Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning will eventually replace a lot of sales jobs and in fact the process has already started. But instead of completely eliminating jobs, what they will do is to modify them. Business research conducted by Demand-base throws up some startling trends. While a significant eighty percent of marketers surveyed, believe that AI will revolutionize marketing, barely a fourth of the total are confident of their own abilities. An even lower tenth of the sample confirms that AI is being used at their present organization. This provides a conundrum as marketing leaders acknowledge AI’s increasing importance, they aren’t themselves at the cutting edge of its implementation. These leaders in general also voiced some common challenges to with AI’s implementation. One was setting up corporate training programmes involving AI for its employees as most were alien to the concept. Another was the difficulty in establishing metrics to measure. Also integrating AI with existing suite of technologies was proving to be a challenge. Thus in order to leverage the full potential of AI, business leaders especially those from marketing need to take a hands-on role themselves.

Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2016/12/14/80-of-marketing-leaders-say-artificial-intelligence-will-revolutionize-marketing-by-2020/#66a3e03521e1