What's AI-Proof About You?
"While sales has often been overlooked and associated with a sleazy, wheeler-dealer stereotype, its dependence on human interaction could mean it is a career path future-proofed in the age of AI."
I've blogged on this aplenty down the past couple years.
Think 'aura', 'scaffolding' and 'process bodyguarding' to name but three valuable buzzy frames.
The opening contention is from a London-based broadsheet. Based on speaking with a 23yo purposely pursuing commercial Sales. In no small part it seems, to bot-proof his career bedrock.
Moving from a criminology degree to now pitch designs and furnishing for bluechip brand offices.
One such working day insight we glean being "tracking down lease expiry dates to get a sense of who might be a good target".
Then, the pleasant reporting of this morsel;
"LinkedIn named sales manager as one of its 25 fastest-growing jobs in the UK amid a labour market being reshaped by AI".
Indeed, later an HR leader is quoted asserting that 'Sales is a superpower'.
Said chief people officer Sarah Gilchriest quoted thus [sub'n req'd];
“Everyone thinks sales is all about talking and selling products, but it’s actually about asking relevant questions, listening and connecting that piece of information to things you’ve heard before to come up with a solution. In this day and age when technology is moving at the speed of light and everybody’s job is at risk, you can still make a real difference by going in and saying: ‘I’ve connected the dots. I’ve spoken to these people, I’ve listened, and I’ve understood commercially how that can work.’ That’s the superpower.”
Away from the welcome reinforcement, real life lurks in the comments.
From confirmation bias lines like, 'Selling is an art, demanding creativity which AI cannot comprehend', to ingrained scepticism of, 'If anyone thinks AI is going away they are deluded'.
What does thinking through this case study tell me?
AI can pull the lease expiry data, draft the outreach content and run the mailing list. But it cannot walk into a hostile boardroom, absorb the unsaid politics of a hesitant buying committee, and provide the human anchor required to stop a complex evaluation cycle from quietly drifting into the ether.