AI arms race could mean fewer cold emails reaching your inbox

Businesses are using artificial intelligence to churn out sales messages just as fast as buyers deploy the same technology to filter them, potentially sparing people from more unwanted approaches

The growing use of artificial intelligence by both sales teams and their targets could mean fewer unwanted sales emails reaching people’s inboxes as automated filters become better at screening them out, new research suggests.

Businesses are using AI to research potential customers, write emails and generate personalised-looking sales messages at scale, while recipients and large organisations are increasingly using AI tools to identify and filter unsolicited approaches.

The study by UK sales-training company Maverrik describes the resulting cycle as an “AI deadlock”, with greater automation by sellers encouraging more sophisticated filtering by buyers.

It also suggests that people are becoming better at recognising messages that appear personalised but have largely been generated by machines.

Maverrik, which is based in Plymouth, cited recent large-scale cold-email studies reporting human reply rates below 1.5 per cent, including one 2026 dataset which it said recorded interested replies from just 0.24 per cent of emails sent.

Declining response rates will push sales teams toward contacting fewer potential customers while carrying out more research and tailoring approaches more closely to individual businesses, it said.

Dean Seddon, the firm’s founder and chief executive, added: “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 neutralises technology, selling becomes a human sport again.”

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