aiblLIVE London
20 October 2026
Convene Sancroft, London
Practical AI adoption for business leaders, with a dedicated track covering sales, marketing and revenue operations.
Official siteAI and B2B sales
Practical thinking on AI and B2B sales
AI is changing how B2B sales teams prospect, sell and operate. But the market is full of exaggerated claims, endless tools and advice from people who have never actually run a sales team.
AI Sales Stack is about what actually works.
Writing, analysis and practical frameworks covering prospecting, outbound, CRM, sales operations and revenue generation.
By David McCready, 23+ years in B2B sales leadership.
Answer 15 practical questions about your sales operation and discover where AI could create the biggest commercial impact.
What you'll find here
AI sales tools
What works, what doesn't, and which tools are genuinely worth your time and money.
Outbound
How to build outbound systems that generate conversations and pipeline rather than activity for activity's sake.
Prospecting
ICP definition, data, enrichment, research and the practical application of AI to finding the right prospects.
Email & LinkedIn
Deliverability, messaging, sequencing and the reality of modern outbound.
Sales operations
CRM, automation, call intelligence, reporting and the systems that sit behind a productive sales team.
Sales tool spend
Which tools a sales team is actually using, which it isn't, and how to tell the difference.
What AI should actually do
Where AI genuinely saves time, where it improves performance, and where a salesperson is still better off doing the job themselves.
The problem
Salespeople aren't short of tools. They're short of selling time.
Modern sales teams are surrounded by technology.
CRMs. Sequencers. Data platforms. AI assistants. Conversation intelligence. LinkedIn tools. Enrichment platforms.
Yet much of a salesperson's day is still consumed by:
Research
Data entry
CRM updates
Finding contact details
Writing emails
Preparing for calls
Updating forecasts
Chasing information
The result is predictable.
Salespeople spend less time having conversations with people who might actually buy.
And adding another tool doesn't necessarily solve the problem.
The technology isn't the problem. The way it is put together is.
The opportunity
AI can give salespeople their time back.
Used properly, AI can remove large amounts of repetitive work from the sales process.
Research prospects
Identify buying signals
Build and verify lists
Personalise outreach
Summarise calls
Update CRM records
Surface opportunities
Improve reporting
Connect the different parts of the sales operation
But AI doesn't magically create revenue.
The advantage comes from building the right system around it.
This isn't about replacing the sales team. It's about giving them more time to sell.
The AI Sales Stack Framework
Five components of an AI-enabled sales operation
AI isn't one tool. It's a stack. The value comes from how the different components work together.
01
Infrastructure
The foundations that make everything else work.
Email deliverability, domains, authentication, sending infrastructure and data hygiene.
02
Prospecting
Finding the right companies and people.
ICP definition, data sourcing, enrichment, verification and AI-assisted research.
03
Outreach
Turning good prospects into conversations.
Email, LinkedIn, sequencing, personalisation and signal-based outreach.
04
Operations
Making the sales machine run properly.
CRM configuration, pipeline management, automation, call intelligence and workflow design.
05
Measurement
Knowing what is actually working.
Reporting, optimisation, attribution, handover and training.
The objective isn't to automate sales. It's to build a sales operation where your people spend more of their time doing the things humans are best at.
What I believe
Less hype. More commercial reality.
You don't need 47 AI tools.
You don't need an AI agent for everything.
You don't need to replace your CRM.
And you certainly don't need to automate every interaction with a prospect.
The best AI sales systems are usually simpler than the people selling them suggest.
Use AI where it creates leverage.
Keep humans where judgement, trust and relationships matter.
Measure the commercial outcome, not the number of automations you've built.
Latest writing
Practical guides for modern B2B sales teams
Email Deliverability for B2B Sales: Why Most Cold Email Never Reaches the Inbox
Most B2B cold email never reaches the inbox. It's a deliverability problem, not a messaging problem. This guide explains why cold email fails and how to land in the inbox consistently.
8 min readRead More
What Is an AI Sales Stack? A Plain-English Guide for 2026
An AI sales stack is the connected set of tools a B2B sales team uses to find buyers, run outreach, write up calls, and keep the CRM honest. Here's what it actually includes, what it doesn't, and whether you need one.
7 min readRead More
LinkedIn Outbound for B2B Sales: The 2026 Playbook
Most B2B teams do LinkedIn outreach badly: generic requests, instant pitches, over-automation. This playbook shows how to do it properly and coordinate it with email for maximum effect.
8 min readRead More
Events worth considering
A selection of upcoming events covering AI adoption, sales technology and revenue operations, chosen for their relevance to commercial leaders.
Chief Revenue Officer Summit
1 December 2026
InterContinental London - The O2
A gathering for senior revenue leaders exploring commercial strategy, leadership and the changing role of technology across revenue teams.
Official siteRevenue Operations Summit
2-3 December 2026
InterContinental London - The O2
For revenue operations leaders working on forecasting, CRM reliability, data quality and practical AI adoption.
Official siteDavos Catalyst
12-15 January 2027
Davos, Switzerland
A curated AI summit bringing together investors, founders, corporate leaders and researchers.
Official siteDates and programmes can change. Check the organiser's website before booking.
Podcasts Worth Your Time
The shows we actually listen to on AI in B2B sales, sales operations and revenue leadership.
AI in B2B sales specifically
AI4Sales Edge
Jelena Pepic
Real-world case studies on how AI is changing B2B sales, from pipeline hygiene and lead quality to revenue execution at scale.
ListenB2B sales, strong practitioner audiences
30 Minutes to President's Club
Nick Cegelski and Armand Farrokh
One of the most consistently ranked B2B sales podcasts. Short, tactical episodes built around what top sellers actually do.
ListenOutbound Squad
Jason Bay
Outbound-specific interviews with sales experts, leaders and top-performing reps on turning cold contacts into pipeline.
ListenThe Transaction
Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson
Go-to-market focused, with sales, marketing and operations crossover. Useful for anyone joining the dots between functions.
ListenGrow & Tell
Alex Kracov and Eric Doty (Dock)
Sales enablement focus with revenue leaders sharing how they build teams and content. Has leaned into AI content through 2026.
ListenSales Success Stories
Scott Ingram
Long-form interviews with top individual sales performers about the habits and process behind their numbers.
ListenUK and Europe focused
Rattle & Pedal
Jason Mlicki and Jeff McKay (Rattleback)
Divergent thinking on marketing and growth for professional services and B2B firms, including UK and continental Europe businesses.
ListenBroader B2B revenue and GTM leadership
Topline
Sam Jacobs, AJ Bruno and Asad Zaman (Pavilion)
Weekly debate on the trends moving B2B tech, from the largest B2B revenue leader community. Strong hot takes, useful signal.
ListenThe GTMnow Podcast
Sophie Buonassisi
Interviews with operators, executives and investors on how the fastest-growing software companies build and scale go-to-market.
ListenSaaStr
Jason Lemkin and guest hosts
B2B SaaS founders and executives talking about scale, with a growing volume of AI and agent-led sales coverage.
ListenAI in marketing, adjacent but relevant
AI Marketing
Mark Fidelman
Practical episodes on the AI tools marketers use to lift leads and conversions, with frequent tool teardowns.
ListenThe Backstory on Marketing and AI
Guy Powell
Data-driven marketing meets AI, with a measurement and attribution slant that translates well to sales reporting.
ListenMarketing Over Coffee
Christopher Penn and John Wall
Long-running weekly show that has featured most of the major marketing voices, with steady coverage of AI in practice.
ListenWhat people say
From people I've worked with
"Incredibly knowledgeable, results and solution driven."
James Keane
Sales Manager
"David was a pleasure to work with, always professional and great to be around."
Jeet Gillingham
Sales Manager
"A strong, seasoned, commercial sales leader."
Chris Shanks
Conference Director
"He is witty, friendly, cooperative, trustful, and professional. He promises only what he can deliver."
Constantinos Peonides
CEO
"If you're looking for someone who can make an impact, then he is your guy."
Tom Moon
Sales Leader
"If you are looking to get in front of the right people, then David is the man you want on your side."
James Layfield
AI Innovator
"His hard working and personable nature are the keys to his success."
Leon Kantor
COO
"There are few better business closers that I have worked with."
Sanjay Thapan
Sales Manager
"David is the ultimate professional. He is one of the hardest working and conscientious people I know."
Ziad Khairallah
B2B Sales Leader
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Built by a sales leader, not an AI vendor
AI Sales Stack is written by David McCready, a senior commercial leader with more than two decades of experience building and running B2B sales teams across events, conferences and media.
David has held senior sales leadership roles throughout his career, working across sponsorship, exhibition, subscription, advertising and other complex B2B revenue models.
Currently Commercial Director at Ocean Media Group, where his brief includes embedding AI tools across the commercial function.
Over the past few years, his focus has increasingly been on understanding where AI can genuinely improve the way sales teams work, from prospecting and research through to outreach, CRM, proposals, pipeline management and sales operations.
AI Sales Stack exists to explore that intersection from the perspective of someone who has actually run sales teams.
The aim is simple: to separate what AI can genuinely do for sales teams from what the industry says it can do.
FAQ
AI Sales Stack is a practical publication about how AI is changing B2B sales, sales operations and revenue generation.
David McCready, a senior B2B sales leader with 23+ years of commercial experience across technology, events and B2B media.
The combination of technology, processes and workflows used to improve prospecting, outreach, sales operations and measurement.
No. The principles apply to any B2B company with a sales team, a CRM and a growing list of tools.
Please get in touch before republishing substantial content.
Join the mailing list via the site.
Get in touch
If something you've read here is relevant to your sales operation, send a message.