Sergio Iacobucci

All commerce is not created equally. B2C and B2B commerce companies both sell products, but that’s where the similarities end.

B2B brands typically aren’t as quick to jump on the latest trends as companies in the direct-to-consumer retail sector. That said, as widespread testing of ChatGPT-type applications, including generative answering, moves into the implementation and integration phase, many B2B commerce companies are taking GenAI seriously — and for good reason.

Unlike DTC commerce companies, which generally have catalogs of a few hundred products (give or take), large B2B commerce businesses may have upwards of 10,000 SKUs. They also have a complex sales channel, consisting of inside and outside sales representatives, distribution partners, and sales teams all over the world. B2B sales organizations are usually very territorial as well; however, the hybrid sales model is gaining traction.

Finally, many large B2B companies operate globally and have branch offices, units, and divisions, and therefore many different traffic sources across touchpoints, including website, CRM, email, campaign management tools, and call centers. Unifying this data in one place to gain a solid and unified view of their customers can be highly complex. To add to this complexity, it’s common for distributor partners and various internal and external stakeholders to use B2B commerce organizations’ digital platforms, which may be spread out geographically and in different languages.

The AI-powered digital transformation era

With so many disparate IT systems across B2B companies, many of which extend worldwide, digital transformation may be more complicated but not impossible, thanks to the advances of AI and GenAI. Why? Because the buying journey for B2B buyers couldn’t be more different from what consumers encounter when looking for clothing, cosmetics, or groceries from their favorite brands.

GenAI is an ideal fit for B2B companies offering hundreds or thousands of products, from after-market auto parts to chemical compounds, because it can provide sales teams with instantaneous responses to customers’ questions and common queries. This GenAI capability bolsters the buying experience and may also help close the sale faster.

GenAI can also assist sales teams with troubleshooting, providing relevant product recommendations in case a specific product is out of stock, or increasing the average order value (AOV) by adding complementary products to the online shopping cart.

What does this mean for B2B brands? For one, there’s more at stake. With 10,000 SKUs or more in a B2B commerce scenario, AOVs are much larger than in the standard consumer retail environment; buyers need lots of reassurance. Gen AI can help with this.

GenAI contributes to creating a better overall buying journey for the customer, expediting the sales process and increasing sales commissions as well as company revenues.

Three other ways to apply GenAI in B2B sales to  enhance teams’ day-to-day workflows, include:

• Lead Generation and Qualification: GenAI can help identify and qualify leads and automate gathering information from multiple sources, scoring leads based on their behavior and engagement, and even suggest personalized outreach strategies.
• Personalized Outreach and Messaging: Using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, GenAI can craft highly tailored outreach messages, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
• Sales Forecasting and Analytics: Adept at analyzing historical sales and market data, GenAI can provide more accurate sales forecasts, suggest adjustments to sales strategies, and provide insights into which tactics are most effective.

While B2B brands can use GenAI to improve customer and employee experience effectively, using the right approach can make all the difference.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), also known as GenAI-augmented search, helps sales and customer service teams locate and quickly access knowledge and information when they need it most. RAG streamlines and safeguards generative answering by dynamically integrating information retrieval with natural language understanding and generation.

Instead of merely returning links, RAG finds and supplies relevant documents or data to an LLM, synthesizing information for direct, concise answers, summaries, or insights. This information flow improves the accuracy and relevance of search results and offers a more conversational and intuitive digital experience.

Establish sales team GenAI guardrails

As B2B commerce brands move into the GenAI deployment stage, it’s critical to establish guardrails and oversight to ensure employees use GenAI tools and algorithms appropriately to prevent data breaches, unauthorized access, and misuse of proprietary information. Creating a data governance framework to mitigate risk is also an essential best practice for companies that plan to use generative AI technology, particularly as adoption increases with newer capabilities like GenAI-powered generative answering.

In addition to actively engaging all sales teams and other users in integrating GenAI into business operations, companies must also provide guidance and support to employees to increase the success of GenAI deployments. Communicating the importance of using AI responsibly, providing regular and consistent training on proper procedures, and engaging employees in continuous testing and feedback all contribute to a successful GenAI rollout.

The future impact of GenAI on B2B brands

From all indications, GenAI will be a disruptive force in B2B commerce companies in various ways and promises to make a significant impact by enhancing lead generation, personalizing customer interactions, and streamlining sales processes. Sales teams can leverage GenAI to make more informed decisions and respond to market shifts swiftly.

As a result, B2B companies leveraging GenAI will likely experience accelerated sales cycles, improved client relationships, and a more strategic approach to growth.

About the author:

Sergio Iacobucci is the Senior Director of Commerce Marketing at Coveo, a provider of enterprise AI platforms designed to enable individualized, connected, and trusted digital experiences at scale with semantic search, AI recommendations, and GenAI answering.

Sign up

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, senior vice president of B2B and Market Research, at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @markbrohan. Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when we publish Digital Commerce 360 B2B News content.