Is coaching going AI?
17th May 2018 | Professor Nick Lee
Last time around, I wrote about artificial intelligence (AI) and sales. More specifically, I speculated on the possible impact of one type of AI – deep learning – on sales as we know it today. I explained that many features of more routinised sales jobs might be amenable to replacement by deep-learning methods, and also that perhaps this might not be such a bad thing. Indeed, deep learning might actually be able to help us be more effective salespeople.
I also speculated that perhaps many sales managerial tasks – such as coaching, and training – might be replaceable by real-time deep learning AI-based tools. Indeed, it is the skills that require abstract thought, flexibility and creativity, that are most likely to be irreplaceable by what we know as AI at the moment.
However, it’s important to realise that in fact, many things that we think are quite dependent on abstract thought and creativity are at the very least quite convincingly imitable, and often entirely replicable – by a cleverly-designed series of simpler decision tasks, or algorithms.
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