With the release of ChatGPT and rise of Large Language Models (LLM’s), nearly everyone is trying to guess how life will change with Artificial Intelligence and AI. What jobs will be changed? What jobs will go away all together? In this post I am going to make the case that the best way to survive the coming age of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to become a Sales Engineer.

As a preamble (and perhaps a disclaimer), it is worth noting that the predictions thus far about AI have been broadly incorrect. Venture Capitalist Marc Andreessen makes this point by highlighting the stark difference in the jobs that have thus far been automated by AI compared to those which people guessed. Everyone thought that robots would take over the manual labor roles like warehouse jobs. However, it turns out that programming robotics in a safe and pre-determined manner is a harder problem to solve technically than once thought. In contrast, many more white collar clerical roles are the ones that are first being automated by AI. I say this in one sense as a disclaimer since this post may not age particularly well and we are all trying to figure this stuff out. With that being said, lets get into the top three reasons.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) struggles with nuance. Anyone who has programmed knows that procedural and well defined algorithmic instructions are the best prompts for machines to handle. Incorporating ambiguity into the equation can make for unexpected results. The philosophical and ethical dilemma of the “Trolley Problem” can be applied to AI particularly well with self driving cars. These questions are challenging enough for humans to reconcile and this is a lot to ask from computers.

While a Sales Conversation is not life and death (unless you are behind on your quota), the best Account Executives and Sales Engineers excel in the areas of gray; What to say when and maybe more importantly what NOT to say when and when to stop talking. In order to survive the coming wave of Artificial Intelligence and AI Sales Representatives and Solutions Engineers should lean into more nuance as this will be hard for AI and computers to perform well.

2. But someone is going to need to work with the machines. Many futurists have predicated a world where Artificial Intelligence will comprise itself of personal agents that 10x our productivity. If this is true, it will likely require technologists who can get the most out of these agents. All Sales Reps are different and this is gross over-generalization, but by in large, they are not generally the most technical people, nor do they have the interest in learning the deep tech. Sales Engineers, on the other hand, are naturally curious about new technology. A Sales Engineer will be needed to handle the situations of nuance (see above) while at the same time getting the most of the power of Artificial Intelligence and AI.

3. Some customers would rather buy from a machine than a person. This is controversial for sure, but customers have become wary of Sales Reps for a reason. Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil one’s perception. While I do believe that Sales done right is an absolutely noble profession that provides a cure for someone feeling pain and acts a invaluable guide in the sales process, there are plenty of customers who would rather just not deal with any chance of getting swindled and buy from a machine that is consistent. This probably won’t happen in large Enterprise complex sales cycles but certainly could become the norm down market.

Sales Engineers, in contrast, are often seen as helpers in the eyes of the customer. They can bring technical insights that are valuable to the end customer and could be the new point of contact for sales conversation with AI handling the clerical part of the sales process like the Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), Master Services Agreement (MSA), and other contracting tasks.

4. Artificial Intelligence is not going to secure itself. I may be biased as a Sales Engineer working the Cyber Security industry, but as it stands today organizations are blazing ahead in a quest for any differentiators provided by AI and the Security teams are playing catch up to secure these new systems. AI will always be about new technological breakthroughs and will lag in secure design. So the best way to survive the coming AI revolution is to tie yourself to securing AI as it continues to grow and change.

This is a controversial topic no doubt, what are you thoughts about the future of Artificial Intelligence and AI? Let me know in the comments.