Microsoft launches new AI-powered Viva Sales tool

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.

Microsoft says Viva Sales can be used in conjunction with Microsoft’s own Dynamics CRM platform, or Salesforce.