Eri Georgiev and Rohaan Khan, Co-Founders, Sorn AI
| Episode | Salon #1 · Sequence 1 of 4: The Machine View |
| Debate Question | Will AI agents replace the salesperson? |
| Speakers | Eri Georgiev, Co-Founder, Sorn AI, and Rohaan Khan, Co-Founder, Sorn AI (machine view) |
| Website | sorn.ai |
| Full Episode | Watch all Salon episodes | Listen on the Sales POP! Podcast Page |
The Machine View
Will AI agents replace the salesperson? In the first part of Salon #1, the Sales POP! debate show, Eri Georgiev and Rohaan Khan, co-founders of Sorn AI, had the floor without interruption to make the case for the machine.
Agentic commerce is coming
Georgiev opened with agentic commerce: AI agents with access to a consumer’s wallet that buy on the consumer’s behalf. Today, he said, these are small purchases, such as a toothbrush or a pair of shoes. As people trust their agents more, the purchases will grow, and he expects that one day people will let their agents buy cars. He still sees humans in the highest-value deals, such as one country selling rockets to another. For everything else, his view is clear: “commerce is only going one way, and it’s going to be agentic.” As a result, he argued, “the function of the salesperson is going to be massively reduced.”
Free senior people from admin
Khan began by framing AI as an amplifier. He still runs a large performance marketing team and does not want to remove people from the workplace. His target is repetitive work. A head of sales with 15 to 20 years of experience is building strategy and putting together a team “like an army general,” he said. “Their time should not be wasted with admin stuff or repetitive tasks that could be easily automated with an agent.”
Speed to lead
At the front line, Khan pointed to speed to lead. A rep on a break can leave a new lead waiting for an hour or more, and in that time the lead may go to a competitor. “AI is around the clock,” he said. In Sorn AI’s systems, a reply that is instant or comes within a few minutes converts much better. He added a condition: “the output is only as good as the input.”
Customer memory at scale
Some of Khan’s sales teams handle hundreds of calls a month, and he does not expect any rep to remember every lead. When people clock off, they have their personal lives. An AI system keeps every logged detail and can respond within minutes. In his words, “AI knows the customers better and personalizes at scale.”
An amplifier, not a replacement
Khan argued that human error and bias can affect key decisions. “Humans make mistakes,” he said, adding that “studies even show judges making rulings based on the time of day or being grumpy after lunch.” AI makes mistakes too, he admitted, and he does not trust it blindly. “But the key thing is that AI can actually be configured and fixed.” He would use AI for frontline appointment setters and, to an extent, for chat-based closing, but he would not replace his head of growth or head of sales. He also expects AI fatigue, as people get tired of talking only to chatbots. His summary: speed, scale, consistency and less human error and bias. “It’s an amplifier, not a replacement.”
Pull Quotes
Commerce is only going one way, and it’s going to be agentic.
— Eri Georgiev
Their time should not be wasted with admin stuff or repetitive tasks that could be easily automated with an agent.
— Rohaan Khan
It’s an amplifier, not a replacement.
— Rohaan Khan
The Machine View in Numbers
| Number | Detail |
|---|---|
| Minutes vs. hours | An AI system replies to a new lead instantly or within a few minutes; a lead can wait an hour or a couple of hours while a rep is on a break (Rohaan Khan) |
| Hundreds | Sales calls per month that some of Rohaan Khan’s teams handle, more than any rep can remember in detail |
| 15–20 years | Experience of a typical head of sales whose time, Rohaan Khan argued, should not go to admin |
About the Facilitator
Nikolaus Kimla, founder of Sales POP! and CEO of Coevera, leads every Salon debate. Rather than interviewing the speakers, he gives each side room to make its case, then brings the two views together at the end of the episode.
Next in Salon #1: Bryan Kramer of PureMatter makes the case for the human.
Related Resources
- Talk with Sorn AI about AI agents for sales
- All Salon episodes: salespop.net/media/salon/
- Sales POP! Podcast: salespop.net/media/podcast/
- Coevera: coevera.com
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