Despite growing investment in AI-enabled sales training, organisations struggle to link adoption with business outcomes, according to an upGrad Enterprise survey. The findings highlight a significant disconnect between technology deployment and practical utilisation. While 49% of organisations have deployed AI and digital enablement tools, only 6.6% of teams actively use simulation-based training infrastructure. Further, 61% said they want specialised AI practice tools integrated into existing corporate systems.
The report, which covered more than 10,000 respondents across sectors including pharmaceuticals, banking and financial services (BFSI), manufacturing, consumer goods, information technology (IT), retail and automotive, found that 54% of organisations lose at least 10% of potential revenue due to capability and skill deficits. According to Arushee Aggarwal, chief executive officer of upGrad Enterprise, the difference between investment and impact is due to three key factors: use-case clarity, data quality issues, and lack of connection to revenue or cost metrics.
Traditional training programmes appear to be falling short, with nearly 79% of respondents saying training is not built around real customer conversations. Additionally, 47.9% want a greater say in training design. At the same time, 79.1% of organisations have not built the infrastructure needed to connect training investments with commercial outcomes, as reported by upGrad Enterprise.
Aggarwal identified that the greatest potential for AI lies in simulating real customer interactions and analysing recorded sales conversations. According to her, the maximum impact has been in real-life simulation of customer interaction, allowing employees to practise scenarios, understand customer needs and improve frontline performance. The connection to broader organisational objectives such as revenue, cost, brand, shareholder value and employee value is often missing, she added.
upGrad Enterprise is the corporate skilling and workforce transformation division of global skilling firm upGrad. It has so far partnered with nearly 3,000 mid-sized and large organisations to equip their workforce with market-ready skills and mindsets that drive success.
