Designed to bridge the gap between Microsoft 365, Teams and CRM, Viva Sales automates data entry tasks and delivers AI-powered insights to sales teams. Credit: Fizkes / Getty Images Microsoft has announced the launch of Viva Sales, a new sales tool that marks the first job-specific module of the company’s Viva Insights recommendation tool. Launched last year, Viva Insights surfaces personalized news, analytics, and knowledge for employees. Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for modern work at Microsoft, said that until now, every module available in Viva has been broadly applicable to every employee in the company. “Viva Sales is the first module that takes a different dimensional tack. It is focused on helping people, specifically salespeople, to get their job done.” Described as a “smart CRM companion”, Viva Sales pulls customer engagement data from Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams and uses machine learning to turn that information into personalized recommendations and insights for salespeople. Spataro said the tool should act as a bridge between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and communication tools, acting as an “intelligence layer” that connects the dots across systems. For example, a salesperson can tag customers in Outlook, Teams or Office applications like Excel, which allows Viva Sales to automatically capture it as a customer record and pair it with any relevant CRM data. Viva Sales can then recommend next steps to progress a customer through the sales funnel, prioritize work, and provide sellers with access to a full history of any customer interactions. “As you work with a customer, you can not only see your own interactions, you can also see across your company and find all the people that are interacting with your client as well,” Spataro said. At launch, Microsoft says Viva Sales can be used in conjunction with Microsoft’s own Dynamics CRM platform, or Salesforce. The platform also provides AI-driven recommendations and uses Context IQ to ensure relevant content is connected across Microsoft apps and services like Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365. Spataro said that as the speed of business continues to increase, there are areas of work where humans are increasingly struggling to keep up, particularly when it comes to the number of daily messages, emails and inputs most employees are now receiving and expected to action. “We’re trying to apply AI not only to remove the boring stuff, but also to provide real value add so that you can cope with the volume and the expectations associated with you doing your job,” he said. Microsoft isn’t alone in this mission either, as Salesforce has long had its own AI-powered recommendations tool Einstein, and other vendors continue to automate various admin tasks for employees using their tools. Related content opinion GenAI is to data visibility what absolute zero is to a hot summer day Given the plethora of privacy rules already in place in Europe, how are companies with shiny, new, not-understood genAI tools supposed to comply? (Hint: they can’t.) By Evan Schuman May 06, 2024 6 mins Data Privacy GDPR Generative AI news How many jobs are available in technology in the US? Tech unemployment was down slightly in April, but AI hiring was up — way up. And job listings showed more signs of a shift in recruiting practices with a growing emphasis on skill-based hiring. By Lucas Mearian May 06, 2024 160 mins Remote Work Salaries Financial Services Industry news With its new iPad, Apple's Empire strikes back Apple is preparing to introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models as it seeks to regain momentum in the tablet market. By Jonny Evans May 06, 2024 5 mins iPad Apple Tablets opinion Can AI tools help reduce Zoom fatigue? When it comes to meetings, whether in person or on video, can anything make them better? Yes, but it’s not the technology. By Steven Vaughan-Nichols May 06, 2024 5 mins Augmented Reality Generative AI Zoom Video Communications Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe