How artificial intelligence is revolutionising companies' pricing and sales strategies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way companies set prices and approach sales: traditional methodologies are being rewritten, becoming new models optimised for efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction. Both pricing and sales approach, key areas for business success, are evolving from typically manual processes to advanced models structured to exploit the full potential of AI technologies. It is thanks to the latter that companies can better adapt to market complexity, optimise key management decisions and unlock new growth opportunities.

Price is an often underused, though highly effective, lever for improving profitability. Indeed, by analysing significant volumes of data, AI can refine pricing strategies in real time by taking into account key variables such as customer preferences, competitors' actions and changing market conditions.

"The impact that AI can generate even in sectors that are typically very advanced in terms of pricing (such as airlines or, more generally, transport) is more than +3% in unit revenue, which corresponds to a significant increase in profitability. By being able to pick up on even the smallest signals in the sea of complexity, AI algorithms allow pricing teams to focus on more strategic, high value-added activities,' comments Leonardo Malgieri, Principal of the Global Competence Center of Pricing & Revenue Management at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

BCG's "The Future of Sales with AI" study also details the transformative impact of AI in B2B sales, an area traditionally driven by human intuition that is evolving with the integration of Predictive AI (PredAI) and Generative AI (GenAI) technologies, which improve decision-making, automate administrative tasks, and deliver highly personalised customer experiences. For sales teams, for example, AI enables them to identify high-potential leads, predict customer behaviour and provide tailored recommendations, resulting in shorter sales cycles, improved conversion rates and increased loyalty.

Achieving the indicated opportunities requires a profound change management process for the entire company: a key condition is the breaking down of traditional corporate silos between pricing, sales, marketing and customer service. AI requires, and at the same time encourages, a smooth integration between these functions in order to create a unified customer experience. Only through this alignment will companies put themselves in a position to meet the expectations of modern buyers, who most value and desire personalised, intuitive and efficient experiences.