TL;DR
The idea of AI sales assistants has boomed in popularity over the last few years with the advent of ChatGPT and other AI models. However, with any new technology, there will always be some misconceptions.
Some of the most common misconceptions about AI sales assistants is that they will replace human sales people, they are incapable of handling complex queries, they are not cost-effective and secure, they lack personalization and are prone to hallucinations, and they are only suitable for large enterprises.
However, most of the above misconceptions stem from an incomplete understanding of AI, or are just plain incorrect. Educating yourself and the team about AI assistants will not only help them use AI in their daily work with greater confidence, but will unlock productivity which will eventually lead to more sales success.
Platforms like Locale.ai help empower sales people with secure, cost-effective AI sales assistants that automate all sorts of sales processes in record time and with greater efficiency and accuracy.
AI sales assistants are autonomous agents that execute sales processes for you like doing research before a customer call, taking notes during a meeting with a prospect, updating contact, account and deal properties on a CRM, sending follow-up emails to prospects, and more.
The idea of AI sales assistants has boomed in popularity over the last few years with the advent of ChatGPT and other AI models. Sales orgs are looking to streamline their team’s productivity and help sales reps reduce the time they spend on admin work and increase time spent on building relationships with the client and closing deals. The appeal of AI sales assistants lies in their ability to take away all the boring and admin stuff from the sales rep and execute them in faster time and with greater efficiency and accuracy.
However, with any new technology, there will always be some misconceptions and misunderstandings before that technology becomes mainstream. In this blog, we’re going to talk about 7 misconceptions people usually have about AI sales assistants and what we think about these misconceptions. Let’s dive in!
Misconception #1: AI Sales Assistants Will Replace Humans in Sales
Let’s start with the most common misconception that AI sales assistants will replace human salespeople. Let’s get this straight: salespeople are not going anywhere. AI assistants can automate many aspects of the sales process, but the human element remains irreplaceable. Instead, AI can augment human capabilities and streamline sales processes, allowing salespeople to focus on more complex and strategic tasks.
In fact, AI-enhanced sales representatives will be the next evolution of sales. By leveraging AI assistants, sales teams will gain valuable insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and purchasing patterns. AI will help tailor and personalize the outreach and engagement strategies for each sales rep and each prospect, providing personalised solutions that meet specific customer needs. But they can’t replace the unique human touch that sales reps can bring to the sales process. After all, people like buying from people, not AI.
We’re very excited to see this team of super sales reps using AI capabilities to drive more successful sales outcomes.
Misconception #2: AI Sales Assistants Are Not Capable of Handling Complex Queries
Naysayers suggest that AI assistants are limited in their ability to understand and respond to complex questions. Instead, they can only manage basic one-step questions which don’t require critical thinking. This cannot be further from the truth! With AI evolving at an exponential rate, AI can provide outputs which are very close to human output. They can now understand and respond to complex queries with increasing accuracy.
One key factor contributing to their improved capabilities is their ability to process and retain context for longer. AI models now analyse the context of a query, considering factors like previous interactions, the tone of the query and the overall conversation flow. This helps them to understand the query much better. They also have guardrails and guidelines which tell them what to answer and when to ignore, how to answer, and when to handoff the query to a human. This coupled with the fact that AI models have access to the internet, can help them draw connections between different pieces of information and provide a very intelligent output.
Misconception #3: AI Sales Assistants Are Not Cost-Effective
This misconception stems from the initial investment required to implement AI, back when people were building out their models and paying to access data. While there used to be upfront costs, AI assistants now are super plug-and-play and can be scaled up or down depending on requirements, just like SaaS, ultimately leading to significant cost savings.
AI assistants can help reduce operational costs in several ways. For example, an AI-powered chatbot can handle routine customer inquiries, freeing up humans to focus on more complex tasks. Additionally, AI can automate tasks such as data entry and lead qualification, reducing the need for manual labour. This can lead to significant cost savings over time.
Misconception #4: AI Sales Assistants Are Not Secure
One common misconception about AI sales assistants is that they pose a security risk. Some individuals may worry about privacy breaches, data leaks, or the potential for AI to be exploited for malicious purposes. However, with proper precautions, these concerns can be effectively addressed.
Addressing privacy and data security concerns requires a multi-faceted approach. Businesses which provide AI sales assistants nowadays implement robust data protection measures, such as encryption, access controls, and regular audits. Most of them are certified by SOC II or comply with regulations, like GDPR and CCPA. To ensure security, it is essential to use reliable and trustworthy platforms.
Misconception #5: AI Sales Assistants Are Only for Large Enterprises
Another misconception is that AI sales assistants are solely reserved for large enterprises or teams with substantial resources. This is not the case anymore. AI solutions have become increasingly accessible and scalable, making them suitable for businesses of all sizes. They also require less data to get context and provide output, which helps startups deploy them more easily.
AI can be tailored to meet the specific needs and budget constraints of organisations of all shapes and sizes. AI platforms offer flexible pricing models, allowing businesses to scale their AI capabilities as their needs grow.
Misconception #6: AI Sales Assistants Are Prone to Hallucinations
AI hallucinations occur when an AI system produces content that is inconsistent with the input data or lacks factual accuracy. This can manifest in various ways, such as generating false or misleading information, fabricating details, or making incorrect inferences.
This is something that people do for fun now, to see at what point will the AI model break. While AI has made significant strides, it's important to understand that hallucinations can still happen.
To minimise AI hallucinations, companies now train their models on huge amounts of data, for context, ChatGPT 4 is trained on 10 trillion tokens, models are regularly evaluated on performance, and companies that implement AI assistants create guardrails around these assistants so they can quickly hand off things to humans when they don’t know how to respond to a particular query, instead of hallucinating a response.
Misconception #7: AI Sales Assistants Lack Personalisation
One common misconception is that AI sales assistants won’t be able to provide personalised interactions or write personalised emails. Some people also believe that AI lacks the human touch to build meaningful relationships with customers, that’s why AI will never replace people in sales. However, AI can be a powerful tool for delivering highly personalised content.
Tools like Locale.ai solve for this. For example, Locale can do deep research about the person you are reaching out to and, with this context, it can create a personalized email which beats any email that a human can write. And it can do this for 1000s of your prospects in a matter of hours!
How to overcome Misconceptions about AI sales assistants
Educate Yourself and Your Team About AI: You can start with demystifying AI. A very simple idea is to do a session to help your team understand the capabilities and limitations of AI and then show them the value of how it will help them in their daily tasks.
Conduct Thorough Research and Testing: Before you go and propose a new tool for the team to use, conduct thorough research, preempt questions or blockers that might come from the team and answer them in the session that you do for the team. It might also help to do a pilot before implementing the solution for everyone across the team.
Implement a Robust AI Strategy: Clearly define the goals that you are setting out to accomplish by using these AI sales assistants. It would be helpful to reiterate that this tool is not being added to replace them but to make their lives easy to help them focus on critical tasks.
Foster Collaboration: Promote an environment in the office where people find new and innovative ways to use AI assistants in their everyday tasks. This will also help them stay updated on the latest advancements thereby removing the fear of AI taking over their jobs.
Conclusion
The potential of AI sales assistants offers significant benefits, including increased efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and enhanced revenue generation. Addressing common misconceptions about AI is crucial for realising its full potential and by overcoming these hurdles, businesses will be able to unlock new stages of growth and help their sales reps climb higher on the ladder of success.
Learn more about how Locale.ai’s AI sales assistants can help sales teams in their daily processes and strip away all the boring, admin stuff. Here’s how to book a demo with our team.
Table of contents
