Are AI Marketing and Sales Tools a Blesssing or a Curse?

When there is no trust, there will be no sale.

I have been a Value-added reseller in the enterprise software space for over 30 years.

And I also purchase technology solutions and services.

I have used marketing automation/lead generation tools, and I have been the recipient of emails generated by a tool.

Here are some recent experiences/observations.

Wearing my buyer hat.

Since I have been both a buyer and seller, the emails I receive are offers for software development, website and SEO services, lists of potential buyers, lead generation software, appointment setting services, and software/hardware solutions.

In the past, I never even thought that an email might not be from a real person. Nowadays, I am not so sure.

I get a lot of gmail.com emails.  Are these from a real person or did someone set up a bunch of gmail accounts and make up names? Regardless, those go immediately in the trash.

Recently, I got an email that I was open to learning more about their solution. I clicked on their calendar and scheduled a date and time.

I even wrote back the person and let them know I was open to learning more.

I didn’t get a response back from my email, which should have been enough to cancel the demo.

I got on the demo and no one was there. And I never heard back from this person or bot.

Who/What failed?

Many scenarios crossed my mind.

1. The calendar application failed to notify them. (Very unlikely)

2. The company was using a new solution they hadn’t tested. It failed to notify a human they had an appointment, and my email ended up in their spam. (Not likely).

3. There is one human, with AI development skills, who hoped that people would sign up and pay, and they wouldn’t have to do anything.

4. A human or bot looked me up and/or my company and decided we weren’t worth the time.

I have seen how much companies pay for marketing and lead generation. I can’t imagine any legitimate business that is spending the money and resources to send emails out would fail at the one thing they are hoping to get - a live person to talk with and demonstrate their solutions or services.

I have a tech-only knowledge base, focused on business technology. When I receive emails promoting a company’s solution or service I always write back. I thank them and let them know I don’t have a need for what they’re offering. And then I let them know about my knowledge base and it might be of interest to them if they are trying to reach new prospects.

I have not had one person respond.  In the past, getting someone to respond to your email was good. Even if they said they weren’t interested, you had the opportunity to engage with them and put them in a tickler for a later time. And create a relationship.

Many of the new automation tools have removed the human-relationship element. We all know the saying “People buy from people they know and trust.” In this new world of AI, the trust factor is deteorating.  If you can’t even trust that an email or voicemail you get is from a real person, why would you want to consider buying the solution/service being offered?

It’s all a numbers game.

Companies are already downsizing their marketing and sales staff.  They are hoping that these tools will do 90% of the work. The question is when does a human get involved? And what is the hand-off process?

I picked out a couple of articles from our knowledge base that I wanted to share and comment on.

Forbes -  Forbes Innovation Premium Editors' Pick This AI Startup Wants To Free Sales Reps From The Pains Of Cold Calling

“Then, Leon started using AI sales platform Nooks to automate manual tasks like finding contact information, leaving voicemails, writing emails and doing research. He said the platform’s dialing assistant has helped him increase the numbers of calls he had per day from two to 10 — a dramatic improvement on what’s called pipeline generation — sales speak for the process of converting prospects into paying customers. “The sales pipeline is the lifeblood of a company,” Nooks CEO Daniel Lee told Forbes.”

This new AI sales platform sounds like it has been helpful to this particular company. But what happens after the calls and emails go out? Does the one person, who is using the application, get notified that they need to call, write or attend a demo?   It seems like there is a lot of room for error and the potential buyer may write them off sooner than later.

Bigtincan - The 6 Top AI tools for sales teams in 2025

Salesforce + AI = Einstein (literally). Einstein is Salesforce’s internal brainiac that looks at all the information in your Salesforce account and helps you figure out what to do next. Einstein can tell you which leads are most likely to buy, suggest the best time to follow up with someone, and even predict which deals you’re most likely to win.

I know that all this is based on data, but I still find it difficult for an application to know all this. It sounds like this tool will do everything except the part where the salesperson is alerted that a lead is ready to buy. I find it hard to believe that a technology buyer would be ready to buy if they never met with a real person from a company.

Interesting times for sure. Thank you for reading.