Ep. 3: AI in Sales, Why the Best Salespeople Have Nothing to Fear

On this episode of AI'm Just Trying My Best, host Adam Espinosa and Modern Workery founder Chevelle Bedra dig into the headlines shaking up the sales world, from Microsoft layoffs to Salesforce's AI agent push. They break down why sales is one of the industries with the most to gain from AI, why inconsistency among sales reps is becoming a real problem for sales leaders, and why the salespeople who lean into AI now will have a massive edge over the ones who don't.

Chevelle and Adam talk through what AI can and can't replace in sales (spoiler: trust and empathy aren't going anywhere), why customers still want a human on big purchases, and why "AI won't replace your job, but someone using AI will" might be the most important sentence in this episode.

What We Cover:

[00:00] Welcome to Episode 3

[01:00] Why AI is set to impact sales more than almost any other industry

[02:00] The consistency problem: some reps are ahead, some are behind, and it's creating real variation in performance

[05:00] Where chatbots make sense, and where a human is still non-negotiable

[07:00] Why trust is the real currency in sales, and why AI can't fake it

[10:00] Salesforce data on AI freeing up time for actual customer conversations

[13:00] What happened when Chevelle trained sales professionals at PNC Bank

[15:00] The stats: 48% report revenue increases from AI adoption, 51% report shorter sales cycles [19:00] The risk of over-indexing on AI and why authenticity still wins

[21:00] Chevelle's prediction for sales and AI over the next five years

Favorite Quotes:

"AI is not gonna replace your job, but somebody using AI is gonna replace your job."

"You can't create fake empathy. You can't create fake trust."

"I think there's gonna be more salespeople than not."

"Let AI be behind the scenes. We're the lead singer of the band."

Got a topic or question you want the team to cover? Drop it in the comments.