I was discussing the use of AI in Sales Enablement processes today, and I find it interesting how many believe it is the solution to all of their issues, because it can automate a lot of the tasks, write better emails, summarise reports, find information on target prospects and a lot of other things. The problem however is that this is not an advantage over competitors, because *everyone can do the same. What this means is that in a world with information overflow, the difference between a win and a lose, will come down to human interaction.
And this is where I think it gets interesting, because out of all the people I know using AI to automate their work tasks, it hasn't made them better at their jobs, it has just meant they can do the same thing more efficiently. And through observation, they might have actually become worse at their jobs, because they are further removed from the information flow and not part of the creation process at all.
AI might be the ultimate competitive cognitive artefact, because it doesn't just replace one human process like a calculator does, it replaces a large swathe of skills, while making it appear that we are improving. And for some time, a sales person may be able to keep up appearances, but I believe that at some point real skill will again come to the fore as a differentiating factor, and all those who have relied on AI without simultaneously expanding their real skills, are going to find themselves lagging increasingly behind.
And the skills required are going to be the human skills of being able to connect with the audience and build trust, because they will be bombarded with information already. Even now and before AI really started to take hold, the customer was better informed as they had already done their own research, which means that the sales person didn't have to teach, they had to convince why buy their product over the competitor. And that pushes sales back to the age-old "rapport building" with prospects to build lasting trust, depending on product. With many products and especially in SaaS, the first buy isn't where the money is, it is in the ongoing subscription to the product. Which means delivering on promises is a must in order to avoid churn.
While this is well and good for sales, I think that people are grossly underestimating the effect AI usage is going to increasingly have on them. Most are seeing it as a tool for convenience, but ultimately it is going to reduce all aspects of their skill-base, as they find easier and faster ways to get results better than they can do alone. The problem is, the erosion of skill will be across many areas, not just the narrow pieces they might be giving up to AI, because there will be continual creep of convenience. Unless highly aware and acting with attention, degradation will be swift and deep. And for those who believe they are smart enough not to let that happen, just remember that everyone knows how to eat healthily and exercise, but 70% of people in the west are overweight.
Convenience is a killer.
As I have mentioned for years, many of my female friends have noted how "different" men are from when they are chatting on a dating app, to when they meet in-person. The witty, intelligent, interesting person, is replaced by someone with close to zero personality. Why? Because they conveniently traded building a personality for a google'd one. Rather than developing themselves, they used google searches to be witty, intelligent and interesting, finding the right thing to say, the right joke and the right bit of information, only to be found-out once they meet in person, and the crutch is taken away.
After years of AI usage, who'll be left standing?
I suspect there will be some, but not that many. And, the "quality" of person is likely to go down, as people will have to accept less and less good, and more and more bad behaviour. There will be an abundance of people who took the easy path, the convenient path, the "smart" path, only to find that there is very little value when everyone has the same skillset. A world full of homogenous idiots, utilising the same pool of digital experience to try and stand out of the crowd.
Volume of information isn't our problem in this world, as we have copious amounts. What we are missing is volumes of skill and goodness, ethics and morality. We are missing enough ethical people willing to make a positive difference in this world because even though it is not convenient, it is the right thing to do. But I have little doubt that if we are ever to get there, we are going to go down a very dark path for decades to come before there is enough suffering that enough people, say, enough is enough.
How much information do we need?
Taraz
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