TUE APR 03 2018

Sales Organizations are Betting on AI

by Amit Pande

In a recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study titled “Artificial Intelligence for Maximizing Revenue,” HBR surveyed 490 executives and managers. Of the hundreds of leaders surveyed, approximately 60% said they believe their future success depends on the successful implementation of artificial intelligence. Among this group, 36% said their organizations were in pilot or production use with machine learning technology. According to HBR’s study, companies that commit to effectively adopting these capabilities are expected to achieve significant competitive advantages in revenue generation. Salesforce released similar results in their special report “The AI Revolution.” After surveying approximately 10,800 sales, service, and marketing leaders and over 7,000 consumers and business buyers, they found a “growing eagerness to capitalize on the opportunities AI presents.” According to their findings, 37% of teams are already using AI, and a further 22% are piloting or evaluating solutions. Additionally, the Salesforce report finds that top sales teams are more likely to leverage AI. High-performing teams, which are defined as those teams who have significantly increased their YoY revenue growth, are 3.1x more likely than their underperforming counterparts to use AI currently, or plan to use it in the future. Both studies suggest that we can expect a business world powered by AI. At Aviso, we also see AI for sales having a major impact on the B2B high tech enterprise.

AI is Sales People's New Best Friend

Applying AI to the sales processes most closely connected to revenue is gaining attention. Our customers - top performing sales teams in B2B tech - are leveraging AI to deliver accurate forecasts, move pipeline faster, and close more deals. For us, harnessing the power of AI is about enabling humans (not replacing them) with the data they need, so that they can do the things they're uniquely good at and take informed action. We help guide their decisions with data and insights the human brain alone could never detect. Humans simply aren’t capable of digesting the amount of data we’re collecting, making sense of it, or detecting meaningful patterns. We snapshot the data in CRM systems, including custom fields, store eight quarters worth of data, and analyze millions of predictive signals to surface insights and predictions. We then back test to validate our findings. The payoff, is that sales and finance people gain the ability to make data-driven decisions that drive revenue. With AI, workflows become simple, intuitive and driven by data, rather than human judgment alone.