Intelligent automation has ceased to be a promise to become routine in large business operations. Corporate chatbots, once seen only as self-service channels, now occupy a strategic role within sales teams, acting as commercial agents capable of qualifying leads, customizing messages at scale and anticipating customer needs. Driven by this transformation, the global market is expected to grow 44.8% by 2030, jumping from US$ 5.1 billion to US$ 47.1 billion, according to data from Valor and Creativa Online.
In Brazil, the movement follows the global pace. According to Softex, bots already exchange 6.9 billion messages per month with consumers and add 144 thousand active solutions, an increase of 148% in just one year. On the international scene, 78% of companies already use AI, and by the end of 2025, almost half of SaaS companies must adopt chatbots in their operations, according to a survey by Fullview. The B2B sector concentrates 58% of these implementations, consolidating bots as direct allies of strategic areas.
The impact of these tools is especially visible in periods of high demand.The dreaded impact of AI replacing human labor actually does not happen in the sales segment.In such hectic times, such as Black Friday, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, chatbots take on their own the steps of screening, customer qualification and other operational tasks, freeing up time for what really needs human attention: relationship and negotiation.
The evolution of AI models has brought to the corporate environment a new level of customization, something that, until recently, was unfeasible in operations dependent on manual work.The technology allows to recognize the user profile, understand their stage in the purchase journey and record the entire history of search and interaction.
It was through artificial intelligence that the market gave a new meaning to the word ‘PERSonalization’. Knowing who the customer is, what he seeks and what his moment is. All this makes the difference in the initial approach and the rest of the conversation. In addition, the omnichannel saves the information of each individual, so that at the time of interaction, the robot recognizes which sites are safe and of interest.
From salesman to strategic consultantWith chatbots becoming more robust, the role of the human salesperson also transforms.Teams stop devoting time to initial and repetitive questions, focusing efforts on more complex stages of the trading process, such as negotiation and closing.
Generative AI and NLP (Natural Language Processing) technologies have added proactivity to communication channels, allowing bots to identify intentions, anticipate objections, and act 24 hours a day.
In many operations, they work from capture to after-sales. During this period, they collect price expectations, hesitations, emotional patterns and signs of opportunity. This information feeds back marketing and product departments. With generative AI and integration with CRMs, bots fail to answer basic questions and take complete steps of the sales funnel, customizing customer service and increasing commercial efficiency.
**Romulo Balga is CEO of Maxbot, omnichannel platform specialized in optimizing the service of companies to its customers. With more than 10 years of experience in the technology and customer service sector, the executive is currently one of the most important names in the sector in the country. He began his entrepreneurial career at the head of a software house, Runtime Sistema, in 2010, and a year later, he founded Ther Sistemas, developing projects on demand, mainly for virtual stores.
