Adoption of AI calls for new kind of communication competence from sales managers

"Members of sales teams needed encouragement in the use AI, and their self-direction also needed support. Sales managers' contribution was also vital in adapting to constant digital changes and in maintaining trust within the team," says Associate Professor Jonna Koponen of the University of Eastern Finland.

The longitudinal study is based on 35 expert interviews conducted over a five-year period in 2019-2024, as well as on secondary data gathered from one of Scandinavia's largest financial groups. The findings show that besides traditional managerial interpersonal communication competence, consideration of ethical perspectives and adaptability were significant when integrating AI into the work of sales teams.

Sales managers play a crucial role in leading their teams, managing daily operations and implementing strategic changes. Already now, AI plays a major role in the digital transformation of sales teams, requiring new skills from both sales managers and team members.

The study highlighted the benefits, concerns and communication challenges brought by AI integration, which require both traditional communication skills and new AI-related skills. In addition to routine tasks, more advanced AI performed tasks requiring learning and adaptation, such as customer interaction, in collaboration with humans.

Emphasis on people management

Effective sales team management whilst navigating an evolving technological landscape requires sales managers to combine traditional interpersonal communication competence with new AI-related skills. Sales managers' traditional interpersonal communication competence consists of four components. The first involves motivation to interact with people and willingness to be a team leader. The second component pertains to knowledge and understanding: sales managers need knowledge of communication and leadership, as well as an understanding of how to use AI-generated data in sales and team management.

The third component is related to communication skills, which include empathy, listening skills, argumentation skills, the ability to share information openly and supporting co-management within the team. In addition, the study highlighted the ability to craft effective prompts to AI and to speak in a polite manner, similarly as AI does. The fourth component is adaptability. The study found that in the work of sales managers, it is important to be able to adapt interpersonal communication behaviour to different contexts, various employees, and their different communication needs.

"Our findings suggest that the introduction of AI by sales teams also created a need for sales managers to focus more on the management of people, and less on the management of things. Furthermore, with the introduction of AI, ethical perspectives and understanding the role of AI as that of a team member also became central."

The study suggests that sales managers' interpersonal communication competence has a major impact on team relationships and tasks, such as building of trust, maintaining a sense of community, supporting employee engagement and enhancing job satisfaction.

"With good interpersonal communication competence, sales managers can ensure that work goals get achieved. Good interpersonal communication competence can also promote decision-making and be used to communicate the significance of human work in the era of AI."