How Bic and Kimberly-Clark Use AI to Democratize Data and Tighten Sales-Marketing Teamwork
Sales teams don't need more tools. They need alignment, cleaner inputs, and faster feedback. That's the thread running through insights from Karen Schwartz, global VP for Bic's blade excellence category, and Josh Blacksmith, senior director of global integrated marketing and experiences at Kimberly-Clark, during a panel moderated by Conair's SVP and global CIO John Harding at CGT's Consumer Goods Sales & Marketing Tech Summit (Oct. 28-29).
Their message: AI is a practical way to break silos, share data across teams, and move with intent. But technology only works when roles and outcomes are clear.
Why This Matters for Sales
"AI helps us start from the same place," said Schwartz. That means sales, marketing, and IT align on the business problem first, then choose tools that actually solve it-safely and correctly.
For day-to-day selling, this looks like tighter collaboration to improve Amazon placement, strengthen search visibility, and accelerate content that converts. Less thrash, more signal.
Break Silos with a Single Source of Truth
Blacksmith outlined a process that lets teams query decades of consumer research and R&D from one place. "Redundancies are reduced, and we're able to ensure that critical data is centralized in a place that everybody can learn from and scale more immediately."
For sales, equal access to insights means better account plans, faster objections handling, and fewer one-off requests. It also means every team starts with the same facts.
- Define the top 10 sales questions (e.g., objections, promo ROI, shelf changes) and make sure your data answers them.
- Stand up a central knowledge layer that pulls from CRM, shopper insights, media, and distribution data.
- Enable natural-language querying so reps can get answers in seconds, not days.
- Add guardrails: data freshness SLAs, permissions, and fact-check workflows.
Win Search and Agentic Commerce
Kimberly-Clark's team is piloting AI to test and refine thousands of search prompts across platforms. The goal: improved discoverability and cleaner read on what actually moves rankings.
For sellers, that turns into repeatable plays: content optimized for the query, not guesses; product pages built from proven inputs; and faster feedback loops on what wins the category.
- Build a prompt library for category keywords and shopper questions, then A/B test at scale.
- Structure product data (attributes, benefits, use cases) so AI can generate on-brand, search-smart content.
- Tie search tests to sales outcomes (traffic, conversion, share) with pre-agreed KPIs.
Alignment Beats Tooling
Blacksmith cautioned, "Without clear roles and business outcomes, you risk creating seven versions of the same deliverable. Technology doesn't create alignment, people do."
Set the brief, define owners, and agree on decision rules before anyone opens an AI app. Otherwise, speed turns into duplication.
Make AI Less Intimidating
Change management came up again and again. Younger employees tend to lean in; others may worry about value and job security.
Schwartz's advice: show how it makes work easier, then train the skills that matter. "We still need the human touch for tone and authenticity."
- Prompt engineering basics for sellers (context, constraints, examples, and checks). See a primer on prompt engineering.
- Data fluency: what's in the warehouse, what's reliable, and how to sanity-check outputs.
- Creative iteration: multiple options fast, then human edit for voice and compliance.
- Safety: privacy, accuracy, and brand standards baked into every workflow.
If you're building a skills path for your team, consider curated options by role: AI courses by job.
A Simple Playbook for Sales Leaders
- Start business-led: define the sales problems and success metrics first.
- Create a shared data backbone and kill duplicate dashboards.
- Stand up joint squads with sales, marketing, and IT as co-owners.
- Pilot search and content optimization on one priority retailer/category.
- Measure weekly with agreed KPIs; retire what doesn't move results.
- Write prompt playbooks and templates for common sales tasks.
- Celebrate wins that free time for selling and customer conversations.
Quotes Worth Keeping
"AI helps us start from the same place." - Karen Schwartz
"Technology doesn't create alignment, people do." - Josh Blacksmith
Bottom Line
Efficiency is step one. The bigger win is freeing time and resources so your team can do work that used to be out of reach-better retailer execution, smarter content, and tighter sales-marketing synchronization.
Make it business-led, data-shared, and human-edited. That's how AI becomes an everyday advantage for sales.
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