Risks and Rewards of AI in Revenue Operations

AI is flooding B2B sales - but most tools are breaking trust, not building a pipeline.In this episode of The Chat, Erik Charles (VP at Xactly) shares shocking real-world chatbot failures, exposes the hidden risks of agentic AI, and reveals how sales leaders can deploy AI that actually converts.The big takeaway? The danger isn’t AI replacing reps - it’s AI misleading them.If you're leading GTM in B2B, watch this before your next AI rollout.What to listen for:03:42 -“AI doesn’t fail because it’s dumb-it fails because we overtrust it.” Erik explains why misplaced trust in AI chatbots creates blind spots in pipeline execution.07:19 - “We had a bot that booked 60 meetings. Zero showed up.” A brutal example of AI chatbot failure in a live B2B sales environment.09:55 - “Sales reps stopped reading the comp plan-because AI made it too complex.” The surprising cost of over-automating sales compensation logic.13:11 - “Buyers talk to 15 people internally before ever reaching out.” Data-backed insight on where AI needs to operate: upstream in the buying journey.16:34 - “Agentic AI can make decisions on your behalf-and that’s risky.” Erik breaks down what agentic AI is and why it needs tight governance.21:03 - “You need AI to support humans-not replace them.” The ideal use case for AI and human collaboration in RevOps teams.24:47 - “Don’t automate bad processes-AI will just scale the damage.” Why strategy and process alignment matter more than tools.27:15 - “We built an AI system so smart...no one trusted it.” A cautionary tale about AI trust issues and why over-engineering backfires.