Digital Lifescapes

The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the sales profession in ways that few could have imagined even a few years ago. Gartner’s recent prediction -- that by 2028, 10 percent of sales associates will use Generative AI (GenAI) tools to covertly manage multiple jobs -- highlights the profound workforce disruption unleashed by this technological revolution. As an independent advisory consultant in the business technology sector, I see this as a pivotal moment for vendor leaders to rethink their sales strategies and the very nature of work, productivity, and employee trust. The AI-Driven Sales Role Transformation The integration of GenAI into sales workflow is already a present-day reality. According to recent market studies, 81 percent of sales teams are either experimenting with or have fully implemented GenAI tools, with some reporting up to a 15 percent revenue uplift and a 10–20 percent increase in sales ROI. The rapidly emerging technology is now considered essen...

In an era where AI is considered an asset for superior leadership, why are over a quarter of marketing organizations still hesitant to use Generative AI ( GenAI ) in their workflows? Recent findings from a Gartner survey reveal a nuanced picture of GenAI adoption in marketing. They highlight its potential and the challenges organizations encounter. The Current State of GenAI Adoption The Gartner survey provides a snapshot of GenAI's integration into marketing strategies. Surprisingly, 27 percent of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) report limited or no adoption of GenAI in their marketing campaigns. This statistic is particularly striking given the interest surrounding AI in the typical C-suite, suggesting a significant gap between executive desire and marketing implementation. Despite this, the survey also reveals encouraging signs of GenAI's impact: 47 percent of forward-thinking organizations report substantial benefits from adopting GenAI for evaluation and reporting in their...

Despite the current economic uncertainty, 72 percent of high technology industry leaders in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe have plans to grow revenue in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Furthermore, nearly half of those tech industry leaders believe they will be able to outperform their competition this year, as the upside opportunities for cloud and SaaS vendors continue to grow. Business Technology Market Development Gartner conducted a survey in the second half of 2022 to understand how economic turbulence poses challenges to general managers, how confident they are in their ability to achieve their plans, and the measures planned to tackle the uncertainty. "Outperforming the market through an uncertain market requires an above average ability to execute on revenue ambitions," said Mark McDonald, vice president at Gartner . Moreover, the Gartner survey results indicate that almost half of the firms (46 percent) do not have a s...