A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
AI-assisted sales coaching framework: Empirically-derived models for B2B communication analysis
Authors: Mäntyvaara, Joona; Nevalainen, Paavo; Glavatskiy, Kirill; Heikkonen, Jukka
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Array
Article number: 100755
Volume: 30
eISSN: 2590-0056
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.array.2026.100755
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.array.2026.100755
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/523219036
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
This research addresses the design challenge of integrating multimodal communication analytics into AI-assisted coaching systems suitable for real-time deployment. Drawing on analysis of 5183 Finnish B2B sales calls, this study provides the first empirically-grounded design specifications for multimodal sales coaching by unifying graph-theoretic conversation analysis, temporal prediction, and rejection modeling. Network analysis reveals that successful conversations exhibit 4.3× lower structural density (0.0224 vs. 0.0960) while covering broader topic ranges, establishing conversational efficiency rather than complexity as a guiding design principle. Temporal prediction identifies a 60-second optimal intervention window, achieving 78.4% AUC for reliable real-time guidance. Rejection modeling achieves 95.7% AUC with interpretable early-warning signals validated through SHAP analysis. These findings are operationalized through evidence-based quality indicators spanning acoustic, semantic, and linguistic modalities, supported by computationally efficient formulations suitable for real-time processing. Duration-matched validation confirms threshold robustness independent of call length, and bias auditing demonstrates equitable performance across salesperson groups (FPR disparity = 0.027). The framework provides validated design specifications aligned with EU AI Act compliance provisions, demonstrating how multimodal communication analytics can be transformed into deployable coaching systems.
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Funding information in the publication:
Business Finland supported this co-research project. Funding number: 6684/31/2023.
