More than Machines: The Role of the Future Retail Salesperson in Enhancing the Customer Experience

Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) posing the most recent challenge. It is often said that because of new technologies, retail salespeople will disappear. In this article, we challenge this assertion by arguing that humans and technology each possess unique strengths and weaknesses, and that each works to affect the customer experience in distinct ways. Specifically, AI elevates the baseline customer experience by improving service consistency, operational efficiency, and multitasking capabilities, thereby “raising the floor” of the customer experience while human salespeople, possessing unique strengths in building customer relationships, showcasing adaptive creativity, and adhering to ethical considerations, expand the upper limits of potential customer experiences thereby “raising the ceiling” of the customer experience. We propose a synergistic future where AI and human salespeople complement each other, with human potential ultimately prevailing in delivering a superior customer experience that can be approximated, but not fully replicated by AI. Building upon this premise, we present real-world examples of retailers that embody these synergies, and we advocate and assess these instances through the lens of the “seven Cs” representing core customer experience needs: (1) curation, (2) customization, (3) community, (4) cost, (5) customer retailtainment, (6) convenience, and (7) category expertise. Finally, we discuss managerial considerations and propose directions for future research.