As sellers use AI to generate outreach and buyers use AI to filter it out, Maverrik says B2B sales is moving back towards high-value, low-volume human selling.
Plymouth,UK - September 16th, 2026 - Maverrik, a global social selling training and LinkedIn strategy business, has announced its Human Selling Framework in response to what it calls an 'AI deadlock' in B2B outbound sales.
Sales organisations are using AI to research prospects, generate opening lines, write emails, build follow-up sequences and produce personalised-looking outreach at scale.
At the same time, buyers and enterprise organisations are using AI tools to filter unsolicited sales messages.
Maverrik says buyers are also becoming more sensitive to AI-generated outreach and can feel the lack of soul behind messages manufactured to look personal.
The company describes the result as an 'AI deadlock': sellers use AI to create outreach, while buyers use AI to remove it.
Recent large-scale cold-email studies have reported human reply rates of below 1.5%, with one 2026 dataset putting interested replies at just 0.24% of emails sent.
As response rates fall, some outbound teams increase volume and add more infrastructure to keep messages flowing, including secondary or burner domains, lookalike domains and tens of isolated inboxes per rep.
Maverrik argues that this is not the problem itself, but evidence of a deeper failure in volume-based cold outreach.
“We have reached a point where sellers are using AI to create outreach, while buyers are using AI to remove it,” said Dean Seddon, Founder and CEO of Maverrik.
“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 neutralises technology, selling becomes a human sport again.”
Maverrik believes the market will shift back towards high-value, low-volume human selling: fewer prospects, better research, stronger understanding of buyer priorities and more relevant outreach.
LinkedIn and social selling play a role by helping salespeople build familiarity with prospects before direct outreach begins.
Maverrik says it is seeing double-digit response rates from this approach.
Its Human Selling Framework focuses on three LinkedIn-first pillars: familiarity first, buyer thinking and hyper-personalisation by humans.
“This is not an anti-AI message,” Dean said. “AI should aid the seller, not stand between the seller and the prospect.
“Salespeople can spend too much time on administration, CRM updates and reporting, while AI is used to automate prospecting itself. We have got that the wrong way round.
“AI should deal with the administration, so salespeople have more time to sell.”
Maverrik will integrate the Human Selling Framework across its LinkedIn workshops, digital masterclasses and executive social selling programmes from 2027.
For more information on Maverrik’s LinkedIn training, LinkedIn strategy and social selling programmes, visit maverrik.io
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