Why are commercial teams not realising the business benefits of their GenAI investments?

Commercial Excellence (ComEx) is being redefined, once again, by technology. GenAI has rapidly advanced, becoming widely accessible. It has surpassed traditional technological roadmaps, propelling people and companies into workflows of the future.

Commercial teams in the consumer industry are using GenAI to better serve customer needs and improve internal efficiency. According to a recent Deloitte GenAI survey, 48% of respondents in marketing, sales, and service functions have launched GenAI use cases, positioning Commercial as the most advanced function compared to HR (13%), Finance (13%), and Legal (11%). However, 73% of respondents in the consumer industry estimate that only 30% or fewer of their GenAI use cases have been successfully implemented in production. In short, many commercial teams are experimenting with GenAI, but few projects are driving large-scale change.

What is holding commercial teams back?

Reasons for GenAI failure

We have four answers to that question.

First. Lack of strategic intent: Many organizations implement GenAI expecting immediate payback without considering the long-term impact. Without a clear strategic value proposition, the implementation fails to deliver the desired outcomes. GenAI needs to be integrated into the company's strategic business goals.

Secondly. Unclear IT guardrails: IT departments are often too busy with other priorities to define clear policies for GenAI use – what is allowed, who is allowed to do it, which platforms can be used, what data is available and under what circumstances, security protocols, etc. Additionally, IT may lack the necessary capabilities, resources, or mandate to establish these policies. Without such guidelines, commercial teams continue experimenting, potentially risking security by using unsuitable GenAI solutions.

Thirdly. Lack of trust: Commercial teams rely heavily on human relations and may view AI as a threat. Without explaining how GenAI can benefit humans, backed by a clear vision for how-to-be processes will change, adoption will not happen, and business benefits will not be realised.

Lastly. Unclear value case: Many teams rush into experimentation without a clear value case. Establishing a “dollarized” roadmap early on – highlighting the expected benefits and, in particular, how the use cases are connected as a “string of pearls” – supported by continuous monitoring of value realization, is crucial to securing ongoing leadership buy-in beyond the initial experiment.

A new playbook for ComEx

ComEx is not a new concept and has evolved from centralized efforts to define the ‘playbook’ for building, for example, sales training academies, account programs, and pricing strategies, into the transformation of sales process enablement through digitization (CRM, sales support automation, etc.). In the future, we believe that commercial decisions will be automated to a much larger extent.

Implementing GenAI into ComEx starts with a vision: What is the overall ambition for the company’s commercial teams? How will customer experience change? What value can be created for customers, partners, and colleagues? From there, create a blueprint for scalable GenAI solutions in various ComEx disciplines:

• Sales: Optimise each step in the sales process, from lead generation to customer profiling and analytics.
• Pricing: Support employees in making faster and optimised quotations for specific customers.
• Marketing: Automate data collection, identify market opportunities, accelerate asset creation, and adapt content.
• Service and Support: Meet customer demands 24/7 and design superior customer experiences.

Next wave GenAI

We believe that GenAI in Commercial should not be perceived as merely a change of processes and workflows, but as a transformative overhaul of the services provided by ComEx teams.

Humans are still irreplaceable in many different contexts. It's important for us to emphasize that. The trick is to understand when human intervention is needed, and when it not only slows down a process but also reduces the quality of task execution.

Today, AI technology can augment human work by taking over repetitive and cumbersome tasks, freeing up resources to spend more time with customers, focus on value-adding activities, and act as creative problem-solvers – all of which are essential to achieving Commercial Excellence.