Sales Managers

Soft skills will still be required and hard to automate - persuasion, negotiation, personal touch etc.

Interaction and persuasion

soft skills and empathy. coaching to do better

Sales Management is about monitoring and coaching the implementation of sales strategies. AI can be with the sales people everywhere they go.

Sales will survive…..bottom of the A.I. food chain

With AI algorithm human behavior becomes predictable. Furthermore, people can do their own research,

When selling, human skills like negotiating are neccesarry.

Sales is a passion driven job. It needs to be fulfilled by motivation and enthusiasm otherwise sales of a product or service will definitely go down. Sales cannot be dependent on advertising or marketing only.

I think it is very likely that within the next 10 years we will reach an AGI (artificial general intelligence). Therefore, if it doesn't scape our control and kill us all (we dont really know how AIs work), I am sure it will replace the sales jobs without any problem (assuming the amount of energy to run the AGI is acceptable)

This, of course, will vary from both the industry and their job tasks. If you are a sales manager from a small firm, and responsible for training salespeople in telemarketing, then you are probably going to be out of a job, unless you are qualified to get a job somewhere else.

This will require you to have a unique set of skills, and a high level of education, that qualifies you for positions where automation will not be a threat to you.

I think it's inevitable that the role of Sales Manager will disappear, as there will likely be no one to manage!

The role of the salesperson will be replaced by marketplaces over time, particularly as the demographic of the buyer/budget holder moves towards millennials. These individuals do not need or want human interaction, as they can research what they need to know and buy what they want without engaging with people.

Sales is a game of emotions. AI or automation can't send a warm feeling which generates safety and trust.

Never rule anything out completely. There will always be a need for oversight and intrapersonal relationships on some level when completing a project.

Leaders will never be replaced by robots

I am a sales manager and I don't think that a computer could do this job better than me.

The role is basically of relationship management and is relevant only if there is a human with discretionary power on the purchasing side...with increasing transparency and control over purchase, more of this activity will become data driven and programmatic. Sales managers roles will be reduced and redefined to key account management.

I feel like it could go either way because technology is increasing each and everyday but being a sales manager requires traits such as leadership, passion, motivation, etc. so it can go both ways.

As a Sales Manager, I can see how certain parts of the job (e.g. paperwork or back office tasks) can be and to a degree are automated - e.g. BI, pipeline, CRM information recording, sales prediction, parts of procurement processes, streamlining contract creation, customer access to trials and demos, maybe even sales strategy to a degree...I see the job being primarily about creating, enabling and nurturing human to human and organisation to organisation connections and relationships that lead to challenge resolution via win-win situations, and therefore very difficult to automate. However, for certain sectors where Sales Managers' products are heavily productised, not too complex or in a need of heavy customisation, customers may opt to purchase products via online orders. Therefore, there may not be that much need for coordination of resources or sales distribution, leading to less of these (and other non-consultative sales) jobs available.

Human Relationship is Key to this job.

A lot of tasks in this job are human related and I really doubt any buyer could be satisfied by a an artificial intelligence on this position.