Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage in B2B ecommerce, but how does reality fit in with the hype? The newly published 2024 Ecommerce in Manufacturing and Distribution Report from Digital Commerce 360 provides some answers.
Bringing reality to hyped promises of new business technologies and strategies is nothing new. However, it can take a while to become universally acknowledged. Take ecommerce itself — and all the related early promises of internet-based connectivity among disparate software applications that would “talk to each other” and share information on such matters as inventory and customer buying behavior.
Early AI use in B2B ecommerce
The early days of digital commerce proved more challenging than many had expected. Those challenges eventually led to the dot-com investment bubble bursting in 2001-2002. Nevertheless, within a few years, ecommerce had matured enough to blossom. Its new era sent Amazon.com Inc. — and eventually Amazon Business — toward stratospheric sales within a deep and diversified B2B and B2C ecommerce industry.
Some B2B ecommerce experts say AI may follow a similarly challenging technology adoption course — at least in terms of getting most manufacturers and distributors on board with AI in a way that produces a valuable return on investment.
To be sure, many companies have been using AI in its early forms for years, using machine learning for predictive analytics, for example, to recommend products online based on buyers’ history of purchasing behavior. But the late-2022 onset of generative AI — the AI-powered content-generation tool that has mushroomed in widespread use among businesses and individual consumers — has sharply raised the awareness of AI overall and its potential to bring B2B and retail ecommerce to new heights.
AI’s current trajectory
Digital technology experts say they expect AI technology to move steadily beyond the hype stage as more companies realize financial and operational benefits through automation and more personalized online buying experiences. But they note that GenAI is moving at an unprecedented fast rate.
“Many breakthrough technologies of the past have followed a common adoption pattern: initial awareness; excitement that led to hype; mild disappointment as hype met reality; and then explosive growth once the technology reached critical mass and proved its worth,” global management consulting firm Deloitte says in a January 2024 report, State of Generative AI in the Enterprise.
Check out the 2024 Ecommerce in Manufacturing and Distribution Report for more data and analysis on the impact AI is having on all aspects of digital B2B commerce and transformation.
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