With the advent of continuous Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments, we are seeing so much potential as well as seeing firsthand what these new AI can do on various tasks that people have given them. The results of AI research have been exponential just in the last few decades. In the show Star Trek TNG we see Captain Picard giving instructions to an onboard AI computer of the spaceship and see the ship carry its instructions, especially to work that has no need for sentient organics. 

We now have an AI that can seemingly replicate the abilities of the AI we saw on science fiction shows such as Star Trek. Take chat GPT for instance. It is one of the first AI that could easily understand human language, and respond to it appropriately. Students can now tell chat GPT to do homework, for instance. It is so good sometimes that it does fool people that what they are reading is actually produced by AI. South Park actually did an episode on this where Stan would use chat GPT to reply to his girlfriend. 

These rapid developments in AI have caused a lot of exciting wonders, and there is obvious fear. AI as its abilities come ever closer to what humans can do, coupled that it is a machine, has induced us to think of situations upon which the AI might be able to do some of the jobs that people hold. It has caused fear of being obsolete and being replaced. This also includes the industry of marketing and most specifically for our discussion lead generation. 

AI lead generation as we have as of yet, cannot do the lead generation on its own, and it is doubtful it can carry the entirety of the work anytime soon as well. 

In lead generation marketing, we try to focus on prospects who have already shown some level of interest in the product and services we provide. To start focusing your efforts, you need to create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). For instance, the determination of what you are looking for will ultimately depend on humans, such as the owner. AI can ultimately not make such decisions for you. Once we humans have set up the criteria, for instance, in lead qualifying, the AI can then do its job in sorting and qualifying leads, far faster and more efficiently than the 

human counterpart. 

Such examples show the current state of AI. AI as we have it usually does not make the final decision, it is usually left for humans to review. It is known that AI does not see the world yet in the same manner that we do. AI may manifest a bug, or faults of logic, that we humans, holders of intuition, may come to see in an instant. We can feel it, a sense of gut feeling. AI as of yet does not have intuition as we do. 

To that, we have another point. AI does not necessarily replace human roles but more commonly, it provides venues that help with those roles, making them more efficient and perform better. In AI lead generation for example, AI can help qualify the various leads, but it is still the sales and marketing team that will convert those leads, AI can produce a comprehensive and holistic presentation of data, with its predictive analysis, however, it is still humans that will make the final decision, for we have intuition, and can quickly see things or add things that are guided by that intuition.

If predictive analysis by AI is perfect then we shouldn’t see a rapid steep fall and rise in the value of stocks in the stock market. Brokers use AI predictive systems, yet even those cannot account, for intuition and the human whim. This is something as of now AI does not do. Look at this article by Cointelegraph, it shows that what AI can do now is assist us, not replace us.  

In the world of lead generation marketing, AI also is not as well trusted by prospects and customers as they would trust a human. Humans tend to trust and be impressed with the confidence of another human and would factor in those when they finally make the decision to purchase your service or product. Customers prefer a personalized approach and AI cannot provide a similar experience as a human would as of yet. A human can appeal to emotional sensitivities. For instance, we have empathy and can use that to convince prospects and leads. As it stands AI does not have consciousness and hence does not have a concept of the self or the “I”. Here is a good read from IEEE Spectrum, highlighting areas in how AI can be unreliable. 

In lead generation marketing, AI is not yet at the moment where it can replace humans. The best it can do as of now is assist us and improve our efficiency. The time when AI can totally replace our function might also mean the time we have another consciousness aside from us. If that happens by then, I think we will have far bigger things to think about. There is no threat of replacement, but those who fail to leverage AI in their work will surely get left behind.