Emerging workflows, relationships, and identities in business to-business (b2b) information technology (IT) sales

Title (eng)
Emerging workflows, relationships, and identities in business to-business (b2b) information technology (IT) sales
Author
Luan Ferreira de Avila
Advisor
Marguerite Barry
Advisor
Joao Baptista
Description (eng)
Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an organizational imperative, placing B2B IT sales professionals in a unique and paradoxical position: they are the primary agents promoting this disruptive technology while their own professional lives are being reshaped by it. While existing research has explored AI's impact on sales, it has often remained at a managerial level. This thesis addresses that gap by providing a bottom-up view that privileges the sellers' own perspectives. The central research question is: how is AI reshaping the workflows, relationships, and professional identities of B2B IT sales professionals? The study adopts a qualitative, exploratory approach guided by a sociomaterial lens. Data was collected through semi structured interviews with seven front-line sellers and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that while AI offers significant efficiency gains, it also introduces a demanding "curation workflow," creates new relational frictions around surveillance and authenticity, and generates profound anxieties about skill commodification. In response, sellers are actively reconfiguring their value proposition, pivoting to a distinctly "human advantage" rooted in strategic acumen, empathy, and trust to navigate the paradoxes of their evolving role.
Keywords (eng)
B2B IT SalesArtificial Intelligence (AI)SociomaterialityProfessional IdentityWorkflows
Type (eng)
Master theses
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:5735
Date created
2025
License
All rights reserved