Maverrik, a leading global social selling training and LinkedIn strategy business, has recently announced its Human Selling Framework in response to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in B2B outbound sales. The company argues that as sellers use AI to generate outreach, buyers are also using AI to filter out unsolicited sales messages. This has resulted in what Maverrik calls an ‘AI deadlock’ in the industry.
According to Maverrik, sales organizations are increasingly relying on AI to conduct research, generate opening lines, write emails, and produce personalized outreach at scale. However, buyers and enterprise organizations are also utilizing AI tools to filter out these automated messages. Maverrik notes that buyers are becoming more sensitive to AI-generated outreach and can often detect the lack of personalization and human touch in these messages.
Dean Seddon, Founder and CEO of Maverrik, explains, “We have reached a point where sellers are using AI to create outreach, while buyers are using AI to remove it. Automation creates noise, which creates filtering, which encourages even more automation. And even when the message gets through, buyers can feel the lack of soul. When technology neutralizes technology, selling becomes a human sport again.”
This trend is evident in recent studies, which have reported human reply rates of below 1.5% in large-scale cold-email campaigns. One dataset from 2026 even showed that interested replies were only 0.24% of the emails sent. In response to low response rates, some outbound teams have increased their volume and added more infrastructure, such as secondary or burner domains, to keep their messages flowing. However, Maverrik argues that this approach is not the solution, but rather a sign of a deeper issue with volume-based cold outreach.
Maverrik predicts that the market will shift back towards high-value, low-volume human selling, with a stronger focus on research, understanding buyer priorities, and personalized outreach. The company believes that LinkedIn and social selling will play a crucial role in this shift by enabling salespeople to build familiarity with prospects before initiating direct outreach. Maverrik has already seen success with this approach, with double-digit response rates reported.
The Human Selling Framework, which focuses on three LinkedIn-first pillars – familiarity first, buyer thinking, and hyper-personalization by humans – will be integrated across Maverrik’s LinkedIn workshops, digital masterclasses, and executive social selling programs from 2027.
For more information on Maverrik’s LinkedIn training, LinkedIn strategy, and social selling programs, visit maverrik.io.
