While more than 90 percent of respondents to a survey from InsideSales.com say they expect artificial intelligence (AI) to improve sales performance, the same study indicates that only 30 percent currently use AI in their sales process.
A total of 633 sales and marketing professionals responded to the “State of Sales and Marketing Survey” by InsideSales.com, a provider of lead management software. Sales was identified by respondents as the area of business that will benefit most from AI (51.6 percent of respondents), followed by marketing (44.4 percent) and customer service (25.5 percent).
Only 9 percent firmly believe AI will replace sales reps in the next five years. However, 58.5 percent of respondents think inside sales roles will be significantly impacted by AI, while virtually the same amount (58.4 percent) think sales operations will be the most impacted.
Respondents most frequently chose “scoring and prioritization” as the area of the sales process they believe will be most impacted by AI. Second was “contacting and qualification,” followed by “content and messaging.” “Presentations” was the category least-chosen to be affected by AI.
Respondents are confident about the positive impact AI will have on sales. A whopping 85.4 percent predict AI will improve sales performance between 1 and 50 percent; on average, respondents expect a 33.8 percent increase in sales.
The median respondent to the InsideSales.com survey works for a company with 2018 revenue between $20 and $49.9 million and 11 to 50 employees. Nearly one-quarter (24.8 percent) of respondents report a title level of frontline, while the other 75.2 percent report manager or above (manager, director, VP or C-level). The full report is available at InsideSales.com.
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