Two of the five most exciting technologies powering sales and revenue departments this year are coming from intelligent automation platforms, according to Gartner. The Stamford, Conn.-based IT consultancy publishes its “Hype Cycle” for various industries each year and for 2023, the firm says the buzz around generative AI and process mining are at or near peak expectations.
Gartner calls the technologies (along with digital twin of a customer, self-integrating applications and AV/VR) “transformational” for corporate sales and revenue functions.
While the firm says generative AI is at the peak of inflated expectations (fairly early in the “hype cycle”), it predicts the tech will have profound impacts on many areas of the sales journey including content creation, CX and employee experiences. B2B sales organizations using generative-AI-embedded sales technologies (including process automation) will reduce the amount of time spent on prospecting and customer-meeting prep by over 50 percent by 2026.
Process mining, according to Melissa Hilbert, senior director analyst in the Gartner Sales Practice, is a bit farther along because it’s designed to discover, monitor and improve real processes (i.e., not assumed processes).
“In showing which process improvements are necessary to meet and exceed customer expectations, process mining helps organizations in addressing how they can actively impact CX and customer retention through internal operational improvements,” said Hilbert.