Adopting AI and automation to improve revenue process efficiency 

Inefficient revenue processes are a serious concern for today’s businesses—and 97% of business leaders believe the demand to maximize revenue will grow in the next two years. That may help to explain a rapidly increasing reliance on AI and automation to enhance business processes.

The adoption of AI and automation is one of the key topics covered in a new report from Conga, in partnership with Ascend2 Research: The Revenue Imperative: Overcoming Inefficiencies to Maximize Growth. Analyzing responses from more than 600 business decision-makers across the US and UK, this report highlights the growing need to automate workflows and implement AI-powered solutions on the path toward optimizing revenue operations.

Following are some takeaways from this important and timely research.

AI adoption is expected to accelerate rapidly 

Business professionals expressed a high level of confidence in AI, with 87% agreeing that they are confident in AI’s ability to reliably improve business performance. Yet just one quarter of organizations have already adopted AI to enhance business processes like revenue management.

Among those who have not yet embraced AI, more than two-thirds are likely to do so in the coming year. When asked about the prospect of adopting AI to improve business processes, responses are as follows:

• 25% We have already adopted AI for business processes
• 51% Very likely in the next 12 months
• 17% Somewhat likely in the next 12 months
• 5% Not very likely in the next 12 months
• 2% We do not plan to adopt AI for business processes

AI adoption varies widely across different departments. One-third (34%) of IT professionals report that they are currently using AI in their business processes, compared to 23% of finance and operations teams and 19% of sales teams. Use cases like AI chatbots, AI help desk functionality, and developer tools likely contribute to the high usage of AI among IT teams.

Regional differences are also clear in the adoption of AI. One-third (33%) of UK respondents report already using AI, compared to 21% in the US.  

Revenue management offers many use cases for AI 

Survey results indicate a high level of interest in applying AI to improve various processes throughout the revenue lifecycle. Rather than being a replacement for human intelligence, AI is increasingly seen as a way to supplement and accelerate a team’s abilities.  

When asked which areas of revenue management would benefit the most from the application of AI, top responses include:

• 47% Billing/invoicing
• 47% Document management
• 42% Order management and fulfillment
• 34% Quoting/proposals
• 34% Compliance and risk management
• 30% Contract execution/management
• 30% Cross-selling/upselling

Of course, different roles view the potential for AI differently. IT and operations professionals want to see AI implemented to streamline billing and invoicing tasks, while finance teams and executives are interested in its potential to improve compliance and risk management.

Companies can win big with automation 

Document management plays an important role across a wide range of departments and roles—yet just 54% of the business leaders surveyed report having fully optimized document management processes.  

By automating document management, companies have the opportunity to drive widespread improvement and transform the entire organization. When was about the benefits companies would gain from streamlined document management, respondents cited:

• 60% Increased efficiency
• 53% Cost savings
• 47% Improved customer experience
• 46% Enhanced accuracy/data integrity
• 46% Increased sales
• 44% Improved decision making
• 43% Improved collaboration
• 38% Improved scalability

In order to understand the true impact of increased efficiency, we asked survey respondents how much time they’re losing to repetitive, manual tasks related to revenue management. Responses are as follows:

• 12% More than 12 hours per week
• 23% 9-12 hours per week
• 26% 6-8 hours per week
• 23% 3-5 hours per week
• 9% 1-2 hours per week
• 7% Less than 1 hour per week

All told, revenue professionals are losing the equivalent of 11 weeks of productivity per year, based on a standard 40-hour work week. By leveraging AI to support revenue teams and automate document management, organizations could allocate this time to more high-value tasks, create better balance for employees, and deliver an elevated customer experience.

Get the report

Download the full report, The Revenue Imperative: Overcoming Inefficiencies to Maximize Growth, for additional details and complete findings from this timely research.