drive real results

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Final Thoughts: A Turning Point for Digital Sales

If one thing was clear from The Future of Digital Sales, it's that we're standing at a pivotal moment where AI capability, customer expectations, and business ambition are finally aligning.

Across every session, we heard a consistent theme: success in this new era won't come from technology alone. It will come from blending intelligence with empathy, from designing AI that customers can trust, and from building experiences that feel personal, even at scale.

We’re proud to have launched Humara as part of that vision and we’re even more excited about what comes next.

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