“By handing over these processes to AI, salespeople can focus on areas that add value to customers’ lives,” Habel says. “The fun part of sales is building relationships and gaining a deep understanding of customer problems.”
Herbel’s research focuses on the development of large-scale language models (LLMs) and how they have profoundly changed the way business is done. In this article, he and his co-authors explore how AI tools are enabling and replacing sales jobs.
Going forward, Habel said managers and salespeople will need to be aware of what AI agents can do and where human-centered skills are needed.
“The fun part of sales is building relationships and gaining a deep understanding of customer problems.”
He said managers need to understand that AI is a trend like anything else and make strategic decisions that suit their company’s needs. As for salespeople, they need to be aware that tasks that don’t require human intelligence can be outsourced to AI, he added.
“I think soft skills will be important, but I also think hard skills that cannot be implemented with AI, such as digging deep into customer pain points and co-creating solutions with customers, will also be important,” Harbel said.
The use of AI in sales is in its infancy and has the potential to grow exponentially, Habel said. He is currently working on a project to study whether certain cutting-edge AI applications can help increase the chances of success.
In one of these projects, Harvell focused on AI role-play software, along with Stephen Stagner Institute for Sales Excellence director of research Michael Ahern, professor of marketing and entrepreneurship Seshadri Tirunila, and senior professor of practice Amy Vanderveer Novak.
Second Nature is one of the software Bauer has been using since spring 2024 to help students in the Program for Sales Excellence (PES) practice their interviewing skills and get immediate objective feedback on their performance.
