AI-enabled sales is about one vision: equipping client-facing teams to be more productive, memorable, and impactful. With the right technology, teams can focus on what truly matters — growing the business, connecting with clients, and delivering hyper-personalized experiences.
Seismic’s recent study, “Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights,” highlights how financial services leaders are integrating enablement and AI to stay ahead. With 91% of respondents pushing for innovative technologies and 97% doing so because of advancements in AI, the report sheds light on the growing investment in AI to accelerate productivity, meet evolving client needs, and drive revenue.
Read on to understand how firms are using AI in enablement, what challenges and opportunities they face, and what’s next.
The role of AI-enabled sales in financial services
Firms are increasingly relying on AI-powered tools to boost productivity across client-facing, marketing, and training teams. More than half of the respondents are already using AI-powered tools specifically for enablement, while 25% use AI for other non-enablement tasks and 19% leverage AI for both enablement and non-enablement activities.
Our research shows that financial services professionals are 12% more likely to use AI with enablement efforts in comparison to counterparts from other industries, demonstrating a broader acceptance of emerging technology.
Key drivers for investing in enablement technologies and new technologies include:
- Managing rapid changes within organizations: 60%
- Keeping up with changing customer expectations: 57%
- Reflecting customer offerings/products/services: 46%
- Closing the skills gap through coaching and training: 38%
- Decreasing sales time in the buyer journey: 28%
AI-powered enablement: Tangible benefits
Among respondents whose firms already use AI-powered tools in their enablement processes, 90% report being satisfied or extremely satisfied with the performance of these tools. Firms are streamlining several tasks with AI. These include:
- Content creation and management: AI simplifies the creation and organization of content by automating processes like tagging and content assembly, while making content discoverable to client-facing professionals in the moment of need.
- Training and coaching: Firms can use AI to deliver personalized learning modules, accelerating skill development and reducing time to proficiency. AI can also provide real-time coaching and feedback, helping client-facing professionals refine their techniques and improve performance.
- Client engagement: AI tools analyze client data to help client-facing professionals tailor their communications and present relevant information during meetings. By organizing client information, suggesting talking points, and generating follow-up tasks, AI ensures personalized and productive client engagements that boost satisfaction and loyalty.
Learn how leaders in financial services are leveraging AI-powered enablement
“Revenue Enablement in Financial Services: 2024 Global Findings & Insights”
Challenges and opportunities
Even with AI’s potential, 66% of respondents report facing barriers to implementing AI in their enablement processes, most notably financial resource constraints (42%), security concerns (40%), and HR constraints (35%).
To overcome these challenges, industry leaders are focusing on training and cross-functional collaboration between sales, marketing, service, tech, data science, and business operations teams. An overwhelming majority of respondents (85%) agree that AI literacy has become an essential skill for client-facing teams, and more than 90% work for firms that have launched AI-focused training programs for employees. By identifying and empowering champions for AI, firms can build adoption across teams.
What’s next
Rapid advances in AI will continue to evolve across the financial services industry, redefining everything from operations to client interactions. In fact, 90% of respondents predict that AI will completely transform their industry in the next 5 years, and that the fusion of AI with go-to-market strategies will result in a 40% increase in revenue growth.
Respondents believe that over time AI has the potential to optimize functions across sales (61%), marketing (61%), strategy and operations (49%), risk and compliance (43%), coaching and training (39%), and legal and audit (33%) teams. It’s clear that embracing AI in your enablement strategies will strengthen your competitive advantage today and prepare your firm for tomorrow.
Transforming financial services with AI-powered enablement tech
AI-powered enablement plays a critical role in helping firms increase AUM/revenue, drive operational efficiency, and deliver more memorable experiences. Our study shows just how much AI can boost productivity and drive revenue, making it a game-changer for firms looking to stay competitive. Firms that invest in AI-powered enablement are not only preparing for the future; they are setting new industry standards in client satisfaction and operational efficiency.
For nearly a decade, Seismic has continuously invested in AI to enhance our platform’s capabilities, establishing us as the global leader in enablement. Seismic is proud to partner with more than 400 financial services institutions around the world to support their vision for growth.