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The more B2B firms use AI, the more it excites them.
That’s one among the core points made in a brand new report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. on B2B ecommerce technology and methods.
This trend toward increasing bullishness signals a positive impact and experience amongst those that are embracing GenAI.
“A notable 19% of respondents are already implementing generative AI use cases for B2B buying and selling, with one other 23% currently within the strategy of implementing it through ongoing development or experimentation,” McKinsey says within the report.
But that 19% GenAI implementation mark rises to 57% for those firms which have already used GenAI to generate increased sales, the report says. McKinsey includes in that sales growth category firms which have reported market share growth of 10% or more.
McKinsey expounds on these GenAI developments in its ninth annual B2B Pulse Survey, which it released this week after surveying 3,942 B2B decision makers across america and 12 other countries. The report’s authors are McKinsey partners Candace Lun Plotkin, Jennifer Stanley and Liz Harrison and associate partner Victor Garcia de la Torre.
“Over the past couple of years, the euphoric buzz about GenAI has been replaced by questions on business adoption and value generation,” the report says, adding, “As we dive into the mindsets of early adopters in a B2B business setting, we see that excitement toward Gen AI becomes higher as firms move further along the adoption curve.”
McKinsey cites GenAI’s benefits
For instance, the report says that 45% of those using a GenAI “smart research assistant” at scale rate this use case is “extremely helpful,” a rating cited by only 30% of those that are experimenting with it, and 25% of those that have yet to explore it.
“This trend toward increasing bullishness signals a positive impact and experience amongst those that are embracing GenAI,” McKinsey says.
The report asserts that “GenAI may give a good more powerful boost to firms which are already generating growth through highly personalized marketing. Since advanced tools need robust customer data to attach the dots and be effective, those which are engaging in one-to-one personalization could have a head start when experimenting with GenAI.
“Our research bears this out, with 54% of firms engaging in one-to-one personalization already within the strategy of implementing GenAI. The twin deployment of GenAI and personalization will pay off: data-driven business teams that mix each approaches are 1.7 times more prone to increase market share than those who should not fully committed to either.”
McKinsey shows 7 GenAI use cases for B2B
In the next table, McKinsey lays out seven GenAI use cases which have resulted in increased productivity and B2B sales growth at firms it has observed throughout the past two years; it also lists “actions or stages that may profit most from AI”:
Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].
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