Bypassing Uncanny Valley

Tempted to use AI when selling?

Whether it be a bot creating glowing collateral to send a prospect or deploy some magical 'agent' that speaks with them on your behalf, and anywhere in between, surely by now you've used the new tech in some way.

Yet beware the potential mismatch.

There's a pretty common speculative thought experiment cloaked in half-joking anxiety in sales circles right now. Especially in our solution arena of B2B SaaS, Enterprise tech and where procurement rubrics exist.

"What happens when everyone adopts AI agents? Your slick AI sales bot ends up negotiating, or pitching directly to a company's AI buying agent. And then two bots just talk to each other forever in an endless loop of perfect, emotionless, maximally efficient haggling yet achieving precious little more..."

Is this meme funny because it heralds the plausible end-state of 'professional' Sales?

Or is it really the decoy of those believing that quality human sellers will remain highly sought a good while yet?

As I touched on this latter thought recently - through leveraging our 'aura' - you can tell my leanings. But that is not to say we can ignore impending AI upheaval in our space.

It feels a bit like a Sales version of the self-driving car joke;

"What happens when all the taxis are autonomous?
The robots form cartels, unionise and demand surge pricing from each other."

I hear through projects at the moment where buyers are trying bots to handle proactive longlisting, for a spec also created by or at the least put in a format AI can then 'mark', and some attempts at replacing certain (perceived as low-risk) negotiations.

So what of sellers who try bots to handle such incoming lead appearing as above, respond to pre-Tender docs, and even try outbound proactive suspect trimming?

I note too there's a selling slant on this emerging that's coming across from Marketing around 'automated personalisation'.

Allied to our aura as mentioned, AI (for the foreseeable?) cannot be relied upon on with complex, high-stakes, relationship-driven, or novel deals. These still require humans to build trust, handle ambiguity, navigate internal politics, and sell the vision.

Even when providing AI prose, such facsimile of humanity can cause a buying ick.

There's a term for this. Coined in 1970. The production machinery concern of that day duly labelled by Japanese roboticist, Masahiro Mori; The Uncanny Valley.

This is somewhere we must not traverse.

What happens when the AI gives our buyer the creeps? Your output or transacting looks almost human, but feels slightly off. Causing mysterious doubt. It might not plumb the depths of slop, but a nagging degree of unease taints our ambitions.

Whatever AI embrace we make, we must heed the alarm against falling into this trap. Have you checked your plans for it?