There may come a day when artificial intelligence tools drive every aspect of B2B sales, but for now, human judgment and experience remain a vital component of generating revenue.
A study reported on in the summer issue of MIT Sloan Management Review discovered that generative AI, when serving as a consultative tool for entrepreneurs, can boost performance, but only when the entrepreneur uses his or her own judgment to distinguish good AI advice from bad.
On its own, AI does not typically handle the nuanced elements (the “messy realities”) of managing a business well, the researchers found. In fact, the research found that AI negatively impacted business operations when an entrepreneur wasn’t savvy enough to realize the recommendations generated by AI (such as reducing price) were unwise.
“In open-ended contexts, a positive effect of AI on performance relies on asking good questions, interpreting suggestions, and choosing which actions to implement. For users with strong judgment, the tool helps surface new ideas and think through trade-offs. Users with weak judgment can end up following plausible-sounding but misleading advice that leads to worse outcomes,” the researchers write.
In the study, which involved hundreds of small businesses across a wide range of industries in Kenya, those that had access to generative AI increased revenues and profits by 15% among owners who had already been doing well. However, among those businesses that were in the bottom 50% in their industry before the study, AI use led to a nearly 10% decline in revenues and profits.
“Organizations should also invest in human judgment and scaffolding around AI use,” the authors state. “For high-stakes decisions, escalation to human support is a critical safeguard, especially when advice is open-ended, context-dependent, or difficult to evaluate in advance.”
– Paul Nolan
This article is part of a comprehensive report on the Gartner Sales Leader and CSO Conference, which was held in May in Las Vegas. You can download the full report or read other articles from the report here.
