AI is dominating every conversation in sales right now—but behind the hype, a harder truth is emerging: most organizations aren’t ready for it. From fixing fractured data foundations to redefining what “value” means in modern sales, one message came through clearly: the future of revenue success isn’t something you can buy—it’s something you have to build.
At two recent Appinium and Mediafly roundtables in California, revenue leaders pulled back the curtain on what it really takes to turn AI from a buzzword into business impact. Our roundtable for Salesforce customers, From Salesforce Excellence to the Agentic Enterprise, featured presenters Steve Jacobsen, founder and Chief Growth Officer at Appinium, a Mediafly Company; Darian Edwards, Chief Technology Officer at Appinium; and Mike Milburn, former Chief Customer Officer at Salesforce, now a GTM executive with Swantide.
Steve Jacobson kicked things off with a simple but powerful idea: your Salesforce instance isn’t just a tool—it’s the foundation for everything else you want to achieve, including AI. Without the right infrastructure, architecture and governance in place, even the most advanced AI initiatives will fall flat.
He put it best with an analogy: “Rome wasn’t great because of the Colosseum … it was their plumbing, their roadways—their infrastructure—that allowed them to build what they did. The same is true for Salesforce.”
And the same is true for AI. If your data—your prompts—are messy, incomplete or poorly structured, AI won’t fix it. AI isn’t magic.
In fact, as the panel discussed:
- Bad data in = bad outcomes at scale
- Lack of governance of your data leads to confusion about what actually works
The takeaway? Data needs a seat at the table—every time.
With or without AI, data flow where it counts is at the heart of Salesforce and any CRM. And it’s what makes Appinium unique. Because it is 100% native to Salesforce, Appinium’s Learning platform and Content Hub puts training and content directly into seller workflows, turning all the activity into meaningful and useful data that is centralized on Salesforce.
Using Appinium, companies can:
- Track learner engagement across teams
- Identify which content is actually being used (and what’s being ignored)
- Spot knowledge gaps before they become performance issues
- Accelerate time-to-productivity
The Shift from SaaS to Outcomes
The panel also discussed how we’re entering a new era in the Salesforce ecosystem. It’s no longer just about adoption, it’s about outcomes.
That shift is changing everything:
- Success is now measured by usage and business impact, not just licenses
- Sales teams are becoming accountable for customer success and retention
- Organizations are being forced to rethink how they define—and measure—value
This isn’t a small tweak. It’s a fundamental reset.
Where to Start (Without Getting Overwhelmed)
All of this can feel big. But the advice here was refreshingly practical: start small.
- Pick one workflow you understand well
- Define what success looks like (clearly!)
- Ensure you have clean, trusted data
- Measure outcomes, then iterate
Trying to fix everything at once is where a lot of organizations get stuck.
A New Era of Accountability
One of the most interesting shifts discussed was accountability. For the first time, everyone in the ecosystem—vendors, partners, and customers—can be measured against real outcomes.
That means:
- No more finger-pointing
- Greater visibility into what’s working (and what’s not)
- A stronger focus on continuous improvement
It’s a big change—but ultimately, a healthy one.
Delivering Value PLUS Seller Confidence in the Age of AI
At our Mediafly Drive Revenue: Sales Enablement Roundtable, Tony Kavadas, Chief Sales Officer at Mediafly, was joined by panelists Clint Oram, cohost of the “PROMT This” podcast and former Chief Sales Officer at SugarCRM; and Drew Nielsen, Senior Director or Product Marketing Strategy at VMware.
This conversation felt equal parts energizing and sobering with the discussion centering on a question many organizations are wrestling with right now: How do you move faster, do more with less, and still deliver real value in the age of AI?
Enablement for Alignment and Acceleration
Clint Oram opened with a practical example from his time at SugarCRM. By partnering with Mediafly and taking advantage of its ready integration with SugarCRM, the company transformed how it approached sales enablement and content management. The result? A more streamlined go-to-market motion and a noticeable acceleration in execution.
If you’ve worked in sales, you probably know the pain he described:
- Digging for the right deck
- Wondering if your content is outdated
- Realizing partners are out there creating their own materials because they can’t find what they need
What stood out in Clint’s story wasn’t just the technology—it was alignment.
After bringing on Mediafly, sellers, partners and leadership all worked from the same playbook, with consistent messaging and up-to-date data. And that kind of alignment builds something that’s hard to measure but incredibly important: seller confidence.
AI is Powerful, but it’s Not the Storyteller
Drew Nielsen brought a helpful dose of realism to the AI conversation. Yes, his team uses AI every day. Yes, it’s incredibly effective at generating content. But there’s a limit.
“You can’t tell a value story with AI.” That line stuck.
AI can help you move faster, generate ideas and scale output—but it doesn’t replace the human ability to connect the dots, understand nuance, and craft a story that resonates with buyers. In a world where content is becoming easier and cheaper to produce, the real differentiator is making it meaningful for business outcomes.
Mediafly enablement incorporates AI designed for outcomes, speeding workflows for revenue teams with its Engagement platform, building ROI stories with its Value tools and services, and automating onboarding and Learning with Appinium—with agentic AI coming soon to further assist every seller.
From Content Chaos to Value-Driven Conversations
For Tony Kavadas, everything comes back to delivering value. At Mediafly, the goal is simple but ambitious: empower sellers to bring value to every single customer interaction. That means more than just storing content; it’s about integrating content, learning and value into one cohesive experience.
And when that happens, things start to click:
- Sellers know exactly which materials to use—and when
- Teams gain insight into which content measurably drives deals forward
- Everyone operates from a single source of truth
Instead of guessing, teams are making decisions based on real data. And that shift—from standard workflows to actions based on buyer insights—is changing how sales organizations operate.
The Pressure is Real (and Coming from the Top)
One of the more candid parts of the conversation centered on the growing pressure organizations are facing to adopt AI—and to cut costs while doing it.
Boardrooms are asking for 20-40% reductions in sales and marketing spend. Leaders are challenged to deliver more with smaller, leaner teams. And AI is often positioned as the answer. And in many ways, it is.
Tasks that used to take weeks can now be completed in minutes. RFPs that once drained time and energy can be generated almost instantly. Content creation, once a bottleneck, is now nearly limitless.
But that speed comes with a tradeoff.
The Human Cost of Moving Faster
As productivity increases, so do expectations.
“Instead of making 10 meaningful decisions in a week, you’re making 10 meaningful decisions before lunch,” as one speaker described it. Specialists are becoming generalists. And many people are quietly asking themselves: How sustainable is this pace?
There’s an undercurrent here that’s easy to miss. Yes, AI is unlocking incredible efficiency, but it’s also demanding more from the people using it.
And that’s where balance becomes critical.
A Helpful Analogy: AI is today’s GPS
One of the more relatable comparisons from the event looked back a few years, when GPS apps became mainstream.
At first, many of us felt GPS wasn’t needed at all. But sometimes, Tony said, we still got lost. “Our kids never get lost because they’ve always used GPS to navigate where they’re going.”
AI is following a similar path.
The next generation of sellers won’t see AI as optional. It will simply be part of how they work.
But there’s an important caveat: AI shouldn’t make sellers dumber.
It should make them sharper, faster, and more effective: freeing them up to focus on what truly matters: spending more time building relationships, understanding customer needs, and delivering sales pitches that show real value.
Where This All Lands
If there was one theme that carried through the entire conversation, it’s this: We’re in the early stages of a massive shift.
AI is real. It’s here. And it’s reshaping how work gets done across every function.
But the organizations that win won’t just be the ones that adopt AI the fastest. They’ll be the ones that use it thoughtfully, pairing its speed and scale with human insight, creativity and empathy.
Because in the end, value isn’t generated by technology alone. It’s created in the moments where people connect, understand and solve real problems together.
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