Will AI replace salespeople?

Not entirely. Headcount at our clients did not shrink after rollout, volume grew: at Impact Admissions handled enquiries went from 4,800 to 8,200 a month with the same team. The agent takes first replies, qualification, CRM data entry and follow-ups, while negotiation, complex terms, complaints and large deals stay with people.

Which sales roles are genuinely at risk?

The ones where the job is replying fast in chat from a script. An agent does that in 5 seconds around the clock. Those people usually move to qualification and hot-lead work, but that is a company decision.

Will customers mind talking to a bot?

What customers mind is a bot that does not answer the question. At Impact Admissions satisfaction rose from 85% to 93% after rollout, because people started getting a direct answer immediately instead of a vague one ten minutes later.

What if the agent gets an important conversation wrong?

Our accuracy is 98.8% against 85-90% across the market, which is not 100%. So the agent is configured to hand the conversation to a human the moment it leaves its competence, with a summary. We also watch that the share of those handovers does not fall too low.

How should we explain the rollout to the team?

Tell the truth: the agent takes the information-desk part of the day and the CRM data entry, not the selling. And warn them about the second effect up front, that response time and conversion per person become visible. For most teams that matters more than the agent itself.