I was discussing the use of AI in Sales Enablement processes today, and I find it interesting how many believe it is the solution to all of their issues, because it can automate a lot of the tasks, write better emails, summarise reports, find information on target prospects and a lot of other things. The problem however is that this is not an advantage over competitors, because *everyone can do the same. What this means is that in a world with information overflow, the difference between a win and a lose, will come down to human interaction.
And this is where I think it gets interesting, because out of all the people I know using AI to automate their work tasks, it hasn't made them better at their jobs, it has just meant they can do the same thing more efficiently. And through observation, they might have actually become worse at their jobs, because they are further removed from the information flow and not part of the creation process at all.
AI might be the ultimate competitive cognitive artefact, because it doesn't just replace one human process like a calculator does, it replaces a large swathe of skills, while making it appear that we are improving. And for some time, a sales person may be able to keep up appearances, but I believe that at some point real skill will again come to the fore as a differentiating factor, and all those who have relied on AI without simultaneously expanding their real skills, are going to find themselves lagging increasingly behind.
And the skills required are going to be the human skills of being able to connect with the audience and build trust, because they will be bombarded with information already. Even now and before AI really started to take hold, the customer was better informed as they had already done their own research, which means that the sales person didn't have to teach, they had to convince why buy their product over the competitor. And that pushes sales back to the age-old "rapport building" with prospects to build lasting trust, depending on product. With many products and especially in SaaS, the first buy isn't where the money is, it is in the ongoing subscription to the product. Which means delivering on promises is a must in order to avoid churn.
While this is well and good for sales, I think that people are grossly underestimating the effect AI usage is going to increasingly have on them. Most are seeing it as a tool for convenience, but ultimately it is going to reduce all aspects of their skill-base, as they find easier and faster ways to get results better than they can do alone. The problem is, the erosion of skill will be across many areas, not just the narrow pieces they might be giving up to AI, because there will be continual creep of convenience. Unless highly aware and acting with attention, degradation will be swift and deep. And for those who believe they are smart enough not to let that happen, just remember that everyone knows how to eat healthily and exercise, but 70% of people in the west are overweight.
Convenience is a killer.
As I have mentioned for years, many of my female friends have noted how "different" men are from when they are chatting on a dating app, to when they meet in-person. The witty, intelligent, interesting person, is replaced by someone with close to zero personality. Why? Because they conveniently traded building a personality for a google'd one. Rather than developing themselves, they used google searches to be witty, intelligent and interesting, finding the right thing to say, the right joke and the right bit of information, only to be found-out once they meet in person, and the crutch is taken away.
After years of AI usage, who'll be left standing?
I suspect there will be some, but not that many. And, the "quality" of person is likely to go down, as people will have to accept less and less good, and more and more bad behaviour. There will be an abundance of people who took the easy path, the convenient path, the "smart" path, only to find that there is very little value when everyone has the same skillset. A world full of homogenous idiots, utilising the same pool of digital experience to try and stand out of the crowd.
Volume of information isn't our problem in this world, as we have copious amounts. What we are missing is volumes of skill and goodness, ethics and morality. We are missing enough ethical people willing to make a positive difference in this world because even though it is not convenient, it is the right thing to do. But I have little doubt that if we are ever to get there, we are going to go down a very dark path for decades to come before there is enough suffering that enough people, say, enough is enough.
How much information do we need?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Be part of the Hive discussion.
- Comment on the topics of the article, and add your perspectives and experiences.
- Read and discuss with others who comment and build your personal network
- Engage well with me and others and put in effort
And you may be rewarded.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with that. That human touch will have to be increasingly present for success. Live music is one such example - and I’m not talking about stadiums with global stars, but smaller, local venues; that’s already become more appreciated. As for the business side of things, it’ll all happen through online traffic involving bots, agents, and whatever else they come up with.
I am looking forward to more intimate gigs, where the night put together I'd the event, not the show as much.
Business is already becoming agents talking to agents, reports summarised by ai, suggestions and insights by ai, and then ai used to generate content. Humanity might be doomed.
New DIY :)
So everyone except me :D (where "me" in this case is "everyone" not me personally XD)
Your male friends haven't noted similar?
Male friends?? :D
I have a few, but not on dating apps. They are in long-term relationships or are able to do things for themselves. Most friends are women though.
People using dating apps aren't able to do things for theemselves? o_O
I do remember you saying most of your friends are women.
I couldn't agree more! I had started using AI simply to help compile notes from work into an outline, but I found in the process it was removing necessary context. These days, I barely trust it to generate images for my posts, much less do any sort of analysis for me. AI is enabling people to be both physically and intellectually lazy, and it's not a good trend.
!BBH
!PIZZA
!ALIVE
It will end up pretty bad for everyone.
Yeah, I don't think it'll end well either.
I'm pretty sure that after a first hype, the human touch will come back to importance again. It will be like a label of excellence. "Art created by real humans" will be like a "Fair Trade" label or whatever is important these days. A company that takes the time to have humans answer will be considered a quality company. And in the meantime, yes, AI can automate a lot of things and make it easier so that humans can focus on being humans, and not robots. Dreams, I know. But maybe...
Just think about all the companies who "value their people" and then lose all value in their people because they can no longer do anything that gives a competitive edge.
It's just laziness. I was talking to my brother in law the other day and he mentioned how he uses AI to rephrase his emails in a nicer way. I got thinking couldn't you just learn to be nicer? It wasn't that kind of conversation though. :)
Yes and eventually it is going to come at a cost. Convenience always does.
It's becoming super clear that whilst AI helps us in the short term, the longer we use it, the thinner the fabric of our skill set becomes. I've been opting out more, even though I'm skilled at using it for all kinds of tasks, and it makes life a little easier. I just am finding the struggle to solve a problem keeps my mind active and lubricated for the various tasks I have to perform. The discomfort is how we keep our minds elastic. If I was an employer I'd be looking for employees who CAN use AI yet choose not to.
Yes. pressure helps us grow.
For sure. Unfortunately they are currently preferring those who use it for everything, but in time, they will realise that they have lost any competitive advantage they had in heir people.
What I have discovered after using AI for over a year now is that my use of it has increased and gradually replaced all coding, architecture, research and troubleshooting work. Now my day is 90% AI work and 10% meetings with people.
AI made me better at my job, now I spend more time writing very detailed specifications for AI, thinking about how to write prompts and what questions to ask... The thought process is not replaced it is augmented by a massive library of AI.
Yes, but has it made you better?
As we rely more on AI tools, I think we risk becoming less adaptable and innovative ourselves.
Full-blown idiots.
Congratulations @tarazkp! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 2060000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out our last posts:
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@bulliontools(3/20) tipped @tarazkp
Send $PIZZA tips in Discord via tip.cc!
I will be honest, this one made me check myself a bit
I do use AI sometimes, but not the way people think. Most times I already read, understand the topic, and even write my own thoughts first. Then I just pass it through AI to help arrange the English better or make it clearer before posting
But lately, it’s been feeling a bit off to me. Like even though the ideas are mine, it sometimes doesn’t feel fully like me anymore. And reading this, I think I understand what you mean better now it’s not really making someone better, it’s just making things easier and faster.
I suspect that the ideas are less yours than you believe, and you will adjust your ideas based on what you get from the AI.
Your writing is perfect. I try to comment a little about AI technology. Sorry if there is something wrong. Technology can not be stopped, like people use AI, to pursue convenience and AI will answer quickly. But what is written "convenience is a killer". Even though humans were created with perfect intelligence, because the one who created AI is human. Meaning the human brain is above all, therefore innovation, skills,adaptation. AI still tends to be lacking, maybe use AI technology wisely. "Whose AI Will survive? Back to the person who used it. Thank you @tarazkp. Happy day.
AI is starting to become an annoying buzz in the background for me. I won't pretend any great AI knowledge or skills, I'm not interested (or efficient enough maybe) to try and automate tasks with AI. I may be wrong, but the juice does not seem worth the squeeze from my perspective , which is, someone with a nodding relationship with tech.
What I find interesting is how it is being latched onto as an "all of a sudden big change". I can't see it being vastly different from any of the other useful tech innovations I've seen in my lifetime (computers, internet, smartphones, wireless connections etc. etc.).
From the business perspective, I believe that business is simple. Focus on your core, provide something ppl want, do it well and make it easy for them to get it.
Personally AI is the root of many recent bad customer experience's for me. Chatbots that go in circles, complete absence of a contact phone number are immediate instances that come to mind.
AI will be as useful as the computer, by that I mean , it will enable efficiency, will be a powerful tool to aid productivity, will be ubiquitous, but it's gotta work right to be any of those. Your old, slow, buggy PC is not a productivity enhancing tool, the software that crashes every 10 mins isn't either, neither is an AI chatbot that pisses your customers off, or an AI purchasing agent that buys counterfeit product because the "documents on-line say the specs match"
So yes, quality over quantity, excellence over good enough and above all functionality over gimmick.
Keep it simple, do it well
This is the hope, certainly. I don't use AI much at all. Partly because I've just been too lazy to be bothered to learn a new query system. Also because I still prefer to do the work myself, whether that means creating problem sets for my students in class or creating a weekly menu for my meals and food prep to stick to a balanced diet. I'm sure if I spent some time focusing on one of the free AI resources I could eventually save time having AI automate processes for me, but for now, I don't mind gaining the experience and insight of doing things myself. Who knows, in a few years, I may not even have that option anymore...
Overweight? Some folks will say this is the new normal. Recently, a friend of mine said, I am fat because I have money and I can eat. Human being can make infinite excuses, but wouldn't accept the fact that it's their own choice to stay this way.
I used to ask AI to remove grammatical mistakes, until I had to show up for a physical exam and yhere was no such help. So I decided to learn the basic grammar and do it myself. Although I took lots of help from AI. Whether it is physical fitness or mental fitness, the choice is one's own to make. But the fast-paced world is not fast in this way.
haha.. i am way too lazy to ask google something to make me sound witty.. :P
AI is a useful tool, but yea.. dumb at the same time.. and it does make ppl (most ppl who use it) just lazy too IMO.