A monthly take on what’s new in AI — personal stories, opinions, and inspiration from AI thought leaders. This edition is written by Salesloft CEO, David Obrand.
What’s On My AI-Mind
In the next couple of years, everyone will be required to have some degree of competency in AI. AI offers a powerful solution to improving operational efficiency, and it is quickly moving from convenience to necessity. Soon, AI will become a core competency to all job functions — just like having a base-level understanding of Microsoft Office.
Within go-to-market teams, for example, we need everyone in customer or prospect-facing roles to be able to prioritize more time with prospects and customers and less time on mundane tasks. The percentage of time allocated to customers right now is woefully low in too many companies, but if GTM teams understand how to use generative AI, they can leverage it to reduce a significant amount of administrative overhead and free themselves up to be in front of their customers.
Once employees are able to dedicate more energy to customers, the second phase of AI optimization is to make that time even more valuable. In Salesloft’s world, our sellers do this through what we call Conductor AI, which uses artificial intelligence to learn from the outcomes of millions of buyer and seller behaviors. Using predictive analytics, Conductor AI then identifies and prioritizes the next best actions that have been proven to move deals forward, empowering sellers to know exactly what to do, when do it, whom to do it for, and why it matters.
Using AI doesn’t just free up time; it helps people understand how best to use their time — and like many technology advancements we have seen over the past two decades, the first mover adopters will have a significant competitive advantage.
By supporting employees’ AI literacy, organizations can empower their teams to achieve greater productivity. We shouldn’t leave it entirely to employees to figure out how to get started with AI. Instead, we should guide them toward recommended resources and tools. A great example is Drift’s internal AI 101 course. The course is designed to provide employees with a high-level understanding of the most common types of AI, highlight important AI guardrails, and ensure the team understands how Drift uses AI in its products. The course serves as an effective, scalable way to ensure all employees have at least a basic understanding of AI before going out into the field, and it encourages them to think creatively about how AI can help in their own day-to-day work.
You can’t be reluctant to learn something as prevalent as AI. It’s understandable if people are afraid or intimidated by AI — that’s normal for any major shift in the workplace, but those are feelings, not facts. And it’s not going away. There’s zero chance that in three years you’ll be as productive in your job if you don’t know how to use AI. So, to companies or individuals that are reluctant about AI, I encourage you to first seek education.
The Best Place to Start:
I listen to a lot of podcasts, and The AI Podcast is a staple for anyone interested in this growing space — whether they consider themselves an AI expert already or a novice looking to gain more AI literacy. Noah Kravitz brings experts across all industries on the podcast, so you can get a complete picture of the AI landscape and everything it’s disrupting.
AI Made This for Me:
AI has been helpful in supporting my recent fitness goals. My wife and I decided that after 30 years of marriage, we should start on a path to become runners. We set a goal of running the Brooklyn Half Marathon a week before our daughter’s wedding, and we use AI to help create a training and meal plan, as well as to help diagnose and recommend remedies for any physical ailments we are experiencing as we increase our weekly mileage. While this is not a groundbreaking use case for AI, it is a great example of how we can gain advantages from developing basic competencies around AI and applying it in both our personal and professional endeavors.
