The AI tiger in the room
“We are like somebody who has this really cute tiger cub… Unless you can be very sure that it’s not going to want to kill you when it’s grown up, you should worry.” – Geoffrey Hinton, the Godfather of AI
The first time I heard this statement, I was actually scrolling through LinkedIn. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Here I was, exploring AI tools for sales outreach, while one of its founders was sounding the alarm.
In 2023, Geoffrey Hinton left Google, not in silence, but to sound the alarm. When the scientist who helped build the machine starts warning us to slow down, it’s worth listening to.
This isn’t just theoretical for me anymore; it’s a choice we face daily. I was just about to hire a freelancer the other day when I suddenly realised he was asking all the right questions, but completely out of context to the conversation; I passed.
Two paths lie before us: one paved with algorithms, efficiency, and scale; the other with empathy, nuance, and human judgement.
Let’s explore both sides of this debate.
Act I: To AI – The case for AI in sales
The financial reality: SDR costs vs. AI investment
A client told me recently: “I was spending over £50,000 per SDR annually when I factored in everything, now I’m getting better results at a quarter of the cost.”
Compare this to AI sales tools that perform many of the same functions at approximately 10-20% of the cost.
But the savings go deeper than salaries with the elimination of:
- Recruitment headaches and costs
- Productivity gaps during sick leave
- The constant cycle of training new hires
From months to minutes: The speed advantage
I still remember hiring cycles at the investment banks I worked at: four weeks of interviews, plus six weeks of training. That’s three months before full productivity (if you’re lucky!) and a quarter of a year before seeing results!
With AI, you can go from setup to full campaign in a single afternoon. This rapid deployment means testing new markets, launching campaigns, and pivoting strategies happen in real-time, not next quarter.
“We were able to test three different market segments in the time it would have taken us just to write a job description”, one founder told me.
Playing by LinkedIn’s rules
LinkedIn account restrictions are a legitimate concern, with many people learning this the hard way.
But not all automation carries this risk. There’s a critical distinction between:
High-risk approaches:
- Browser-based scraping tools
- Mass connection automators
Compliant solutions:
- API-integrated platforms such as Buffer, Hootsuite and AuthoredUp
- Rate-limit respecting tools
The always-on advantage
We’re human: we sleep, we take weekends off, and if we’re unlucky, we burn out. AI doesn’t.
At 2 a.m. in London, my outreach engine is qualifying leads in California and reactivating conversations in Singapore.
This creates a compound effect I’ve witnessed first-hand. More conversations, more opportunities, more revenue, all without more hours.
Freedom to be human
In Westworld, guests enter a theme park run by AI robots that are designed to behave like humans but scripted to serve. The main character believes she’s making choices, but every action is predetermined by code.
Sales can feel like that: seemingly spontaneous, but often scripted. When the script breaks, the illusion breaks too.
The irony? AI automation has made me more human, not less.
When AI handles the repetitive elements—the initial outreach, the follow-ups, the qualification questions—I’m freed to do what humans do best.
“Since implementing AI, I spend 80% of my time on meaningful conversations instead of 20%”, a sales director shared with me last month.
Act II: Not to AI – The case against AI in sales
Platform vulnerability: Building on rented land
Imagine spending years cultivating your network, refining your process, and building your pipeline. Then one morning you wake, log into your LinkedIn account and see the following message: “Your account has been restricted.” This isn’t hypothetical!
Trustpilot is full of reviews of people losing accounts overnight. One Singaporean recruiter reported that he’d lost 30,000 connections in June 2025. No warning, no way back, just gone. When it happens, your business doesn’t just pause, it crashes.
The fundamental problem? You don’t own LinkedIn. You’re building on rented land. When they change the rules, you barely get to appeal, you just lose the roof over your business. When LinkedIn acts as judge, jury and execution you suddenly realise that you were always just a serf in a feudal system.
The screenshot that sinks ships
AI gets it wrong quietly, until it doesn’t…
In 2016, Microsoft launched Tay, an AI chatbot that started tweeting racist slurs within 24 hours. Amazon’s hiring algorithm penalised women before anyone caught it. These weren’t small side projects: they were experiments from trillion-dollar companies and they still failed in plain sight.
Now imagine that kind of slip in the hands of a founder without a PR team. One careless campaign, one wrong name one mismatched tone; that’s all it takes.
A founder told me: “I sent what I thought was a personalised message to 200 prospects. Turns out the AI used the wrong company name in over half of them. The damage was instant: screenshots, jokes, lost leads.”
It doesn’t pause or blush, it just keeps sending.
In a world where one mistake can go viral in seconds, automation must come with accountability. Otherwise, you’re just gambling with your brand in public.
The pause that refreshes
Sales isn’t just a logical transaction: it’s an emotional dance.
I was on a call last week when I noticed a subtle shift in the prospect’s tone. They weren’t saying “no,” but something felt off, so I paused and asked a different question. I then discovered a concern they hadn’t voiced. AI would have missed that moment entirely.
A skilled salesperson hears the hesitation in a prospect’s voice and adjusts. They notice the subtle shift in language that signals concern. AI hears nothing. It sees patterns, not people.
Relationships don’t follow flowcharts: they meander, evolve, and sometimes take unexpected turns. AI moves in straight lines; humans don’t.
The slow burn of trust
Sales is built on momentum but sustained by trust, and trust takes time.
AI is brilliant at keeping in touch. However, staying in touch isn’t the same as building a relationship.
“I always know when I’m speaking to a bot,” a procurement director said to me. “It’s not just the phrasing, it’s the lack of context and listening.”
It’s tempting to treat AI like a productivity hack but automation without human oversight can create confusion, misalignment, and even resentment inside your own team.
Here’s what happens with unchecked automation:
- SDRs feel replaced, not supported.
- Marketing loses control of the brand voice.
- Leadership grows wary of the long-term damage to client relationships.
- No one’s quite sure who’s accountable for what.
- Your buyer senses something is off, even if they can’t articulate it.
AI can keep a conversation going. But trust is still built the old-fashioned way through presence, attention, and care.
Beyond the sale: The existential question
Returning to the topic of Westworld, the season 1 finale sees the robots go on a rampage, killing the so-called gods in droves!
But this isn’t just science fiction anymore. Consider these warnings from AI pioneers:
- Stuart Russell: “A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble”
- Elon Musk: “AI is far more dangerous than nukes.”
- Stephen Hawking: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
This isn’t just about sales anymore: it’s about power, control, and the future of work itself. Once we surrender our core human functions to algorithms, can we ever take them back?
We’re no longer asking if AI can write emails, we’re asking if it will one day write us out of the story.
Act III: Finding your path forward
We stand at a pivotal moment in the evolution of sales. One that demands thoughtful consideration rather than blind adoption or rejection. The future isn’t about choosing between human and machine but finding the optimal collaboration between the two.
The balanced approach: Human + machine
Maria, SaaS Sales Director, said: “I was sceptical about AI at first… so far it has doubled our productivity. But only because we kept humans in charge of relationships.”
Her experience mirrors what I’ve seen across dozens of sales teams. The most successful organisations aren’t choosing “human or AI” but rather determining which tasks are best suited to each.
AI Strengths:
- Processing vast amounts of data
- Executing repetitive tasks consistently
- Operating continuously without fatigue
Human Strengths:
- Building authentic emotional connections
- Exercising ethical judgment
- Adapting to unexpected situations
The magic happens at the intersection, where AI handles the mechanical so humans can focus on the meaningful.
Questions to guide your decision
As you consider your approach to AI in sales, ask yourself:
- What parts of my sales process feel robotic and drain my energy?
- Where do I add unique value that no algorithm could replicate?
- What would I do with the time if repetitive tasks were handled for me?
- How comfortable am I with the ethical implications of my automation choices?
Your answers will be as unique as your business, your values, and your customers.
The dance, not the dancer
Technology is neither inherently good nor evil, it’s a tool whose impact depends entirely on how we use it.
“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.” – Christian Lous Lange
The key is learning the dance between human and machine: understanding the steps, the rhythm, and when to lead or follow. Too many are trying to let technology lead without first mastering the fundamentals.
So what do you believe? Is AI a tool for enhancement or a path to replacement? Are you using it, or being used by it?
What’s your experience with AI in sales? Have you found the right balance, or are you still searching?
AI won’t ask permission, it’ll just keep learning.
“The research question is: how do you prevent [AI] from ever wanting to take control? And nobody knows the answer” – Geoffrey Hinton
Written by Femi Opaneye
Femi is a growth strategist and Founder & CEO of Vortune, an AI-powered sales development agency that helps B2B sales teams and businesses close more deals using automation, data, and human insight. A UK law school graduate, Femi previously worked at Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong and London before shifting his focus to building systems that drive predictable revenue through intelligent outreach and positioning.