“Live Call AI” is the most exciting development in sales tech right now. Let's dive into the evolution of this trend.

First, what is “Live Call AI”? It’s an AI copilot that gives real-time help to the seller in the context of a sales call.

To understand that, we have to go back to the birth of sales call recorders.

2015 - “Game Tapes” as a service

Gong & Chorus birthed the “call recording” category. They gave sales teams the ability to record, replay, and share sales calls. In essence, they focused on providing “game tapes” and AI that let sales managers coach sales reps after the call.

2018 - Game Tapes Meet Real-Time “Battle Cards”

Wingman was the first company to go from “game tapes” to helping you “win the game”. They surfaced contextual cues about pricing or competition as “battle cards” live in a call. Sales Enablement created the cards; Wingman surfaced them to the seller based on the conversation. This is the earliest example of “Live Call AI” in sales. 

2020 - Explosion of Battle Cards

In sales tech, no good idea goes uncopied. Outreach added real-time battle cards to their AI assistant - Kaia - in 2020. Aircover followed in 2021, Clari in 2022 (by acquiring Wingman), and Microsoft in 2023. 

Interestingly, Gong and Chorus have not added this capability yet. Not sure why.

2024 - Forget Battle Cards, Meet an AI Sales Engineer

I started HeySam in 2023 with four basic critiques of this trend:

• Reps hate being “coached” in real-time, especially after they have ramped
• Popping up random battle cards in the middle of the call distracts reps
• Most reps will master the pitch, competitive intel, and customer wins within 4 months. They will not master the product.
• Who has the time to create and maintain battle cards?

From these critiques came Sam. Sam is the AI Sales Engineer reps add to calls instead of human SEs, just in case things get 'technical'

Sam answers complex product questions, without requiring your team to build & maintain battle cards that quickly go out of date. It does not distract the rep with random pop-ups; it helps only when it’s asked to help.

2026 - AI Sales Rep

HeySam doesn’t replace an SE. It augments them.

But, in the next two years, I am sure some startup will create the first ever sales rep that could sell. Artisan.co has already built an SDR. 

Will that work? Let’s all wait and see.