The Art of the Possible Series: AI for Operations and Sales

As founders look toward 2027, the opportunity with AI is not simply to adopt more tools, but to build a more efficient, scalable and repeatable business.

This practical session will feature Meghan Goddin, Vice President of Sales Operations at Blend360, in conversation with Maggie Melnick, Chief Client Officer at Blend360.

Together, they bring complementary perspectives on how AI can create meaningful business value. Meghan will bring the sales operations lens, sharing how AI can strengthen workflows, improve sales execution, create greater visibility across the pipeline and help move organizations from founder-dependent processes toward more repeatable systems. Maggie will bring the client growth and business strategy perspective, exploring how Client Leaders and Sales Operations can collaborate and leverage AI to uncover new growth opportunities, identify and engage new buyers, enable more targeted sales efforts and strengthen existing client relationships and satisfaction.

Participants will explore how AI can streamline workflows, capture and systematize founder knowledge, strengthen prospecting and sales follow-up, improve pipeline visibility, and reduce administrative burden, while also understanding where human judgment, relationships, creativity and strategic thinking remain essential.

The goal is not to introduce founders to more AI tools. It is to help them answer a more important question:

Where can AI create meaningful leverage in my business and what should I change first?

Founders will leave with a practical framework for deciding what to simplify, systematize, automate and measure as they enter 2027.

Key Takeaways

• Identify where AI can create the greatest business value. Pinpoint where time, revenue, capacity, or opportunities are being lost and identify 2–3 high-value areas where AI can create meaningful leverage.
• Turn founder-led work into repeatable systems. Learn how to capture knowledge, document workflows, create consistency and make critical activities easier to delegate, automate and scale.
• Build a stronger sales engine. Explore how AI can support prospect research, lead generation, account preparation, personalized outreach, follow-up, CRM management, pipeline visibility and customer intelligence.
• Increase capacity without immediately adding headcount. Identify repetitive or administrative work that can be streamlined so founders and small teams can spend more time on higher-value activities.
• Know what to automate and what should remain human. Distinguish between work AI can assist with or execute and the relationships, judgment, negotiation, creativity and customer insight that still require a human touch.
• Move from AI experimentation to measurable business impact. Evaluate AI initiatives through outcomes such as time saved, faster sales cycles, stronger follow-up, increased conversion, improved customer experience and revenue growth.
• Leave with a focused plan for 2027. Apply a practical framework: Audit → Prioritize → Systematize → Automate → Measure and identify the first actions to take over the next 30–60–90 days.