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% of sales and service teams don’t know how to get the most value out of generative AI, even though 61% of salespeople believe it will help them better serve their customers and 63% 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%), analyzing market data (74%), automating sales communications (71%), and better automation of customer service communications (67%). However, the survey also found that only 41% of employees are currently using or planning to use generative AI. 53% of the people surveyed don’t know how to use generative AI, while 39% don’t have the time to learn how to use it, and 35% 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% and Service at 60%). Adding to this skills gap is the fear of job losses with 48% of service and 39% 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.
