Sales and service professionals are missing out on the benefits of generative AI, according to a new survey of 2,000 sales and service professionals by Salesforce.
The survey found that more than 50 per cent of sales and service teams don’t know how to get the most value out of generative AI, even though 61 per cent of salespeople believe it will help them better serve their customers and 63 per cent of service professionals say it will help them serve their customers faster.
The survey found that the most common uses for generative AI in sales and service are basic content generation (82 per cent), analyzing market data (74 per cent), automating sales communications (71 per cent), and better automation of customer service communications (67 per cent). However, the survey also found that only 41 per cent of employees are currently using or planning to use generative AI. 53 per cent of the people surveyed don’t know how to use generative AI, while 39 per cent don’t have the time to learn how to use it, and 35 per cent don’t see the value in using it.
“Generative AI has the potential to completely reshape the field of customer service,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI. “We’ll have the ability to automatically generate personalized responses for agents to quickly email or message to customers, freeing human agents to spend more time deeply engaging on complex issues and building long-term customer relationships.”
The survey found that most sales and service professionals do not know how to get the most value out of generative AI at work (Sales at 53 per cent and Service at 60 per cent). Adding to this skills gap is the fear of job losses with 48 per cent of service and 39 per cent of sales professionals worrying that they will lose their jobs if they don’t learn how to use generative AI at work.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNET.