Futuri Introduces Framework to Help Sales Leaders Avoid AI Trust Deficit
Futuri, an AI technology company, has introduced a framework aimed at helping sales leaders avoid the consequences of automating human moments in customer interactions. The ‘Automate, Augment, Hold’ framework is designed to help companies differentiate between tasks that can be automated and those that require human presence and value addition.
The idea behind this framework stems from conversations with over 40 enterprise sales leaders who have grappled with the same question: what happens when we automate a task versus automating a moment? Futuri’s CEO, Daniel Anstandig, has been working on this concept for a year and is now sharing his insights in ‘Where AI Ends and the Seller Begins’.
The framework categorizes every step of the revenue process into three categories. Automate covers tasks where only the output matters and human presence adds no customer value. Examples include research, first-draft emails, CRM updates, competitive briefs, meeting summaries, and more. These are tasks that can be easily automated without affecting the relationship with customers.
Augment, on the other hand, refers to work where AI does the heavy lifting but a person makes the final call. This includes drafting proposals, scoring accounts, surfacing signals, refining ideas, prioritizing, and deciding on timing. In this category, human judgment is essential for making informed decisions that impact customer relationships.
The third category, Hold, covers moments where automation degrades the relationship with customers. These include discovery calls, negotiations, first meetings with a new champion, recovery conversations, and delivering unwelcome news. According to Anstandig, ‘there’s a difference between automating a task and automating a moment.’ The presence of humans is crucial in these situations.
The cost of getting this wrong is what Futuri refers to as the trust deficit – a decline that doesn’t show up on any dashboard but has significant consequences. Customers may not complain directly, but they quietly disengage, leading to softer win rates and reduced revenue. This ‘trust deficit’ is the bill that comes due 18 months after automation mandates are implemented.
Anstandig emphasizes that most leaders are willing to automate tasks but often overlook the sorting process – determining which tasks can be automated and which require human presence. He argues that two companies with identical technology stacks can have vastly different outcomes, highlighting the importance of this distinction.
The full framework is available on Futuri’s website, along with a step-by-step exercise for auditing live sales processes. This comprehensive approach aims to help customer-facing workflows in various industries beyond just sales, including marketing and AI leadership.