Sales enablement software is big—and getting bigger
Sales enablement technology is all about gaining insights and establishing best practices that improve critical business goals, such as greater customer retention, faster upskilling, accelerated revenue growth, and more.
As such, reliance on and enthusiasm for sales enablement software is only getting stronger. According to our latest research, which samples more than 1,600 sales, enablement, and customer success leaders in the US, Europe, and Australia:
- 90% said they use enablement technology at work
- 87% said their company plans to increase investments in enablement tech going into 2025
- The average increase in investment going into 2025 is a generous 23%.
AI is the main driver of sales enablement software investment
When asked specifically what was driving this increased investment, respondents said:
- The ability to gain new insights throughout the enablement lifecycle (88%)
- The increased ability to ensure consistency between leadership’s strategy and activity in the field (84%)
- The ability to adjust ongoing initiatives on the fly (82%)
- The increased ability to show clear ROI from enablement initiatives (88%)
- The increased ability to demonstrate enablement impact (87%)
However, the greatest driver—according to 92% of respondents—is advancements in AI, particularly in terms of how those advancements can bolster enablement tools.
Why? Because according to 88% of respondents, the fusion of AI and go-to-market (GTM) strategy could boost revenue growth by 27% over the next five years.
But what enablement efforts is this technology being used for? According to our respondents, there’s a fairly even spread across the following use cases:
- Learning (e.g., onboarding, training, and coaching): 63%
- Content management (i.e., content storage and findability): 52%
- Content creation and editing (i.e., automation tools for content collaboration and personalisation): 62%
- Content distribution (e.g., email and social media tools, etc.): 54%
- Content analytics (i.e., measuring content performance): 49%
AI-powered enablement tech boosts business outcomes
Of those who use AI for enablement, respondents said they implemented it to achieve the following four outcomes, again in relatively even proportions:
- GTM efficiency: 52%
- Enhanced buyer experience: 61%
- Operational optimisation: 59%
- Improved agility and speed to market: 44%
So, how did it go? Let’s take a look.
1. GTM efficiency
94% of respondents said they were able to ramp reps faster, increase quota attainment, and spend more time on high-value activities by implementing AI-powered enablement tools into their enablement processes.
What does AI-integrated enablement look like? It allows for:
- Individualised learning paths and simulated real-life coaching scenarios with immediate feedback
- Auto-tagged content and context-driven search results for faster, more relevant content discovery
- Automated content production and personalisation so more resonant assets can be created more quickly
- On-demand answers to virtually any question, crowd-sourced and verified by subject matter experts across the business.
2. Enhanced buyer experience
93% of respondents said implementing AI-powered enablement tools resulted in enhancing their buyers’ experiences, leading to increased deal size, better win/renewal rates, and decreased sales cycle times. That’s because AI provides:
- Custom feeds of shareable content based on reps’ preferences and derived from thousands of trustworthy third-party publications
- Automated social media post generation
- Automated note taking during meetings, meeting summaries, and follow-up recommendations.
3. Operational optimisation
88% of respondents said they were able to achieve higher enablement efficiency and ROI, improved content usage, and tech stack consolidation due to AI implementation, which provides:
- Analytics about what marketing content is resonating with customers and what training material is being retained by reps
- Visual data derived from hundreds of tables in just a few clicks for faster, smarter strategizing
- Auto-generated tasks for virtually any project by simply telling the system what to do in plain language.
- A single, unified enablement platform for all GTM-related activities, eliminating redundant software and shadow IT.
4. Improved agility and speed to market
Finally, 90% of respondents say AI helped them become more flexible and responsive to their changing business needs and launch new products and services quicker. AI can do this by:
- Providing in-flight campaign insights so GTM teams can quickly align and pivot their tactics in response to sudden market shifts
- Facilitating greater communication and alignment via shared, user-friendly dashboards so GTM teams can better translate leadership’s ideas into field-level actions.
To learn more about why businesses around the world are investing in AI-powered sales enablement software, check out our latest research report, Generation Enablement Report: Driving Strategic Change with the Power of AI.
Ready to get started with AI-powered enablement tools at your business? Bear in mind that evaluating sales enablement software is often easier said than done. Book a demo with our team today and learn why Seismic is the global leader in enablement.