UK firms losing 25% revenue due to AI underutilisation

A recent survey has revealed that UK businesses are losing an average of 25% of their potential revenue due to underutilisation of AI technology.

Conducted by research company Vanson Bourne for Clari, the survey involved 150 UK businesses and was aimed at estimating the extent of revenue leak at these organisations.

The findings of the survey highlight a substantial revenue leak representing billions of pounds. About 31% of respondents estimated that their organisations lose 41% or more of their revenue annually. Additionally, nearly half of the businesses surveyed suggested they could be losing more than GBP £40 million each year.

Despite this, almost all respondents acknowledged the benefits of artificial intelligence in stemming this revenue leak. Currently, 45% are already using AI tools, while 54% plan to integrate these technologies within the next 12 months. However, a significant number, 62%, admitted to still relying on outdated technologies such as spreadsheets for collecting and analysing revenue data.

Kathleen Hartigan, Group VP International Revenue at Clari, noted, "We were particularly interested in how revenue operations (RevOps) teams are using AI." Revenue operations is an emerging discipline that aims to unify teams across traditional departments such as sales, marketing, customer service, and support. Nearly half (49%) of the survey respondents managed a RevOps team, while only 15% reported having no dedicated RevOps function within their organisation.

"Many large UK businesses have already moved away from siloed operations towards thinking of revenue as a process which involves teams working in unison. This is an important first step in making the most of state-of-the-art AI revenue tech," Hartigan added.

Most organisations recognised the detrimental effects of revenue leak, noting consequences such as slow or declining revenue growth (22%), reduced budgets (18%), and stalled innovation (15%). A major cited benefit of AI tools was more reliable sales forecasting, with 36% of respondents planning to invest in such technologies this year.

Hartigan explained, "A big benefit of using AI is that you can spot where in the pipeline (the revenue process) things are going wrong. Without that information, how do you begin to put things right?"

Part of the problem, as highlighted by the survey, is ineffective programmes for creating revenue pipelines, cited by 29% of respondents. Additionally, 21% of businesses admitted they were unsure about where prospects were dropping out of the revenue pipeline and did not know how to address these issues. Forecasts and pipeline details being hidden or incorrect was another significant reason, with 30% of respondents blaming this for their inability to close deals.

Despite the challenges, the survey indicated that nearly all respondents (99%) recognised the advantages of using AI. Benefits cited included more accurate forecasting (20%), improved decision making (17%), faster time to revenue (17%), and reduced costs (16%).

The findings underscore a growing need for UK businesses to adopt advanced technologies like AI to optimise their revenue processes. While many have begun to integrate AI tools, there remains a considerable gap between current practices and the potential efficiencies and revenue maximisation AI can offer.