What Salespeople know about AI. An exploratory study among salespeople working in the Czech and Austrian market

  • Eva Slováková

Student thesis: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Within the fast-changing business environment, salespeople need to adapt to many challenges. The development of new technologies increases the demands on people working in business. Salespeople must be prepared to adapt to new technologies to keep up with the times. It is up to salespeople to decide where personal contact should remain and where implementing new technologies such as AI would be much more beneficial. Nevertheless, salespeople need to stay competitive and be able to develop further business for the companies. There would be huge potential in using AI in the sales practice, but the integration raises some questions for salespeople. Salespeople must understand AI technology before implementing it into sales practice; ethical, technical, and economic issues might arise with AI implementation. The research focuses on the salespeople’s AI knowledge of the Austrian and Czech markets. AI Knowledge among salespeople has been confirmed through the literature review and empirical research (qualitative semi-structured interviews). From the perspective of technology acceptance phases, salespeople are currently in the awareness and persuasion phase. The study has indicated individual AI adoption. Salespeople’s knowledge has been influenced by their social surroundings and the various social media platforms. AI is perceived positively, and salespeople see potential in enhancing productivity and efficiency by automating multiple sales activities with AI. Salespeople are keen to implement AI, especially in back-office administration, data analysis, generating leads, or salespeople training. The research shows that when it comes to building customer relationships, essential qualities that humans bring to specific tasks, like interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, are required and cannot be replaced by AI. From a different perspective, salespeople have struggled with a lack of AI experience and knowledge, leading to uncertainty and often to the decision not to adopt AI into sales practice. Additionally, when it comes to what is ethical and unethical, salespeople see key aspects in data security, human uniqueness, transparency, and handling AI-generated. Lastly, Austrian salespeople have higher AI knowledge and are more experienced in AI sales adoption than their Czech counterparts, who are more cautious about trusting AI. Czech salespeople are afraid that AI might take over their jobs, and they avoid using AI because of the language barrier. The level of AI knowledge among the salespeople confirms the importance of digitalization and AI implementation in the sales practice. The author of this thesis suggests the potential of AI applications in back-office sales, customer communication or AI training. Companies need to start preparing their integrated software systems through which they manage various business processes as well as employees. This preparation should start from the investment into AI implementation to AI education, as the future of sales will be AI-driven.
Date of Award2024
Original languageEnglish
SupervisorElisabeth Frankus (Supervisor)

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