I am a fan of Michael Smerconish, who hosts a daily (Monday to Friday, 9 am to Noon Eastern) radio show on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel and a weekly (Saturday, 9 am to 10 am Eastern) television show on CNN. Despite being on two left-leaning channels (POTUS and CNN), Smerconish is known for being a centrist, so much so that the theme song of his radio show is Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You.” His proclivity to call things down the middle is very appealing to me, particularly in these times of deep political division in this country. He also has a website (Smerconish.com), and I enjoy his topical and often intriguing “Today’s Poll,” in which he asks his readers to vote on a particular issue. On this past Monday, Labor Day, Smerconish’s poll asked, “On this Labor Day, will AI reshape jobs more than the assembly line or computers did?” I found this question particularly interesting, given the discussions I had with my younger daughter last week.
My daughter spent most of last week with my wife and me, visiting from Seattle. She is getting married next summer and spent about a week and a half in Atlanta and Augusta, connecting with the young women who will be in her wedding party and visiting with us. Fortunately, her job is remote, so she continued working while away from her home base, particularly while she was staying with us. Her job is as a Business Development Representative (BDR) for a technology company whose main product is a platform that allows companies to conduct business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) social media campaigns. As a BDR, she is a salesperson whose primary responsibility is to qualify leads and move them to an Account Executive (AE) to make the sale. Therefore, while visiting us, her work consisted primarily of virtual meetings with potential clients, the AEs she works with, and her managers. Her job is very much about communicating and building trust and relationships that will lead to sales and long-term business relationships for her employer.
In addition to my younger daughter, my older daughter and my younger daughter’s fiancé are also employed as B2B sales representatives with technology companies. So, as I have seen numerous media stories lately about Artificial Intelligence (AI) replacing many employment opportunities, particularly those for recent college graduates, I was curious about AI’s potential for replacing sales jobs, particularly those in which sales representatives are selling to other businesses. I asked my daughter about this, and while her perspective was interesting, I was concerned about it being biased. However, after doing some research, I found her perspective has significant merit and likely holds for jobs that have similar attributes.
The primary points my daughter made are that while AI will be an outstanding tool which will enhance the sales process, there are two major reasons why AI will not be able to replace the representative in B2B sales:
- The Human Element: At the end of the day, people buy from people. While AI will make BDRs and AEs more effective, it cannot replace them. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is necessary for a B2B salesperson to be successful, and AI has not demonstrated the ability to emulate EI. The nuance of a salesperson knowing when to push to close a deal versus giving the prospective client the time and space to process information comes from EI, experience, and intuition. AI also cannot replicate the relationship-building that evolves over time and ultimately leads to sales. This relationship helps develop.
- The Trust Factor: An important part of any relationship is trust. This is especially true in B2B sales when companies are making expensive purchases of items that are critical to their ability to compete. While many companies produce excellent products, what often makes the difference in a purchase is when projects get delayed or issues arise, the buyer knows their seller can be trusted to deliver to them. As mentioned above, such trust typically comes through consistent relationship building. Based on the need for the human touch and development of trust, it seems highly unlikely that AI will replace B2B sales representatives any time soon.
As noted above, even though AI will not replace B2B sales representatives, it will likely enhance their productivity and success. It will be able to automate repetitive tasks such as prospecting, data entry, and scheduling to free up the sales professional to more effectively use his or her time. AI will also provide data analytics to prioritize opportunities, forecast and identify new markets, and understand customer behavior more deeply. Finally, AI can help the salesperson develop personalized content for potential clients, increasing the likelihood of a successful sale.
Understanding how B2B sales as a profession is AI-resistant provides an important lesson on the impact of AI on employment in general. The jobs most vulnerable to AI are those that require mostly repetitive tasks and those that do not require a “human touch.” As we can see from B2B sales, if a profession requires Emotional Intelligence and/or a high trust factor, it is likely that the job will be less susceptible to AI. If you wish to be safe from AI in the workplace, be sure to have skill sets that AI will find difficult to replicate.
Dr. Rick Franza, Professor of Management at the Hull College of Business
