Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Conversation Automation Solutions For B2B, Q1 2024

Top Vendor Products for Conversation Automation Solutions For B2B in 2024

• Conversica
• Drift

Conversation Automation Solutions For B2B Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

• Conversica - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Library of over 1,000 customizable conversation flows out-of-the-box and tuned for revenue optimization across the customer lifecycle
  • Revenue Development Assistants differentiate the offering, retaining context across email, web, and SMS to progress conversations toward conversion goals
  • Multiregion, multilanguage deployment capabilities
  • Improved sales and marketing alignment cited by reference customers

  Cons:

  • Must move quickly to meet customer demand for more delivery channels
  • Need to keep pace with market expectations for sophisticated generative AI (genAI) use cases and omnichannel conversational experiences


• Drift - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Customizable conversation templates that help B2B marketers address pain points such as removing friction from the website, improving personalization, and increasing conversion
  • Recommendations provide relevant next actions for prospect and opportunity management
  • Identifies topic-level content gaps for improved knowledge management
  • Site Concierge and conversationally interactive marketing content assets offer enhanced personalized engagement

  Cons:

  • Ability to handle more complex dialogue within conversation playbooks is a key area of improvement
  • Reference customers noted it was expensive
  • Lack of clear pricing and communication around new features


• Amelia - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Ability to act as a personal concierge that can support marketing and sales activities by empathetically automating complex, context-aware conversations in 130 languages and dialects using real-time translation
  • GenAI, conversational search, and commerce capabilities to streamline enterprise content repositories into a single conversational experience
  • High degree of sophistication for a no-code/low-code offering with compelling self-building feature
  • Breadth and depth of functionality and strong product vision cited by reference customers

  Cons:

  • Flexibility and primary focus on customer service and call centers may limit expansion within B2B marketing and sales organizations
  • Lack of out-of-the-box conversation flows for revenue-marketing plays may challenge adoption


• Genesys - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Robust partner ecosystem and integrations into core revenue marketing technologies
  • Predictive analytics to make performance recommendations to users regarding variants within a template and suggested next-best follow-up actions
  • Integrations into relevant revenue marketing technologies highly praised by reference customers

  Cons:

  • Only three languages are supported natively in the platform (English, Spanish, and German)
  • Reference customers noted desire for more conversational delivery mechanisms and flexibility in experience design
  • Genesys announced in Q1 2024 the discontinuation of the Exceed offering to focus on the Genesys Cloud platform


• LivePerson - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Ability to enable internal marketing, sales, and customer success users to chat with their own large corporate data sets using text or voice bots
  • AI Studio's prompt library makes it easy for users to manage prompts and deliver on-brand content across delivery mechanisms and modalities
  • Customizable AI-powered assistant that can blend digital and physical environments and cross-delivery mechanisms and modalities

  Cons:

  • Offering lacks out-of-the-box conversations focused on driving revenue through demand and account-based marketing
  • Reference customers noted a lack of integrations with core B2B CRM systems
  • Limited capabilities for first-party intent signal capture from conversational data


• Qualified - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Conversation analysis aimed at understanding interactions in context of audience segment, surrounding site activity, pipeline influence, and impact against conversion goals
  • Intuitive Auto Pounce feature initiates conversations based on key account dynamics, open opportunities, and buying stage
  • Automation of complex conversation-routing rules and repetitive tasks such as scheduling meetings
  • Impactful web personalization from conversational data enrichment cited by reference customers

  Cons:

  • Website focus limits the offering's ability to address the variety of interaction types and delivery mechanisms B2B buyers crave throughout the customer lifecycle
  • Lacks breadth in delivery mechanisms for enterprises requiring inbound and outbound conversational delivery in a single offering


• DRUID - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Solution Library of predefined skills for multiple industries
  • Supporting text and voice conversations in over 100 languages using real-time translation
  • Automating tasks including data enrichment, pricing, cart management, and scheduling
  • Reference customers note plans to expand use resulting from improvements in visitor engagement and customer experiences

  Cons:

  • Offering lacks out-of-the-box conversational templates to support B2B marketing use cases with complex, sustained dialogues
  • Roadmap lacks the depth and breadth of out-of-the-box conversations and workflows required to support revenue marketing interactions and processes


• Intercom - Challengers
  

  Pros:

  • Enables brands to communicate dynamically with their customers using real-time, in-app and in-product messaging
  • Guided product tours and in-context messaging during product utilization
  • Ability to capture and activate first-party intent signals generated from in-product conversational data and contexts

  Cons:

  • Current offering is focused on postsale engagement, with limited out-of-the-box conversation flows to support complex buying and selling processes
  • Lacks the out-of-the-box templates and skills to support the breadth of B2B marketing and sales activities required for full-lifecycle conversation automation use cases
  • Declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process


• Yellow.ai - Challengers
  

  Pros:

  • Library of flexible prebuilt templates, industry-focused intents, and personalization driven by User 360-embedded customer data platform
  • Conversational search, commerce, and intelligent cart management capabilities
  • Reference customers praised the ability to implement the solution quickly in-house without relying on professional services

  Cons:

  • Primarily focused on transactional buying motions and postsale experiences
  • Key features such as virtual assistants for revenue development and account-based conversation plays are currently lacking
  • Marketing and sales features need to evolve to address the full B2B customer lifecycle with its complex account and buying group dynamics

Reference

• Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Conversation Automation Solutions For B2B, Q1 2024, 25-Mar-2024, ID RES180603

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