Scaling Custom Sales: The Business Upside of AI Configurator
May 30, 2025
Why AI configuration is a strategic business imperative
Personalization – luxury or necessity? Based on our experience, it is the latter. 50% of consumers (1) share our sentiment and express interest in purchasing customized products or services, with many willing to pay a premium for personalized offerings. But traditional sales and UX weren’t built for that.
Problems caused by product complexity tend to surface in the customer experience. It creates friction, adds pressure on internal teams, and leads to buyers walking away before completing a purchase – which, more often than not, they do. AI configurators come in with the capability to “understand” customer’s intent and take over with an automated user flow, proven to raise conversions by 30% (2).
In this article, we’ll break down the core business reasons why adopting an AI configurator isn’t just a UX upgrade — it’s a smart move for revenue, efficiency, and long-term growth.
The cost of complexity in custom sales
Selling customizable products has always required more steps than standard retail. Whether it's made-to-measure wardrobes or modular industrial equipment, the path from interest to purchase typically involves back-and-forth consultations, manual quoting, and design revisions. That complexity translates into slow response times, opaque pricing, and high friction.
In a digital environment, the customers expect speed and ease, which is not possible to maintain with old sales models. As an example, let’s look at the average cart abandonment rate for complex or high-consideration purchases – it sits between 60–80% (3). Now let’s look at the reasoning: 42% of B2B buyers (4) say they’ve abandoned a purchase because the quote took too long to arrive.
To keep up with the modern buying behavior, manufacturers and sellers have to understand one thing:
Any extra step – waiting on a manual quote, needing to call a rep to clarify options, or deciphering technical product specs – adds drop-off risk, and it is high. And every drop-off is a missed opportunity.
Customization should be a competitive advantage, not a conversion killer. But unless the process is simplified and streamlined, it often ends up costing more in lost leads than most companies realize.
Why speed and simplicity drive conversions
It’s all about seamless experiences. Even when the purchase is complex, the process has to feel easy. However, the expectation is no longer limited to “good UX”. It’s about getting instant clarity, real-time feedback, and the ability to move forward without friction.
The numbers back this up: reducing the time it takes to generate a quote by just one day can increase conversion rates by up to 25% (5). Every delay is a chance for the customer to rethink, hesitate, or look elsewhere.
AI configurators are built to meet that demand head-on. Instead of step-by-step interfaces and slow quoting workflows, users get instant responses. Describe what you need via text, voice, or a reference image, and receive a valid product configuration and price within seconds. No waiting for a rep. No delays caused by manual input. In real-world applications, configuration plus quoting can be done in under 60 seconds (6) – and that’s an interaction that used to take days. This is a conversion lever. When you make it easy to buy, more people do.
Automating the funnel
In traditional sales models, the journey from interest to purchase often looks like this: a customer fills out a form, a sales rep follows up, a call is booked, specifications are discussed, a quote is manually created, and finally, days or weeks later, a deal is closed. Each handoff adds friction, time, and risk of drop-off. Let’s look at what happens when AI enters the process.
With an AI configurator, the product interaction itself becomes the first point of qualification. Instead of just generating a passive lead, the system collects intent-rich data: what the customer wants, how much they’re willing to spend, and what options they’re considering – all before a human ever gets involved. The conversational interface executes the next step, and specs and pricing are generated automatically. That means fewer handoffs, faster follow-up, and a lead that arrives already qualified.
Revenue uplift through smarter selling
In high-consideration purchases, customers need help finding the right combination of features, add-ons, or upgrades. Ideally that would happen without the pressure of a sales pitch. This is where we introduced guided selling into the configuration process.
With AI configurators, product discovery is turned into a conversation. The customer describes what they want, the system generates a valid configuration, but on top of that it also suggests accessories, upgraded components, or better-matching alternatives. No guesswork, as it's context-aware, data-driven assistance that feels helpful, but not pushy.
The impact has been substantial: Intelligent product recommendations boost average order value (AOV) by 10–30% (7). And more research shows that 91% of consumers (8) are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant suggestions and offers.
Regular 3D configurators are fantastic tools, but they tend to stop at selection, while AI continues into sales enablement. It means that customers are assisted with discovery of options they might have missed, or combinations that add value to whatever they’re buying. Another upside to this is that upselling becomes a service, not a sales tactic.
Operational efficiency gains
Custom product sales are hard for both the buyer and the seller too. Manual assistance, repetitive FAQ replies, and post-sale support eat up a lot of time, not to mention the risk of mistakes. So let’s look at how AI lightens the internal load.
This is what can be offloaded with the AI configurator:
AI has been proven to reduce the quoting time by up 30-70% (9) and cut the ticket volume by 40% (10).
Competitive advantage and customer expectations
73% of B2B buyers (11) now expect personalized online journeys. Leading brands like Nike (12) and Tesla (13) have already raised the bar by embedding AI into their product exploration and purchase flows.
For everyone else, the risk is getting lost in competition by not meeting modern expectations and signaling a lack of innovation. Don’t look at adopting AI as chasing trends, it’s no longer about that. Look at how the AI configurator can deliver the kind of experience customers now expect.
ROI and implementation considerations
AI doesn’t have to mean a massive overhaul. One of the biggest advantages of the AI configurator is that it delivers measurable results without requiring you to rebuild your entire stack.
Where the ROI comes from:
It’s also a fast win. As a modular add-on, the AI configurator integrates directly into your existing 3D or visual product interface. That means no rip-and-replace, just smart layering.
40% of organizations experienced increased productivity, and 49% observed improved software quality after integrating generative AI into their operations (14). Our architecture is designed to match that timeline — with flexible pricing, integration paths, and deployment options to fit your business size and goals.
Build smarter, scale faster
AI Configurators are a direct answer to the real business challenges slowing your growth. They reduce friction in the buying process, shorten sales cycles, boost average order value, relieve internal teams from manual quoting and repetitive support tasks, and much more.
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Sources
(2) https://faraday.ai/blog/boll-and-branch-personalization?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(3) https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(4) https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(7) https://www.salesgenie.com/blog/upselling-statistics/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(11) https://www.salesforce.com/eu/blog/future-of-customer-service/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(13) https://digitaldefynd.com/IQ/tesla-using-ai-case-study/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
(14) https://www.capgemini.com/us-en/insights/research-library/gen-ai-in-software/?utm_source=chatgpt.com