In the highly people-focused sales profession, does artificial intelligence have a role?
After attending a remarkable presentation in December on the topic, my answer is a definite yes. In fact, skeptics run the risk of being out-maneuvered and out-sold by early AI adopters.
Frankly, this is something that few imagined back when I first started my sales career. Sales was a professional choice for outgoing people who enjoyed lively conversations and deep personal interaction. There was nothing robotic or contrived about the best sales pros.
But AI has reached the point where it brings a unique machine-based skillset to the table. One of these skills is its ability to imitate. It doesn’t simply parrot what it sees or perceives, but it imitates, learns, adjusts and refines the way it replicates a particular skill or behaviour.
The December AI session was hosted by two powerhouse presenters, Leslie Hughes, the unstoppable CEO of Punch Media, and Robert J. Weese, the Jedi Master of Sales Training and Managing Director at B2B Connections. Their whimsical title for the workshop: “How to Use AI and Chat GPT to Catapult Your Business to Infinity and Beyond!”
For those who haven’t been keeping up with the latest advances in AI (which is most of us) its capabilities are surprising, even a bit startling. Companies and professionals aren’t just using AI to tweak basic messages, such as email replies. This is next-level automation wizardry. AI can take on assignments ranging from business plans and data analysis to meeting summarization and insightful analysis of industries.
It can generate a spectrum of good, better and best options to conquer markets. With the right inputs, it can develop Quarterly Business Reviews and even plan your next sales meeting.
But can it close a sale, applying the right mix of information, sincerity and empathy? That would truly be the sales singularity.
We might not be there yet, but recent stories in the news about people using AI to conjure someone they can talk to, or even “date,” suggests that AI knows something about human psychology, and is curious enough to learn more. With this nuanced understanding of emotion, AI has already moved beyond an impassive “Mr. Spock” personality.
Of course, some caution is in order before an organization turns over essential tasks to AI. There are still bugs in the system, illustrated by the fact that some AI programs seem to have a tendency to plagiarize when convenient or simply make up facts when true answers are elusive.
In fact, researchers at Stanford who recently studied AI’s accuracy were surprised to discover that “ChatGPT appears to be getting less accurate over time” and “no one has a good explanation for the troubling deterioration,” according to a story in Popular Science.
As Popular Science explained: “The team tested the AI’s tendency to ‘drift,’ i.e. offer answers with varying levels of quality and accuracy, as well as its ability to properly follow given commands. In March 2023 [AI] identified prime numbers with a nearly 98 percent accuracy rate. By June, however, [its] accuracy reportedly cratered to less than 3 percent for the same task.”
A wry observer might conclude that a lack of proficiency with prime numbers and a talent for embellishing narratives might mean one thing: AI is ready for its own sales territory! In the end, both of these propositions may be true: AI will soon help us in so many ways, more than we anticipated. And AI will increasingly learn how to act and think like us, more than we ever imagined.