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> Nobody is suggesting AI will replace salespeople in the near future. They aren't? Because I see this happening all the time. Automated checkout lines, E-Trad
by sirclueless 10y ago
> Nobody is suggesting AI will replace salespeople in the near future.
They aren't? Because I see this happening all the time. Automated checkout lines, E-Trade and online brokerages, etc. Low-value transactions are handled more and more by electronic "salespeople". All it takes to reach high-value transactions as well is for the clientele to decide they trust machines more than humans, which is not all that unlikely given the many sources of human error involved.
It's possible that humans will be involved in high-value transactions like investment for a long time, since the marginal cost of human labor is low as the numbers get bigger, but it's not impossible to replace; we already have the technology.
- supercon 10y agoI think that the term 'salespeople' here refer to those who proactively push their products to the market and by doing so widen the market for the company they represent. The examples you give are indeed places where buying or selling happens, but where does the incentive to do these transactions come from? It's still from humans. Sure, we are bombarded left and right with ads that were carefully targeted for us by complex algorithms, but I don't think I've ever bought anything from Amazon without reading a review about the product from another user, or bought stock without going through several opinions written by more-or-less respected analysts.
- user5994461 10y agoYou'll note that for a lot of online financial services, there wasn't anyone at all to serve low profile customers before robot-advisor/self-serving services came in. There is a line (few hundreds k) where it's enough to play but not enough to pay for the costs of a human to help you (sales people/financial advisor/trader type).
- argonaut 10y agoTIL cashiers are considered salespeople.