Never use AI-generated numbers without verification

This is the most important safety rule for sales reps using AI: Claude can and will confidently state statistics that are wrong. In a casual email draft, this is low risk. In a proposal to a CFO, it's a credibility catastrophe.

The two types of AI numbers

  • Safe: Numbers Claude calculates from data you provided (ROI from your discovery metrics, time saved based on your inputs). These are math, and Claude is good at math.
  • Dangerous: Industry statistics, market size figures, "companies typically..." claims. These are often outdated, wrong, or hallucinated.

The verification rule

Before any number goes into a customer-facing document, ask yourself: "Can I source this?" If the answer is no, remove it or replace it with a number from your own data.

Better than a stat

"You told us your team spends 8 hours per week on manual research" is more powerful than "companies typically spend 20% of their time on non-selling activities." Use the prospect's data. It's always more credible than generic stats.