Selling complex B2B products online is often difficult. But it’s a challenge where artificial intelligence is beginning to help ease online configuration, selection and purchasing of multifaceted products that could have large numbers of components.

Logik.io, a digital technology provider founded in 2021 for configurating, discovering and recommending products online, this week introduced Cosmo AI, an artificial intelligence system designed for configure-price-quote systems and ecommerce.

The company launched the Cosmo AI suite with Cosmo FunctionAssist, the first of several features Logik.io says are designed to ease and quicken how online buyers can configure complex products and equipment ranging from power tools to vehicles and construction equipment.

Christopher Shutts, CEO, Logik-io

CEO Christopher Shutts describes FunctionAssist as an “intelligent rule-making assistant built to make configuration simpler than ever by using generative AI to create advanced rules” for configuring products. He notes that when a manufacturer sets up a product configuration process as part of an online CPQ system, they must program that system with an extensive set of rules to have it pull information from multiple databases to accurately describe each component that goes into a configured product.

With Cosmo AI Function Assist, the manufacturer can enter a natural language request to have the system generate those rules, a method that Logik.io has shown is 50% – 70% faster than conventional methods, says Fazal Gupta, Logik.io’s head of product.

Robert Muñoz, a vice president and principal analyst covering CPQ technology at Forrester Research Inc., says generative AI is poised to disrupt the CPQ market.

“Generative AI will bring greater ease for buyers and sellers to configure customer-centric solutions and enable admin users to build optimized configuration logic faster in a guided and more conversational approach,” Muñoz says. “Gen AI is now poised to disrupt the CPQ market by enabling greater buyer experiences, easier seller optimized configurations, faster time to value, and increased organizational agility and speed to launch, scale, and manage the lifecycle of offerings to drive profitable growth.”

Santi Subotovsky, general partner of Emergence Capital, the lead venture capital firm behind Logik.io’s $16 million in Series A funding, says Logik.io is using Cosmo AI to “transform … the B2B selling model from one that is complex, convoluted, and expensive, to one that is ‘consumerized,’ low-touch, and efficient.”

“Gone are the days when admins needed to spend hours on advanced scripting to write and manage rules — our new Cosmo FunctionAssist functionality is changing how companies will look at managing configuration,” Shutts asserts.

He adds that FunctionAssist is also designed to make it easier and faster for online buyers to configure and price complex products for purchase.

Shutts says the regular subscription cost to operate Cosmo AI CPQ is based on a per user, per month fee of $85 (or $25 for distributors or resellers). When a client company uses Cosmo AI product configurations that result in ecommerce purchase transactions,  Logik.io charges the seller per-configuration fees that vary from pennies to significantly higher dollar amounts based on volume, he adds. The company says that about 50% of its customers use its technology to support ecommerce or omni-channel product configuration and guided selling.

Logik.io says it plans to introduce additional Cosmo AI features, including:

• Smart Predictions & Auto-Suggestions, designed to save end-users time quoting product prices by auto-suggesting options based on previous selections.
• Rule Optimization Suggestions, designed to make process improvements faster, simpler, and more automated via intelligent suggestions.
• Inline Admin Help & Support, designed to enable CPQ and Commerce admins to be more effective and efficient by providing them with  real-time, in-context answers and training on any questions they have as they work.

“Until this year, the role of AI in the CPQ market has been primarily focused on leveraging predictive AI to optimize revenue and profitability with price optimization and management solutions,” Forrester’s Muñoz says. “Some CPQ vendors like Oracle, SAP, PROS and Pricefx have also been providing AI-driven capabilities like configuration guidance, upsell/cross-sell recommendations and churn detection.”

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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