Salesforce Says the Future of B2B Commerce Is Being Powered by AI Decisioning

Customer touchpoints are increasingly coming alive with the help of innovations like artificial intelligence (AI).

And it isn’t just consumer-focused. Business-to-business (B2B) and commercial customers are more and more seeing — and expecting — both streamlined workflows and personalized experiences.

“We’ve seen a significant uptick in the appetite of B2B customers who want to digitize their commerce,” Michael Affronti, SVP, GM of Commerce Cloud at Salesforce, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

“We’ve been thinking about how to help bring the digitization of commerce and payments to B2B workflows,” he explained. “And how to use AI to help customers scale their operations.”

That’s because no matter the playing field, efficiency is the name of the game right now. Commercial customers are always seeking ways to streamline their workflows.

And as businesses continue to seek ways to drive efficiency and improve their bottom line, AI technology offers a promising solution. With its ability to personalize touchpoints and engagements, AI has the potential to revolutionize the way organizations operate and help businesses thrive in today’s competitive market.

Affronti emphasized that he’s been “very focused” on predictive recommendations that leverage AI, and building “opinionated experiences for B2B customers.”

Meeting B2B Players Where They Are

AI-led personalization can drive better performance for businesses, both in terms of top-line revenue and bottom-line results. AI platforms continuously learn, refine and optimize the delivery of their solutions, ensuring that engagements are optimized relative to a confidence band built on past behavioral trends.

But that doesn’t mean accelerating AI adoption and enjoying its low-hanging benefits is as easy as one, two, three.

“Sometimes customers are not necessarily set up for success when they think about omnichannel because, especially when it comes to nontraditional commerce channels like WhatsApp, the team that actually owns that medium can be different than the team driving digital commerce,” Affronti said.

Fully transitioning to headless commerce, after all, is “super expensive” and “requires you to become an engineering shop,” he added.

Still, the next generation of AI products are already having an impact on guided B2B selling, transforming the way businesses operate.

“Part 1 is providing the services, Part 2 is providing the opinionated experiences. And then Part 3 is the partnerships and the business agreement we have to make sure that stuff is really seamless for them,” Affronti explained.

“It’s really about driving trust first before you can ask for first-party information, and then that information can drive more personalized experience, which makes it more frictionless,” he added.

Tapping Into the Power of Loyalty Spend Cycles

“The average B2B seller, you know, potentially after a third of their time is sending out roughly the same quotes every couple of months to the same people. So, how do we help with that? It’s really the impetus of what we’re doing,” Affronti said.

He emphasized that one B2B feature driving excitement is bringing typically consumer-focused value-adds into the commercial ecosystem.

“Using promotions for the first time [is something generating a lot of interest], specifically doing things like, ‘If you pay for this service offering right now or renew your warranty while the commissions at your company’s doorstep, we’ll take 10% off,’” Affronti explained.

Repetitive tasks can be time-consuming and take away from more valuable interactions with customers, particularly when it comes to areas like reordering and commercial replenishment, where the buyer not the supplier is initiating.

AI can help streamline those workflows by allowing sales reps to identify and target their repeat buyers and send them automated emails with an invitation to a portal to quickly reorder a past purchase.

“I had a customer ask about getting their own customers to think about automating all the products they’re buying so that they could focus on upselling new products, offering promotions that move old inventory, all the normal commerce things,” Affronti said.

After all, if organizations don’t have enough headcount at the moment to reach their sales goals, it’s now possible to use AI and automation to drive sales and prompt reorders, while also driving personalized decisioning across commercial transactions.

“There’s a lot of runway for education,” Affronti said, adding that customers can be “nervous about using open-ended AI technology” due to the downsides around linking sensitive data into open-source models, as well as AI’s tendency at times to hallucinate.

He explained, that “the biggest learning is that we need to make trust a principle layer” of any AI-driven B2B solutions.

That’s why Affronti explained that Salesforce is launching intelligent commercial innovations and integrations for its Commerce Cloud including Pay Now, Snapchat for Commerce Cloud, Reorder Portal, and Order Support, that are all supported by AI, data, and the power of Salesforce Customer 360.

By leveraging the power of AI, businesses can streamline their workflows, personalize their offers, and drive better performance.