Sales POP - Purveyors of Propserity
Artificial Intelligence: Replacing Sales and Customer Service?
Blog / Leadership / Apr 18, 2017 / Posted by Nikolaus Kimla / 7448

Artificial Intelligence: Replacing Sales and Customer Service?

0 comments

Today we are seeing an increasing amount of news and commentary about the necessity for artificial intelligence (AI) to intervene in or perhaps even replace live human interaction in areas such as sales and customer service. I beg to differ with such assessments–but not for reasons of “man versus machine” or other such cliches. My reasoning is actually very practical.

If you think about it, yours might be, too. Recall the last time you encountered an AI-powered customer support solution. “Please say your account number.” “What kind of support do you wish?” “Do you wish to find out about our premium offers?” and so on. The usual end product of such a call–at least for me, and possibly for you, too–is angrily screaming into the phone, “operator!” or “agent!”

The individuals and organizations advancing these goals for AI say that technology is reaching a level where it can perform these functions better than humans, and thereby eliminate human error. Additionally in today’s digital world there is simply too much data for people to confront, organize and analyze, and artificial Intelligence is the answer.

There are a number of high-profile AI projects out there. IBM Watson is being utilized in customer service, music delivery, hospitality, and even healthcare. Salesforce Einstein is a collection of AI services designed to analyze data and provide direction for customer service. Chatbots are designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave in a conversation, either through text or speech. There are other examples.

2-Valued Logic

Ask anyone who knows me–I’m the first person who will pick up and use technology wherever I can. I opened one of the very first Apple dealerships in Vienna, Austria in the mid-1980s. I was one of the first people I know to own a smartphone. I implemented long-distance online conferencing in my company years ago, as soon as it was available. I myself am a software developer and have created several innovative products still selling well today.

But I strongly believe that we should never replace human interaction. Despite my adoption of technology, you’ll always find me seeking out a human for tech support, or any kind of customer service.

My reasons are simple: No matter how sophisticated the machine or the programming, any answer or response it provides is based strictly on 2-valued logic: “yes” or “no.” An answer is “wrong” or “right.”

A simple example would be an elderly man coming to a bank over the weekend, needing cash. He’s been a good customer of the bank for 20 years–they know him very well. But when he comes up to the ATM to obtain money from his account, if he doesn’t know his PIN, he’s not going to get money, period. Whereas if he came in during banking hours, he wouldn’t even need an ATM card. A teller, recognizing him, would simply have him fill out a withdrawal slip and would provide the needed money, no questions asked.

This kind of thing could certainly happen in a business setting, too. Let’s say that your company’s database has become corrupted and you cannot find the reason. One of your IT staff is tasked with reaching out to the database vendor for tech support, for which your company pays. The call is answered by an AI-powered software solution. When prompted for your company’s account number, your IT staffer provides it. The robot-voice says, “I’m sorry, that is an invalid account number. Please say it again.” Your IT staff person does–louder and clearer. Once again, it is rejected.

It takes about an hour for the IT staff person to finally reach a human. When she does, she finds out that your company’s account number had been entered into the vendor’s system incorrectly. Because of the “yes” or “no” nature of automation, no understanding was possible. A human, however, was able to sort this out in less than a minute.

Understanding

Which leads me to my other major reason I don’t believe artificial intelligence should completely replace humans: only humans are capable of understanding. A machine can only act upon the data and options programmed into it, and is totally incapable of understanding and reason.

A human can pause, reflect, think, and decide how to respond to another person–be it a customer, a prospect, or simply someone needing help.

Perhaps someday AI will be capable of such things. But this isn’t on the horizon in the foreseeable future.

Relating to a False Model

An AI solution can only respond to someone based on who it thinks it’s talking to. A sophisticated solution is going to be programmed to respond to some kind of average individual–for example, a buyer–that would reach out to a company. We could call this programmed individual a model, and in many cases it’s not going to be the right model.

A fantastic example of such a model is homo economicus. Homo economicus is a model evolved by economists, originally in the 19th century, to describe the economic behavior of the average person within an economic framework. Many major schools of economic theory utilize homo economicus within their calculations, analyses and predictions.

The precise opposite of the homo economicus model is the one utilized in the Austrian School of Economic Thought: the free-will individual. In the Austrian School, the individual acts as they do in real life: unpredictably. A human can make any decision they like–and can never be totally and accurately predicted, especially under one encompassing model.

I myself am a great example of a total exception to the homo economicus norm. I may be the only Austrian who, at over 50 years of age, gave up just about everything at home to move to the U.S. and start a business, practically from scratch. The average person of my age back home in Vienna would be looking forward to retirement–not throwing it all in to move to a different country.

How Should AI Be Put to Use?

So if I am saying that AI shouldn’t replace human interaction, how should it be used?

Simple: I believe the amazing power of AI should be utilized to help people to make the right decisions. Let us certainly utilize it to help analyze the terabytes of data out there, so that we can make informed decisions about commerce, sales, marketing and other important fields.

In other words, we can take advice from artificial intelligence–but it can never replace us.

Well beyond the many possible philosophical reasons for this standpoint, the practical one is that only humans can understand, reason and truly help. It is humans that should remain in sales and customer service–for the sake of customers and for companies.

About Author

CEO and partner of pipelinersales.com and the uptime ITechnologies, which I founded in 1994 and has since played a significant role in the development of the IT-environment. pipeliner is the most innovative sales CRM management solution on the market. Pipeliner was designed by sales professionals for sales professionals and helps close the gap between the requirements of C-level executives for transparency and the day-to-day operational needs of field and inside sales. I am also the founder and Initiator of the independent economic platform GO-AHEAD!, which orientates itself on the principles of a free marketplace in terms of liberal and social responsibility. Connecting people, the trust of business leadership in terms of values such as freedom, self-responsibility, and entrepreneurial spirit, and strengthening their awareness in order to create a dynamic boost within the economy triggered through spontaneity, all stand for the initial ideas surrounding GO-AHEAD! I studied in Los Angeles and Vienna and received my Masters's Degree in 1994. I am married and have 3 children My Specialties are in: Sales Management, Sales CRM Software, CRM Cloud Solutions, SAAS, Business Strategy, Software Development, "Pipeline Management", Social responsibility, outbound sales, b2b sales, inside sales, sales strategy, lead generation, sales process, entrepreneurship, coaching, mentoring, speaker, opportunity management, lead management, Austrian School of Economics

Author's Publications on Amazon

This is a practical manual covering the vital subject of Sales Management. I firmly believe that sales are the most important profession for dealing with today’s turbulent world and Econo my, for salespeople create wealth and produce peace. But salespeople need a competent, stable leader—and…
Buy on Amazon
Inside this eBook, you’ll discover a series of chapters dedicated to some of the most important areas facing sales today. From the sales process definition to measurement, lead generation, and proven sales techniques, this comprehensive eBook will provide you with the information you need to…
Buy on Amazon
A common term in sales today is EQ, which stands for “emotional I.Q.” It means the skill a salesperson has in reading emotions and utilizing them in sales. It means empathy and a number of other abilities. The short version is, it’s an I.Q. when…
Buy on Amazon
People are smart to question the future of automation, for it has become part of everything we do. With the quantity of applications and technology around us, we yet still crave more. We become convinced of its power when our package is delivered from Amazon…
Buy on Amazon
Sales management isn’t a simple subject by any means. But at the same time, it does have some basic and somewhat simple fundamentals—and that is what we are bringing to you with this book. First come pain points of sales management, and how to overcome…
Buy on Amazon
Today the Internet has transformed a seller's market into a buyer's market and author Nikolaus Kimla states that the role of sales has never been more crucial. It is now time to give salespeople the role they factually can play: entrepreneurs within the enterprise. They…
Buy on Amazon
This is our public declaration of the intentions behind Pipeliner, and our objectives and motives for the product and for our company. Behind the development of that CRM application and, in fact, behind everything we do, we have a real cause. The story begins with…
Buy on Amazon
For the future, there must be a perfect balance of humans and technology. You have to have the perfect technology, andthen the perfect human being in application, performance and presentation. Today and into the future, it’s a 50-50 balance. In the past it was perhaps…
Buy on Amazon
The salespreneur is based on the concept of the entrepreneur. Before we can explain the salespreneur, you have to have some understanding of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur plays a crucial role in any economic system. The entrepreneur seeks out information that can be utilized for…
Buy on Amazon
A seasoned captain would never leave port without a competent navigator. In a similar way, a sales manager might be a total ace at "commanding the ship" – at inspiring and coaching sales reps, pointing out and getting agreement on making quotas, and keeping everyone's…
Buy on Amazon
Comments

..
..
.
Sales Process Automation
.
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. For information on cookies and how you can disable them, visit our privacy and cookie policy.