Achieving the promise of AI and ML in delivering economic and relational customer value in B2B

Abstract

Our study sheds light on the potential for the significant role that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can play in addressing the challenge of information silos both within and across organizations. We propose an organizational process model in which AI would facilitate communication, coordination, and customization, the pillars of value delivery in customer-centric organizations. Our model draws on examples of AI solutions in a variety of B2B contexts, ranging from sales and marketing, to technology, to healthcare, and to education. The model emphasizes the critical role of human capital as embodied in employees and their ever-shifting interaction with organizational culture to ensure the success of AI implementation. Since relationships remain the salient connections that bind organizations on value delivery, humans are and will remain critical to value-added activities and processes – even when those involve AI – underscoring the effect of the human interface on both economic and relational value for customers.