Salesperson Adaptability and Career Sustainability in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Review of Sales Task and Role Transformation
Keywords
Artificial Intelligence, Salesperson Adaptability, Career Sustainability, Task Transformation, Human-AI Collaboration, Sales TransformationAbstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation are reshaping sales tasks, roles, and competency requirements, raising questions about how salespeople adapt and whether such adaptation supports career sustainability. This study examines the relationship between technological transformation, salesperson adaptability, task and role transformation, and career sustainability in the AI era. A Critical Literature Review (CLR) was conducted on 48 scholarly articles, comprising 30 studies on salesperson adaptability and 18 on sales career sustainability. The analysis combined proposition development, cross-examination of the two literature groups, and critical synthesis across individual, job/role, and career/profession levels. The findings indicate that AI is better understood as driving task transformation and redistribution rather than direct salesperson replacement. Adaptability is supported by resilience, change agility, technology readiness, learning, and psychological resources, while technology may also generate job demands through technostress, technological uncertainty, and job insecurity. Adaptation further contributes to role transformation toward consultative selling, relationship management, complex problem solving, and value co-creation. However, direct evidence linking salesperson adaptability to career sustainability remains limited. Career sustainability therefore extends beyond job retention to encompass employability, professional relevance, well-being, and the capacity to maintain professional value as work structures evolve. The findings position adaptability as both adaptive protection and adaptive transformation in sustaining the salesperson profession in the AI era.
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