The next frontier for Order to Cash processes is here!!
From ChatGPT to Bard, generative AI technology is finally here and making waves—including in the order to cash landscape. Discover the many ways generative AI can boost efficiencies, unlock value, birth new digital capabilities, and revolutionize what’s possible across the Order to Cash process.
Generative AI: A revolutionary disruption
Since ChatGPT went live in November 2022, generative AI has been the discussion topic across social media and company boardrooms. With its ability to “create” new content by interpreting and emulating the training dataset, generative AI is expected to disrupt multiple processes, jobs, and industries. The platform is touted to fundamentally alter our perspective on jobs and skills, and tools powered by generative AI are expected to revolutionize current ways of working.
Order to Cash (OTC) processes have consistently leveraged technological advancements; with such disruptive technology at the door, it is essential to understand what the platform is about, its capabilities, and how it could transform how we deliver & collect on the goods and services sold by a company.
What is Generative (Gen) AI?
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio, and synthetic data. The recent buzz around generative AI has been driven by the simplicity of user interfaces and its ability to create high-quality text, imagery, and videos in a short time.
Gen AI is now accessible to all sorts of users thanks to emerging innovations like ChatGPT that can be adapted for use in different applications, including Contracting, Order Management & Collections. Walmart has been piloting an AI-based tool “Pactum” for autonomousnegotiations with suppliers. While Walmart finds it helpful for landing a good bargain, three out of four suppliers prefer negotiating with AI over a human. The same can be true for customer negotiations.
The OTC Landscape
Order to cash operations have historically been at the forefront of technological disruption. From leveraging advanced analytics for Dispute Management to deploying conversational AI for invoice collections, OTC tools have continuously innovated to address process challenges. However, many OTC functions continue to struggle to optimize efficiency, manage risk, and manage costs (inflationary pressures in recent times).
Gen AI can enhance process excellence and support automation in Order to Cash process by leveraging its ability to generate human-like speech and text and process vast amounts of information to extract key facts and required information.
Some key challenges Gen AI can solve include:
· Generating actionable insights based on historic trends, demand profiles, and customer behaviors.
· Crunching large sets of data to process scenario-based results—reducing complex manual processes and interventions.
· Leveraging complex automation to increase efficiencies.
· Combining internal data with external data to craft better customer contract terms e.g. payment terms, discount offered
Generating value in OTC with AI
Generative AI’s greatest potential in OTC is likely proactive risk management, process automation, and decision-making. In an increasingly uncertain world, instant access to accurate information is vital for mitigating and managing risk and empowering organizations. Generative AI can help drive seamless customer experience based on learning from large amounts of historical customer communications/data.
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Few use cases of bringing generative AI to real-life OTC scenarios are illustrated below. Right from negotiating with customers for favorable terms to onboarding them towards seamless billing and collection, generative AI can drive efficiency across sub-processes.
There are many sources of revenue leakage in the O2C process, but Gen AI use cases can help reduce the leakage
What’s next for Gen AI?
Many activities within Order to Cash still rely on manual touchpoints and swivel chair processes—but Gen AI has the potential to transform these day-to-day operations.
Gen AI signifies a disruptive change to the evolution of order to cash strategy, governance, people, process, and technology as reflected in the image below.
It is becoming increasingly essential for OTC leaders to recognize the importance of such a change, embrace its capabilities, and incorporate it into their long-term road map. To march forward, organizations would need to prepare themselves to effectively implement the solution. Illustrated below is an evolution of the potential Gen AI journey.
The nextdisrupter for Order To Cash is here at our doorstep.
