By 2020, 85 percent of customer interactions will be managed by Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI can handle processes with efficiency and precision, giving humans the freedom to do jobs that only humans can.

When 2020 comes, Salesforce will already be comfortably participating in that 85 percent. The company’s AI tool, Einstein, “learns from [the data your customers create] to deliver predictions and recommendations based on your unique business processes.” While not yet fully integrated out of the box, Salesforce is always working on product developments. Einstein enhances your Quote-to-Cash by making the CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote software) implementation process faster, winning deals faster, and providing automating billing.

Faster CPQ Implementation Process

AI can help professional services teams implement CPQ faster. “CPQ is a sales tool designed to help companies produce accurate and highly configured quotes, making all of the complex product, pricing, and business rules centralized, automatic, and available in real-time, so sales has everything they need at their fingertips.” The AI in CPQ eliminates time salespeople would otherwise need to spend figuring out quotes, which means that the complexity of clients’ information and orders is not a problem.

AI is able to assume the responsibility of figuring out complexities by being fed data and then extrapolating rules or patterns. But users do need to apply additional examples and information to the AI machine to take full advantage of what machine learning and algorithms can do.

The objective of Salesforce Einstein is that one can begin with existing implementations, apply an AI layer, and have it read existing information as well as future development and data. This layer-upon-layer learning process allows AI to pick up new solutions much faster than a human could. When Salesforce users introduce a new product or process to Einstein, implementation time is significantly reduced. Instead of starting from square one with each new product, algorithms take over and associate information between products and rules that users have applied.

Shorter Deal Life Cycle

AI can help sales teams shorten the deal life cycle, or time from quote to cash, thereby winning more deals. AI does this by analyzing past interactions of businesses with clients, including process “from creating initial offers for prospects to collecting cash.”

For example, if a client has purchased a certain amount of product before, AI knows what their buying behavior is. This is good news for business owners because they want to incentivize their clients to be repeat clients, but may not know what will encourage them to buy again or how to direct them to a new or different product. With AI, you can find patterns in interactions with repeat customers. AI “can rapidly identify clusters and patterns in the information—such as similarities between customers, past purchasing behavior, credit checks, and other common threads. Millions of transactions can be analyzed every day to target offers down to a single customer.”

With such detailed analysis, AI automatically offers clients deals and discounts that will likely incentivize them to buy. Salespeople don’t have to build the bundles or rules manually; they can easily take advantage of cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and close deals more quickly.

Streamlined and Automated Billing

AI can also read previous interactions with the billing system, analyzes data gathered from current clients. It applies discounts and other incentives based on billing timeframes—something salespeople would have to spend precious work hours figuring out.

This data collection and analysis can be referred to as deep learning. “Deep learning requires a complex architecture that mimics a human brain’s neural network in order to make sense of patterns, even with noise, missing details, and other sources of confusion.” Combine human-like thinking patterns with robotic stamina and speed, and AI makes stressful billing a thing of the past.

Einstein, the AI tool from Salesforce, not only makes sales easier, it also helps salespeople be better at their jobs. It helps salespeople win more deals and automate billing. Einstein forms a partnership with your sales team, giving your company the freedom to be its very best.

See how Salesforce CPQ accelerates the Quote-to-Cash process.