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Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by groby_b on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:26PM (#33012821)
Willing to make a bet on that?

GPT-3 is great at sounding coherent, but much worse at actually reliably solving problems. I absolutely see GPT-3 like things aiding with sales decks, but... it won't replace the sales person.

There's also a large component of enterprise sales having a "trust" component where you know your counterparts. You're not spending approval-worthy amounts of money after only having talked to a chat bot.

Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by athenot on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:33PM (#33012890)
> GPT-3 is great at sounding coherent, but much worse at actually reliably solving problems. I absolutely see GPT-3 like things aiding with sales decks, but... it won't replace the sales person.

Also, if your competitors are using GPT-3 to solve customer problems, having an actual, intelligent human can be a formidable differentiator in terms of customer experience.

Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by InitialLastName on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:49PM (#33013070)
> I absolutely see GPT-3 like things aiding with sales decks, but... it won't replace the sales person.

If there's a sales person whose job is to tailor sales decks to use cases, you might replace them.

If a big sale takes a team of people to execute, maybe AI cuts a few of them off. Maybe the client is still talking to a real sales person when they need to, but that sales person is able to multiplex to more clients because the time they need to put into each is reduced.

I think people often miss this aspect of "X technology will make this job obsolete"; it isn't "that occupation no longer exists" as much as "far fewer of that occupation are now necessary to do the work", and that change can have meaningful economic impacts. Farriers, blacksmiths and calligraphers still exist, but their work is no longer core to the function of anyone's economy.

Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by zachthewf on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:38PM (#33012940)
Correct. The last professions in the world to be automated will be salesperson, politician, and plumber.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by startupsales on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @06:17PM (#33013964)
as a salesperson, I can confidently say that the change will be on the buyer side that eliminates the need for most salespeople. salespeople are already getting less and less time with prospects. Studies show salespeople only influence about 5% of the buying process. What comes next is automating recommendations for software products based on specific needs, buying criteria, etc.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by pessimizer on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @04:49PM (#33013074)
Politicians have been automated through a combination of polling data and lobbyist checks since B. Clinton.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by lupire on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:01PM (#33013211)
Are you saying B Clinton is not a human?
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by diffxx on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:38PM (#33013613)
Define human.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by lazyasciiart on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @07:27PM (#33014503)
It depends what the meaning of the word “is” is.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by sofixa on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:40PM (#33013629)
I think sex workers are up there too. Similarly to a good salesperson, the skill and human touch will probably always be a differentiator compared to a machine/AI, leaving at least a niche market for humans.
Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by lupire on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:00PM (#33013198)
Customer support is largely useless today and can be replaced by machine. It only exists because average (dumb) people tolerate a human customer service rep saying "I'm sorry but you're screwed" better than a web page saying it.

Salespeople says BS to sign you up, only vaguely coherent, backed by some basic database facts about the product/price, so GPT can handle that. Think about Donald Trump: Huge fan base of paying customers, barely distinguishable from a chatbot.

Re:Ask HN: Seriously, steelman this please. 7,400 employees ... by YakBizzarro on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @05:13PM (#33013340)
Clearly you have never done or received customer support in a b2b environment. It can be as valuable or even more than the product itself.