AI was supposed to replace salespeople. Connor Heggie, Co-Founder and CTO of Unify, is betting on the opposite. He joins us to talk about how AI can make sales reps better, and why the fastest-growing AI companies are still hiring them.

Connor's background is in machine learning, with stops at Helm and Scale AI. A side project on personalized product reviews showed him how AI could pull useful insights from messy, unstructured data, and he saw the connection to B2B sales. Every great sales rep is trying to answer one question: How do I find the people and companies with a problem my product uniquely solves? That turns all of go-to-market into a search problem, and Unify, an AI-native platform for sellers, is built to solve it.

In this episode:

• The shift toward human + AI collaboration, and what it means for the future of sales
• Why changing direction with a 50+ person team was harder than Connor expected
• How AI is changing prospecting and the way startups build sales teams
• How Unify's culture, built on values unchanged since day one, guides every decision

It's a candid conversation about building an AI company around people, even when "replace your humans" is the easier pitch.

Full show notes, transcript, and companion article: https://burklandassociates.com/podcasts/will-ai-replace-salespeople-why-fast-growing-st


=== CHAPTERS ===
00:00 --- Meet the Engineer Building AI Agents for Sales Teams
02:55 --- The Wirecutter-Inspired Side Project Behind Unify
06:40 --- Why B2B Sales Boils Down to a Search Problem
09:20 --- The Fastest-Growing AI Companies Are Still Hiring Sales Reps
10:50 --- How AI Can Give Sales Reps Superpowers
15:33 ---  Why Founders Don't Want to Replace Their Humans
16:40 --- Leading Your Team Through a Strategy Shift
18:41 --- How Core Values Guide Tough Decisions
22:09 --- What’s Next for Unify After Series B
24:00 --- Connor's Advice for Early-Stage Founders
25:48 --- Where to Find Unify 

----Stay connected with our host, Kate Adams, https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateadams22/

🔗 Learn more ChargerHelp at: https://www.chargerhelp.com/


This episode is produced by:

Brenda Hernández Jaimes: Podcast Producer & Talent Coordinator, Ellas Media

Angela R. Chong: Audio Editor & Post-Production Producer, Amplify Podcasts