Missing the Mark: No sale made.

Today marked a surprising milestone for me: I received a sales call. Now, whilst that might not sound remarkable, but this particular call was far from typical. A new, unfamiliar number popped up on my mobile, and I answered to a bright, friendly voice with a distinct Essex twang on the other end.

“Hi, it’s Mark,” he began cheerfully, “How’s your day going?” I responded with a polite, “Alright, thanks for asking.” I asked Mark how his day was, “Yeah pretty good too, thanks.” Mark continued, explaining that he was calling to help me save on my energy bills. But as he went on, something began to feel…off.

Mark’s voice, though personable, was peppered with tell-tale “ums,” “ahs,” and “oks.” And as I responded, it struck me that Mark was quick to divert back to his script with some, but minimal regard for what I’d actually said. Just as I began to piece things together, I interrupted: “Mark…are you AI?”

He carried on with his sales pitch as though he hadn’t heard me, diving deeper into “energy-saving tips.” The realisation washed over me. Mark wasn’t real – or at least not in the way we typically understand a salesperson to be. This was not just a series of messages, but a full blown Ai sales call.

We’re at the edge of a fascinating, and somewhat unsettling, shift in sales and advertising. Artificial Intelligence is inching closer to mimicking genuine human interaction, yet the subtle clues give it away. From the polite pauses that are just a bit too rehearsed to the seamless but hollow conversational loops, it’s clear AI still struggles to capture the nuance of an actual conversation.

This experience made me wonder: as AI becomes a growing presence in customer service and sales, what will happen to authentic, human connection? For all its efficiency, AI lacks intuition—the art of adapting and responding genuinely to a person’s needs. And while it can hit all the right notes in tone and pleasantries, it stumbles on empathy, on the art of listening beyond the script.

As we continue to blur the lines between human and AI, will this type of interaction come to feel normal, or even preferable? Or will we always yearn for the familiar quirks and flaws that make human interactions, well, human?