Why a Sales Job May Be the Best Foundation in the Age of AI

Observations from Managing Partner Jen Prosek in the Leading in Volatile Times Newsletter.

At this year's Milken Institute Global Conference, I asked Kamal Bhatia, CEO of Principal Asset Management what jobs he believes are safest in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. I also asked him where he would advise a new college graduate to focus.

His answer was immediate.

"That's easy: sales."

Bhatia explained that as AI becomes more capable of performing technical, analytical, and routine tasks, uniquely human skills will become more valuable, not less. In a world where information is abundant and expertise is increasingly automated, trust becomes the differentiator.

"Machines will do the technical stuff," he said. "Humans will seek people and relationships they trust more than ever."

His point wasn't really about sales. It was about human connection.

A great sales professional learns how to listen, build relationships, understand motivations, communicate clearly, navigate ambiguity, and earn trust. Those skills sit at the heart of leadership, business development, investing, fundraising, management, and entrepreneurship. They are also among the hardest capabilities for AI to replicate.

For decades, ambitious graduates gravitated toward roles that emphasized technical expertise. Those skills will remain important. But as technology itself handles more of the execution, the ability to influence, persuade, empathize, and connect may become the ultimate competitive advantage.

Bhatia argues that as more tasks are automated, human interaction becomes more valuable. The future may belong not to those who can simply analyze information, but to those who can turn information into relationships, relationships into trust, and trust into action.

The idea is reinforced by the career paths of many of the world's most successful business leaders. Warren Buffett has long emphasized that learning to communicate and sell ideas was one of the most important investments he ever made in himself. And some of today's most prominent CEOs literally began their careers in sales. Marc Benioff started in sales at Oracle before founding Salesforce. Larry Ellison built Oracle through relentless customer acquisition and salesmanship. John Donahoe, who went on to lead eBay, ServiceNow, and Nike, developed many of his leadership skills in customer-facing roles. Their careers demonstrate that the ability to understand people, build trust, and influence decisions is often a precursor to exceptional leadership.

Many of the best CEOs did not rise solely because they were the smartest people in the room. They rose because they understood those people. They knew how to persuade, inspire, negotiate, build trust, and bring others along with them. In many ways, those are sales skills.

In that sense, a sales job is not simply a career path. It is an accelerated education in human behavior. And in an era when artificial intelligence is making technical knowledge more accessible than ever, understanding people may become the most valuable skill of all.

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