I don’t think PulsePoint should immediately deploy a fully customer facing generative AI salesbot yet. I think the smarter move is to integrate AI internally first and then gradually layer in customer facing automation.
The biggest issue here isn’t the technology itself. It’s how much friction it creates across the company and with their clients. It’s evident that Jeannie is excited about the use of AI, but there are potential pain points that come with quick adoption. For example, the head of sales says “But I’m also sure we will miss out on upselling and cross-selling, cutting into customer lifetime value.” In business this is BAD, as upsells and cross sells can produce high profit margins, especially if we want to look at this from the “customer lifetime value” perspective.
They also mentioned that AI can impact brand perception and customer escalation. If AI makes it “easier to lodge complaints,” that actually increases the operational load, and if service accuracy isn’t perfect, I can imagine minor issues quickly becoming major ones. Their largest client adds another layer by explicitly saying they don’t want automated service at all.
Given all this, I think the biggest friction point with deploying AI right now is the trust gap. Both internally and externally. Employees are already nervous about layoffs, and clients are worried about data privacy and losing the personal relationship PulsePoint is known for. If the company pushes AI too aggressively, they can experience client disengagement and morale dropping among employees.
I would argue that a better path is using AI behind the scenes first. Let’s use AI to optimize the workflows that current employees are using to drive impactful work. This can include drafting proposals, customer response, supporting sales reps with context/information, data analysis, training, etc…. This can help reduce friction and improve employee moral/efficiency. This also helps PulsePoint user test and iterate how AI can be implemented on the customer facing side.
This approach reminds me of Morgan Stanley. During my time there this summer AI was a primary focus from the c-suite down. Integrations into workflows was crucial in all departments, but it was never a part of the front facing tools/supports they offered. As of now, AI tools help employees gather and analyze data quicker and deeper, but I can imagine a future where Morgan Stanley clients will be able to interact with some AI tools as opposed to direct employees.
In short, they have the right idea of using AI, but they should think deeply about the negative impacts of introducing a system without understanding how it can impact their current customer base and employees.
