At the latest TechForward Research Seminar Series, organised by HYSEA & International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) and hosted at Seismic, one idea cut through clearly:

AI in sales is no longer just assisting – it’s starting to act.

Ramesh Loganathan opened by framing TechForward as the meeting point of academia and industry on emerging tech.

Pramod Agrawal, VP of Engineering at Seismic India and Seminar Chair, anchored the discussion around “Improving Seller Productivity with Agentic AI.”

From the industry side, Vishnu Makkapati, Senior Manager – AI Engineering at Seismic India, shared how enterprises are already putting this to work – sharpening buyer engagement, enabling execution, coaching, and decision-making through AI built on strong data foundations and approaches like Agentic RAG. These systems are becoming more contextual, adaptive, and embedded into everyday workflows.

Bringing the academic lens, Prof. Praveen Paruchuri of International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH) explored AI in negotiation itself – software agents representing humans, weighing trade-offs, and reaching outcomes under real-world constraints. A clear move from chat-based assistance to decision-capable systems.

The underlying shift:

Industry is moving from tools that support sellers to systems that participate in the process itself.

The promise is real – but without strong intent, structured data, and human oversight, Agentic AI can’t deliver meaningful outcomes.

AI not just changing how sales teams work – it’s redefining what part of the work humans do.