If you’re a sales or marketing leader right now, you’ve had an AI conversation in the last 24 hours. Your team may be using ChatGPT for sales emails, or your marketing automation is now ‘AI-powered’. On the surface, it seems like progress—faster content, more leads, less manual work. But according to the pioneers and insiders behind the AI revolution, that’s barely scratching the surface.
Learning from global AI experts, we must fundamentally rethink how sales and marketing approach the future of their work. Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ recently walked away from Google warns “This is a very different kind of technology. If it can do all mundane human intellectual labor, then what new jobs is it going to create?” Hinton said. “You’d have to be very skilled to have a job that it couldn’t just do.”
Mo Gawdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X, believes we’re headed into 15 years of chaos before AI stabilizes—if we’re lucky. He suggests: The idea that artificial intelligence will create jobs is “100% crap,” And György Tilesch, a leading European AI policy expert, suggests we’ve crossed a line where tech is no longer just assisting humans—it’s starting to replace us.
Their warning? This isn’t just another wave of innovation. It’s a structural reset.
The Productivity Trap
Commercial teams are approaching AI as a productivity tool. And it is—emails get written faster, sales calls are logged automatically, and CRMs fill themselves out. But what happens when your competitors are using the same tools, generating the exact copy, and automating the same playbooks?
Gawdat puts it bluntly: ‘If your job is predictable, it’s gone.’ That includes many functions in demand generation, account-based marketing, and even outbound sales. AI doesn’t get tired. It doesn’t need sleep or motivation. It just needs data. And it learns faster than your team ever could.
Misplaced Optimism: AI as Just a Tool
One of the most prevalent misconceptions among sales and marketing leaders is the belief that AI is just another tool in the stack. Tilesch argues that this view grossly underestimates AI’s trajectory. It’s not a mere plug-in—it’s a systemic transformation. And it’s not just about efficiency—it’s about disintermediation. AI is not merely enhancing your job. It is beginning to take over.
Consider how most marketing teams measure performance today: impressions, MQLs, and click-through rates. These are all lagging indicators. In contrast, AI optimizes in real time. It learns what works instantly, adapts faster than any A/B test, and rewrites the rules as it goes. This necessitates a shift from static strategies to dynamic adaptability.
The End of ‘Best Practices’
In a world where AI systems learn autonomously and generate original strategies, the concept of ‘best practices’ starts to collapse. What worked last quarter may not work tomorrow. Hinton warns that AI agents—software that can make decisions, write code, and take actions without human input—are rapidly approaching maturity.
When that happens, your ‘playbook’ becomes obsolete. You’re no longer competing on tactics. You’re competing on insight, adaptability, and ecosystem leverage. That means understanding not just what AI can do, but what it will do next—and building teams that can navigate that uncertainty.
It’s Not Just the Tools—It’s the Operating System
Gawdat describes our current moment as a transition from being tool-users to being tool-merged. The distinction is essential. In sales and marketing, this means moving from ‘how do we use AI to write better emails?’ to ‘how do we design workflows where AI and humans collaborate in real time?’ It also means letting go of hierarchical approval flows, traditional attribution models, and campaign-based thinking.
Instead, sales and marketing teams will need to operate more like networks—fluid, data-rich, always-on. Leadership will matter more than ever, but not for controlling the message. Rather, for shaping the environment where adaptability, not predictability, becomes the strategic advantage. Leaders will be crucial in guiding this transition, ensuring that the human element is not lost in the AI-driven future.
So, What Should You Do?
First, stop thinking of AI as a vendor pitch or pilot project. Start thinking of it as an operating reality.
Second, evaluate your team’s actual readiness. Not in terms of technical skills, but cognitive agility. Can your people reframe problems fast enough? Can they interpret signals, not just execute processes?
Third, look at how information flows through your commercial organization. Are conversations captured? Are insights shared in real time? Or are you still relying on rep notes and pipeline snapshots?
This is where new sales tech infrastructure plays a role. Not flashy AI features—but systems that turn messy, real-world interactions into structured, usable data.
A Glimpse of What’s Next
One example: AI-driven tools that transcribe conversations, summarize them instantly, and auto-generate follow-ups within minutes of a trade show interaction or sales call. They reduce reliance on memory, improve team visibility, and help revenue teams act faster—before the window closes.
Tools like ZÜMI are designed to do just that, especially in the chaotic, fast-moving world of B2B events. They don’t replace the human connection—but they do make sure its value isn’t lost in the noise. Another example could be AI-powered lead scoring systems that can predict the likelihood of a lead converting, allowing sales teams to prioritize their efforts effectively.
Final Thought
AI is not coming for your team next quarter. It’s already here—redefining what good looks like, what fast means, and what value requires. The only real question left is whether you’ll lead the transition—or get replaced by it. However, it’s important to remember that with great power comes great responsibility. As AI becomes more integrated into sales and marketing, it’s crucial to consider the ethical implications and ensure that it is used responsibly and for the benefit of all stakeholders.