During the 20th century, productivity in manual labor in the manufacturing industry increased by over 5000 percent. Robots and automated processes drove this growth. Now, the workforce faces a new challenge: Can knowledge work productivity see a similar surge during the 21st century? And if so, will AI be the solution? Henrik Larsson Broman opened this question when presenting Mercuri International’s latest research report, “AI-Powered Sales,” at The Sales Conference & Avaus Expert Talks in Stockholm.
On February 13th, Mercuri International, in collaboration with Avaus, hosted The Sales Conference and Avaus Expert Talks, focusing on “AI – Beyond the hype.” Over the past year, Mercuri International has published a series of comprehensive reports on artificial intelligence. Now, the latest report explores the possibilities of AI and its impact on future sales.
Whether AI will revolutionize knowledge work like sales as much as manufacturing remains to be seen. However, it’s clear that AI will significantly affect productivity and quality in sales, requiring sales organizations to heavily invest in skills development in the coming years.
In his presentation, Henrik Larsson Broman highlighted three human abilities that can be enhanced and given superpowers through artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI. These abilities are referred to as the three Cs: cognize, create, and communicate.
- The ability to Cognize: Acquiring, understanding, and processing knowledge.
The first C, Cognize, refers to AI’s ability to enhance human intelligence, enabling improved learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. Language models like ChatGPT can significantly amplify this ability. It can involve rapidly and effectively searching or summarizing knowledge, clarifying complex information, gaining new perspectives, comparing options, analyzing data, brainstorming, receiving feedback, forecasting explanations, or creative thinking. Research confirms the impact of these abilities on both productivity and quality. For example, a Harvard Business School study revealed that consultants using AI like ChatGPT outperformed their peers, completing over 12% more tasks, 25% faster, and with 40% higher quality results1.
- The ability to Create: Unleashing Creativity and Efficiency.
The second C, Create, explores AI’s role in stimulating creativity and efficiency. With AI, anyone can sharpen their ability to create various content forms, from text to images to videos and design. Studies, including those from MIT, demonstrate remarkable productivity boosts, such as a 59% increase in productivity in writing business documents, showcasing AI’s undeniable ability to generate content.2 However, mastering prompt engineering emerges as a critical skill, determining the quality and relevance of AI-generated content.This area not only highlights AI’s capacity to enhance creative endeavors but also underscores the necessity of human intelligence to guide and refine AI output.
- The ability to Communicate: Enhanced Customer Interaction.
The third C, Communicate, addresses AI’s evolving capability to enhance communication, not only between humans but also between humans and AI. While AI still falls short in replicating certain aspects of human communication, it’s rapidly improving. A study by University of California scientists compared patient experiences consulting with a bot like ChatGPT versus a human doctor, revealing not only ChatGPT’s superior delivery of high-quality responses but also surprising empathy.3 With AI-driven chatbots and virtual avatars becoming increasingly human-like, customer communication can already be partially automated, benefiting increased customer experience and productivity. This development also enables salespeople to spend more time on customer value-creating activities.
In summary, AI constitutes a powerful resource, akin to an extra brain, that can help sales organizations improve their ability to cognize, create, and communicate, thereby achieving increased productivity and quality of work. By embracing AI, sales leaders can not only optimize their operations but also redefine the nature of sales and customer engagement. The integration of AI into sales is not a distant future but an immediate reality. However, it requires genuine curiosity and willingness to experiment and test.
Download the “AI-Powered Sales” report:
The report describes how AI can be applied across various sales domains, providing over 100 examples of AI-based tools and solutions. Downloading and engaging with this report is the first step toward transforming sales productivity and setting a new standard in the competitive sales landscape.
You can download the report here: www.mercuri.net/research/ai
Sources
1 HBR (2023). Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality
2 MIT (2023) Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence
3 https://today.ucsd.edu/story/study-finds-chatgpt-outperforms-physicians-in-high-quality-empathetic-answers-to-patient-questions
