In business and particularly the sales world AI is heralded as a magnificent time saver. Owners, managers, and AI solution developers speak of it as a given; automatic, incontestable, like stating the sky is blue. It saves time on almost everything. But is there a wrinkle in that belief?
Here are but a few of the most vaunted time saving use cases in using the “magic” of AI:
Personalized emails
Why would you really want to learn about your perspective clients, when AI can quickly create stale cliched emails that begin with something like “I noticed you, your company, fill in the blank” which translates to the recipient as “I didn’t have time to find out anything about you, but I had an AI tool make it seem that way. It may or may not be correct, but it really sounds personalized, doesn’t it??” AI “time saving” in email generation has led smart prospects to completely ignore unsolicited emails and therein lies the true time saver.
Prospect preparation
“Hey AI, I am prepping for a sales pitch for so and so company and need to know the skinny about them.” AI will undoubtedly spit out the skinny in short order. A true time saver, right? I listen to so many in B2B sales that speak as if anything that comes from AI is automatically correct. It would certainly be an embarrassing deal killer to go into a meeting fully prepared with incorrect information. AI developers/inventors themselves state that it is critical to verify all information that AI provides, and in particular “high risk” items like company financials, leadership changes, product launches, M&A activity, competitive claims, and last but not least, anything that will be quoted to a prospect. Hmm, maybe not such a time saver.
Content creation
Articles, blogs, images, no creativity or thought required. Simply ask AI to plagiarize other’s styles and visions and slap your name on it. You can ask the AI to write in the style of Hemingway for example. Of course, what it will spit out are stereotypical short declarative sentences, completely ignoring the fact that some his most famous sentences are long and purposely repetitive. With AI generated content, what you get is a jumble of regurgitated and twisted stereotypes in verbiage, caricatures, and images. But, what a time saver! In fact, Axios reported late in 2025 that an estimated 50% of online content was generated by AI. No wonder it is becoming harder to find worthwhile reading outside of physical books.
To be certain, AI can save time and make certain tasks more efficient, but those should not be the tasks and endeavors that are part of what makes us human: writing, creating, learning, and connection.
Jeff Campbell is Chief Operating Officer of Selling Power.
