AI Salespeople Aren’t Better Than Humans... Yet

One are where humans are winning. For now.

Human streamers still significantly boost sales in online retail. A new study from UBC’s Sauder School of Business shows that AI-powered “digital streamers” don’t drive sales as effectively as humans. In fact, they barely outperform having no salesperson at all.

But researchers also found that making AI avatars more interactive — especially by answering questions in real time — can bring them up to par. One upgrade improved sales by 25% and nearly doubled revenue.

“When businesses are choosing digital streamers, they hope they’ll work as well as human streamers. But our study shows there’s no lift in sales at all—unless you improve how they interact with customers.”

— Dr. Yanwen Wang

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