Brave new world of AI in sales

8th January 2025 |   Journal Of Sales Transformation

Gen AI could take on the role of a sales agent within a team, according to a 16 September article from strategic consultancy McKinsey: “An unconstrained future: How generative AI could reshape B2B sales.” The consultants suggest that Gen AI agents could eventually act as “skilled virtual coworkers, planning and booking complex logistics and handling routine customer inquiries”. The article asks readers to “imagine a future regional sales manager who has a team composed of human and AI sellers collaborating and complementing one another, effectively making human sellers more successful.”

A Gen AI agent may provide subjective assessments, tailored coaching to representatives, and prompted problem solving. McKinsey quotes an unnamed sales leader from a large chemical company as saying: “Eventually, when we and our customers both have Gen AI, our respective bots will be able talk among themselves, sharing facts back and forth about the product details and customer needs.”

The article goes on to suggest that the human touch in sales will be reserved for priority interactions, becoming a premium-only offering reserved for particularly complex, solution-based deals. It claims that Gen AI can be “equipped to handle nearly everything across the entire sales journey, from prospecting to negotiation, with minimal human intervention”. Watch this space!