Shadow Seller AI and FRONTLINE Selling Forge Strategic Partnership

Contact:

Tyler Pearson High Iron - tyler@high-iron.com

Shadow Seller AI / FRONTLINE Selling

sboardman@shadowsellerai.com

Shadow Seller AI and FRONTLINE Selling Forge Strategic Partnership

Cutting-Edge GenAI Solution Aims to Improve Sales Pipeline Success

Atlanta (June 24, 2024) — Shadow Seller AI, a leader in generative AI technology for sales enablement, and FRONTLINE Selling, an established expert in pipeline growth strategies, are excited to announce a strategic partnership. This collaboration will integrate Shadow Seller’s GenAI solution both internally at FRONTLINE Selling and across their extensive client base.

"Shadow revolutionizes sales by integrating best practices, personalized solutions, and market strategies with industry-specific insights. This AI-driven sales coach & mentor offers tailored advice and guidance, empowering sellers to navigate complex sales challenges—from account strategy development to managing prospect dynamics and competitive pressures. With Shadow, sellers can be better prepared, faster, while sales leaders enhance team performance with confidence in the coaching provided. Organizations benefit from reduced training costs and time, driving faster success and greater profitability."

Under the terms of the partnership, FRONTLINE Selling will:

1. Implement Shadow internally to enhance operational efficiency and sales effectiveness.

2. Position and integrate Shadow into their product offerings, providing their clients access to this advanced GenAI tool to improve their sales opportunity conversions & pipeline growth.

"FRONTLINE recognizes the strategic benefits and future potential of integrating Shadow into their operations, enhancing value to their clients," said Simon Boardman, CEO of Shadow Seller AI. "By adding Shadow to their toolkit, FRONTLINE aims to boost their clients’ sales team readiness and performance. Unlike many tools that burden sales teams with monitoring & reporting overhead, Shadow provides genuine value, empowering sellers rather than constraining them."

“Our goal has always been to generate the most qualified meaningful conversations for our clients so they can focus on creating growth opportunities within their organizations. What we have found, over time, is that the first call is becoming less and less tactical and more informational, resulting in fewer opportunities and longer sales cycles” said Jason Stone, President, and CEO of FRONTLINE Selling. “By using Shadow, sales reps can become better prepared and structured on these calls, driving value, strategic alignment, belief, and preference instead of just gathering and providing information. With Shadow you can build a blueprint for every call and progress through the sales process more tactically and with greater success. Timely, efficient preparation is key.” 

About Shadow Seller AI 

Shadow Seller AI is at the forefront of using generative artificial intelligence to revolutionize B2B sales. Their flagship product, Shadow, leverages machine learning and natural language processing to streamline sales coaching, readiness and enhance decision-making. For more information, visit: www.shadowsellerai.com

About FRONTLINE Selling 

FRONTLINE Selling is committed to helping businesses increase their sales pipeline and drive revenue growth through innovative strategies and solutions. With a track record of success, FRONTLINE Selling equips companies to achieve their sales objectives with greater efficiency. For more information, visit: www.FRONTLINEselling.com

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AI to influence workplace in next few years - read all about it.

Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas in Dumb & Dumber the 1994 Peter Farrelly movie.

The 2024 Work Trend Index by Microsoft and LinkedIn delves into the increasing importance of AI skills in the workplace, how AI impacts businesses and employees, and the role organizations play in encouraging AI adoption. It also offers a glimpse into the future of work in the AI era, where success will hinge on the ability to collaborate with and utilize AI.

Spoiler alert - the report concludes pretty much that if you don't get your arms around AI, you'll be yesterdays news, consigned to the scrap heap of utility faster than a baby-boomer. Maybe you'll be as surprised as Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) was the first time he realized that we'd been to the moon.

The 2024 Work Trend Index insists that AI skills are the new workplace gold. No surprise, what do you expect? But as skeptical as I can sometimes be, it's hard to argue with this conclusion. Anyhow - read on as we have reproduced a copy of the report summary:

The desire for AI skills is not just a passing fad; it's a reflection of the transformative impact AI is having on businesses across industries. From automating routine tasks to analyzing vast amounts of data, AI is enabling organizations to operate more efficiently, make better decisions, and innovate faster. As a result, the ability to understand, implement, and optimize AI solutions is becoming a critical competitive advantage.

However, the advantage with AI skills is not just about proficiency with tools; it's also about mindset. More than half (52%) of AI users at work are reluctant to admit they are using it for their most important tasks, and a similar proportion (53%) worry that using AI for important work makes them look replaceable. These fears are understandable when employees are not receiving AI guidance from their leaders; in fact, only 39% of people globally who use AI at work have gotten AI training from their company. If leaders want AI-skilled talent, they need to create a working environment that encourages experimentation and learning with enterprise safe AI tools. Managers and employees alike need to embrace a mindset where AI is seen as a collaborator, not a competitor.

For example, as a manager, I encourage my teams to incorporate AI into their work. I systematically ask them, "Did you use an AI tool to check your writing or help brainstorm new ideas?" If they haven't, I request they do so before we debrief. To facilitate this, I even cover their subscriptions to AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot. I tell them that using AI is a sign of smartness, not of weakness.

I believe that managers should advocate for this approach. Employees should think of utilizing AI like any other everyday work technology such as Excel for calculations. You never hear someone say that Excel performed the calculations; they will always say that they have done it. In the same way, when we use AI to improve a report, it is not AI that did the report, it is us, with the support of AI. AI usage should become a standard practice, as natural as using other technical tools that have become common in the workplace.

AI is a tool that augments and enhances their capabilities, not one that replaces them. This means recognizing that the value of human skills - creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence - is not diminished, but elevated in an AI-driven workplace. Those who are embracing AI first are seeing that edge. AI power users are familiar to extremely familiar with AI, using it at work at least several times a week and saving more than 30 minutes a day. Power users say AI makes their overwhelming workload more manageable (92%), boosts their creativity (92%), and helps them focus on the most important work (93%)—and it helps them feel more motivated (91%) and enjoy work more (91%).

Organizations have a critical role to play in fostering this mindset shift. By providing training and support for AI adoption, creating a culture of experimentation and learning, and recognizing and rewarding the unique contributions of human skills, they can help employees navigate this transition with confidence. At the same time, individuals have a responsibility to proactively develop their AI skills and to approach AI as an opportunity for growth and development.

The message is clear: in the AI era, your success will be determined not just by your traditional skills and experience, but by your ability to work with and leverage AI. In the near future, you will not be replaced by AI, but by a person using AI better than you. The rise of AI in the workplace represents a paradigm shift that requires a collective readjustment - in our skills, our mindsets, and our understanding of what it means to succeed and find fulfillment at work. By approaching this shift with openness, adaptability, and a commitment to lifelong learning, we can harness the power of AI to create a workplace that is not just more productive, but more human. The future of work is here, and it's an exciting one for those ready to embrace it.

Shadow's GenAI Event Debrief

We held a tremendous British American Business Council event in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, with a room packed with business leaders and practitioners. There was plenty of interest in the presentation topic and the panel discussion, and it is worth summarizing what was presented, the takeaways and a new service that has been created to manage several real-world GenAI concerns that arose.

Thanks to BABC President Ed Haines for the welcome. A few photos are added to the end of this post. 

Demystifying Generative AI

Simon Boardman and I attempted to present the history of AI, generative AI theory, use cases and benefits plus a couple of demos in 45 minutes. It was fast and furious! Some of the topics included:

• AI Evolution: We traced AI development from foundational theories by Turing and McCarthy to contemporary applications like Siri and ChatGPT.

• Key Milestones: Highlighted significant achievements such as IBM's Deep Blue and Google DeepMind's AlphaGo, showcasing AI's milestones.

• AI Layers: Explained distinctions between AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, discussing their applications across various industries.

• AI Use Cases: We presented the broad applicability of Generative AI across industries, emphasizing its role in content creation, customer interaction, and data analysis.

• Risk and Future Considerations: Addressed several risks and envisioned future advancements in AI for transforming business operations and decision-making.

• Demonstration: Showcased ChatGPT, Meta AI and a custom GPT called Shadow from ShadowSeller AI.

• Presentation here

Panel Discussion 

[Panel: Laurie Hood, Carson Topping, Jason Stone, Andy McCartney]

Our panel was asked a series of questions about pros, cons and experiences to date with GenAI use at their companies. We can all read about the many use cases across business departments, but we talked about more general usage, such as:

• Document analysis: Summarizing, categorizing, and extracting key information from documents.

• Prospect and competitive research: Gathering and analyzing data on market trends, competitors, and customer insights.

• Decision recommendations: Providing data-driven suggestions to enhance decision-making.

• Content creation: Generating written, visual, or multimedia content for marketing and communications.

• We touched on more advanced usage, integrating and automating GenAI content into business workflows using tools such as Zapier and Make. 

We also discussed several real-world concerns about GenAI use, including bias, errors/hallucinations, job displacement, privacy/confidentiality breaches, skill requirements, and energy needs. Some are show stoppers preventing GenAI adoption in certain business functions, some require preparation, some need to wait for LLM enhancements. 

All in all it was an enlightening event with fellow professionals, based around a technology that is rapidly changing, requiring ongoing diligence. 

Creation of a New Kick-Start GenAI Service

Simon and I held our own debrief and both formed the conclusion that businesses would be well served with a GenAI kick-start type service, that holistically addresses both opportunity and risk. Smaller businesses without significant IT departments are more likely to need external assistance with new technologies and practices. 

We will be launching this service within the next week, here is a one page overview of the kick-start program: (and a screenshot)

Feel free to reach out with any questions, ideas or other ways to collaborate with this fascinating new technology and business enabler.

Event photos:

Ed Haines, president of BABC Georgia introduces the session

Andy McCartney walks through the history of AI, and business use cases

Simon Boardman introduces GenAI and the custom GPT known as Shadow

Lively discussion with the panel

Thanks for your time today!

Andy McCartney