Grow profile picture
Grow profile picture

Grow

Enterprise Account Executive

Contributor
Fire Starter

Promising sales opportunities that are not AI related.

Literally everyone I know is trying to get into a company who sells some flavor of AI. I get it, it's hot, innovative and the next "thing" but also mad overcrowded and a ton of companies saying their AI/ML is proprietary but really isn't. 

For those looking to diversify their pool of promising sales opportunities, where else should we look? 

OR is EVERY company becoming an AI company anyway? 
🖥 AI
🎯 Career Development
😋 Job Searching
16

20 comments

Sort by:
oldcloser
Arsonist
7
💀
Would you have wanted to go to work selling web infrastructure in 1993?
I don't think you have to have a crystal ball to know that AI will affect our lives the way the web did. The steam engine, mass production and electronics also changed everything. So, here we are again.

Every company is not going to become an AI company. And every company won't use it. It doesn't fry a chimichanga any better than the current method. And just try to wash your dishes with it.

But here's the thing. Most companies will adopt some variety of artificial intelligence. And like any innovation, the best AI solution that serves the biggest purpose will get bought the most by the biggest buyers. We're in a mad scramble and collective global panic attack simultaneously. Elon and others are trying to pull the emergency brake while everyone else is trying to figure out how to jam gen AI into their solution.

I think you've got your head in the sand if you don't seriously consider selling it. But one thing you mentioned was 100% accurate. There are endless orgs acting like their solution is not some self-trained version of ChatGPT. And from experience, I can tell you that if you're considering employment with an org that has their own, true machine-learning solution, you'd better get verification of a patent. I watched a $2M deal evaporate because AWS was willing to do it for FREE to protect a $100M account. My solution was good, but no better than anyone else's who writes python in Jupyter notebooks. And it wasn't proprietary.

TL;DR: You've got to consider it. You nailed it with your concerns about proprietary tech. I think you're thinking straight. Good luck in the search.
butwhy
Politicker
6
Solutions Engineer
Co-signing. You're spot on, as per usual.

The other thing I would urge, OP, is patience. None of this is going to happen over night, especially in the Enterprise space and particular verticals. I am at big tech, and my customers are still migrating AS400 workloads off mainframes - they are not going to be ready for AI in majority of their internal and external departments. C-level leaders know this, for the most part. Initial investments in AI are going to be dipping a toe in the water, and a lot of them won't go well because the use cases aren't well defined and the data is an absolute mess...everywhere. The trough of despair will come before wide-spread adoption does.

Just like internet took a decade to monetize, SaaS took at least 8 years to take off after Salesforce broke out, AI is going to take a while before we really see the potential and landing place for it. There are plenty of companies working in verticals without the hype, but yeah, it's gonna permeate a bunch of the tech industry in a way that feels all encompassing at first.
oldcloser
Arsonist
3
💀
" and the data is an absolute mess...everywhere. The trough of despair will come before wide-spread adoption does."
So much this!!! Siloed slop, at best.
jefe
Arsonist
4
🍁
@oldcloser nailed it.
He's very wise and adept at seeing these trends. Pretty sure he was the first phonograph salesman in the Midwest.
oldcloser
Arsonist
3
💀
😂 fact! And in prior employment history, I was the founding AE for the Fuk Hot Me Eat, LLc when they invented fire.
jefe
Arsonist
2
🍁
I didn't want to intimidate the young savages TOO much.
SPT
Valued Contributor
1
Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances
@oldcloser Are you going to try to work at some of the Top AI companies?
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
💀
Is that a job offer? 😁
I just joined an early stage org that does have a proprietary solution, a defined use case, a solid target vertical, and we just started incorporating daily prayer 👍. We might even sacrifice a goldfish or something if it gets tough.

ThatNewAE
Big Shot
2
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
SaaS in all is warm - and will be hot once the market uplifts.
AI is mad overcrowded, but it is selling. Truth be told, if you want to make money, you got to be in an industry that's selling hot. So I would suggest you can still consider selling AI.

Not every company will become AI companies for sure, but there will be a flavour of it used in some way or the other. That's the way of nature, what's in hype will be used by many others to keep it in hype.
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
2
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
Being or having something AI is getting investment and higher valuations, so it makes sense to include something. What I am hearing is more around where an AI/ML tool can help within an org, and there are definitely use cases in internal documentation, legal and compliance, and basic operations. We shall see how it grows, but the use cases are plentiful.
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
In some or the other way, AI has a potential in all industry but will it affect your job? Too early to comment
SPT
Valued Contributor
2
Director, Channel Sales & Partner Alliances
I personally am applying at every AI company that I can.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
I mean SaaS is still a good area
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
Selling a software product that is not a "nice-to-have" should still pan out well.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Depends on the product, some are need to haves others aren’t.

No industry is perfect, but there are some companies
DataCorrupter
Executive
1
Account Executive
Good, age-old, advice.
GDO
Politicker
1
BDM
I don't think every good opportunity is linked to AI. However a lot of money and thus opportunities are flowing to these AI companies
1
Undercover Enterprise Customer Success Executive
I think every (smart) company will implement AI in some way, so don't be surprised by the job and company descriptions. I'm a fan of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" so if you're looking to learn more about AI and how to use it in your work, there's a community I joined a few months ago and it's been game changing for me in CS and marketing, called the AI Exchange. https://theaiexchange.com/
ApocalyBoom
Politicker
0
Account Executive
It makes sense to include something because owning or owning AI will lead to greater investment and valuation.
wolfoftampa
Opinionated
0
🐺
You could always get out of saas 🤷🏻‍♂️ insurance, medical device, telecom, consulting etc.

Related posts

14

Other than a sales related role... what would you like to be doing instead?

Discussion
🚀
🤘
19
8

What would be the effect of an AI on the sales industry in the future?

Discussion
📊
🎱
💻
11
Feed Jobs Salaries Log In
Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.
Apple Store logo
Products
The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U
Company
About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty
Contact
Press Careers
© 2023 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs
If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.