Built on research. Designed for real business.
Norval combines knowledge of sales and business, behavioural science, leadership, methodology and modern AI. We use research as a foundation, not as a marketing badge. That is why we show what the research actually says and where it comes from.
How Norval uses research
Research helps us ask better questions and understand how people, ways of working and AI work together. External research helps us shape Norval.
IN PRACTICE
How research and method are put into practice
Parts of Norval's approach have been used at IHM Business School for individual support, feedback, reflection and training close to real business situations.
Business logic before generic AI answers
Norval starts from the customer and the deal at hand. History, relationships, needs, the offering and what is happening right now help Norval understand the context. The system should be able to look for contradicting information, show uncertainty and hold back when the evidence is not sufficient.
FIELD STUDY
Same AI system. Different results.
A long-term field experiment in Nordic sales
AI without adaptation
AI with an adapted way of working
The results apply to the study and are not a promise of outcomes for individual customers.
Four elements of the work design
- work processes
- decision authority
- training
- incentives
Interpretation
The results were better when the way of working was adapted to how people actually work together with AI. The group without that adaptation performed worse than both the adapted group and the control group. At the same time, the researchers stress that the number of groups was small and warn against overly strong causal interpretation.
Norval's conclusion
AI is the engine. The result depends on how technology, ways of working and people work together.
Observable behaviour – not personal labels
Norval looks at what actually happens in sales work, not at what type of person someone is considered to be. This can be used for feedback and training, but not for permanent classifications of individuals or automated staff assessments.
Human judgement
Norval can analyse, explain and prepare. People assess and decide.
Method and full source
Sebastian Krakowski and co-authors studied 72 sales representatives in 12 business units in four Nordic countries over a total of 5.5 years. All of them used the same AI system. The difference lay in how the work between the person and the AI system was designed.
Source
Sebastian Krakowski, Darek Haftor, Johannes Luger, Natallia Pashkevich and Sebastian Raisch, Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: A Field Experiment, Management Science 72(1):57–72. Published online 9 June 2025. DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.03849.