Publications
Publications
- March 27, 2025
- Harvard Business Review (website)
How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base
By: Sunil Gupta and Frank V. Cespedes
Abstract
The software company SAP successfully leveraged AI tools to begin selling to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market, which had previously been uneconomical for its in-person sales approach. By mapping the customer journey and deploying over 40 AI tools, SAP transformed the way it sells, reducing the sales cycle from 12–18 months to 3–6 months and supporting over 22,000 new customer opportunities in 2024. This case study demonstrates the potential of thoughtful AI scaling to add significant revenue to large businesses.
Keywords
Citation
Gupta, Sunil, and Frank V. Cespedes. "How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base." Harvard Business Review (website) (March 27, 2025).