Smarter enterprise planning with artificial intelligence (AI) 

Take a look under the Anaplan hood to learn how our platform leverages AI to power the agile connected enterprise of tomorrow — today. 

Is AI here to replace our jobs? This is a question many have asked in the wake of the latest leaps in bounds in AI development. And while we don’t know exactly what the future will hold, perhaps we can take a few lessons from the past. 

History shows that human relevance to work has remained a constant through all revolutions, but the nature of how we do that work must evolve. The machines may not replace us, but those who don’t adapt to AI may soon be replaced by those who do.

AI is all the rage right now — with business leaders scrambling to understand its implications — but at Anaplan, AI has been an essential part of our DNA for years. We’ve fueled our platform with AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics capabilities to provide our customers with actionable insights for more intelligent planning, and our product roadmap includes groundbreaking advancements across a range of AI-driven business scenarios. 

Anaplan is well-positioned to help guide and enable organizations through this current AI revolution — and far beyond. We look forward to announcing our latest AI innovations soon, but in the meantime, let’s take a closer look at some of the cutting-edge AI features and benefits already available to Anaplan’s enterprise users worldwide. 

A platform fueled by intelligence 

Anaplan is the definitive source of business truth for our customers, empowering business leaders with data-driven insights, automation, and predictive capabilities to enhance efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve outcomes. Those who have embraced our AI capabilities have witnessed improvements in predicting future performance and generating greater revenue.  

Here are some of the AI-powered features we’ve introduced into our platform so far: 

• PlanIQ helps you dramatically improve forecast accuracy for effective business planning. With advanced statistical forecasting techniques, you can create accurate forecasts and improve predictions by analyzing both internal and external drivers. You can also test different scenarios, discover connections, and spot emerging trends to constantly improve sales and demand forecasting.  

• Predictive Insights empowers you to create a strategic sales plan leveraging deep customer insights and buyer-intent data. This enables you to understand your most profitable segments and target accounts. It continuously gathers thousands of insights and buying signals from millions of businesses worldwide to assist you in discovering new areas for growth and opportunities to prioritize your go-to-market strategy.  

• Optimizer offers predictive analytics capabilities and advanced linear optimization algorithms, enabling you to discover optimal solutions for complex problems with a simple click. By integrating business-user-friendly optimization capabilities into your Anaplan implementation, you can harness the power of your data to make the best decisions.  

Empowering smart decision-making 

The Anaplan platform is powered by advanced AI capabilities that enhance intelligent decision-making. These features are particularly valuable for a range of end-users, including model builders, planners, and decision-makers, including C-level executive leaders. 

Here are some of the ways various user roles benefit from our AI features:   

• Model builders need to quickly and easily integrate large amounts of internal and external data to enable planners and decision-makers to make informed decisions faster. Anaplan’s AI capabilities help them save time and resources by automating data collection, enhancement, and calculations, leading to more accurate results and freeing up time for more valuable tasks.

• Planners need access to the most up-to-date, accurate insights to help create and optimize plans based on your business needs and objectives. Anaplan’s AI capabilities enable them with ad hoc analysis and insights into key drivers of sales and revenue performance across finance, operations, HR, supply chain, and sales and marketing.   

• Decision-makers face difficult choices every day and must quickly understand how different scenarios impact outcomes for their business. Anaplan’s AI capabilities support confident decision-making so you can choose the best course of action for your business to mitigate risks and improve outcomes. 

An enterprise-wide impact  

Anaplan's AI capabilities offer several advantages to our customers. They enable faster and more agile decision-making processes, contribute to achieving more precise outcomes, and promote intelligence that spans across the entire enterprise.

These capabilities translate into various benefits for our customers, including: 

• Greater revenue and faster time to close from sales 

• Increased win rates and average deal size 

• Improved forecast accuracy and predictability 

• Time-savings in monthly planning and reporting cycles 

• Enhanced decision-making and planning effectiveness 

Explore below some of the achievements our customers have experienced with Anaplan’s AI capabilities:

PlanIQ

• South Central Ambulance Service uses PlanIQ to predict service demand and plan its workforce better, leading to faster response time.
• Coca-Cola Company leverages PlanIQ to drive the organizational transformation needed to succeed in a rapidly changing business environment. 

Predictive Insights

• CDW uses Predictive Insights to understand its customers better, leading to more sales and faster deal closures by targeting high-quality leads. 
• Lumen Technologies uses Predictive Insights to reimagine territory and quota planning processes across GTM operations to drive reliable growth. 

Optimizer

• Pure Storage uses Optimizer for sales planning, dramatically reducing the amount of time spent on territory and quota planning and optimization. 
• Autodesk uses Optimizer to ensure tens of thousands of customers receive excellent service from Autodesk’s sales teams. 

The better the input, the smarter the output 

The more you leverage an AI processing algorithm, the better it will understand your needs and make beneficial predictions and/or decisions on your behalf. Just think about how (creepily) well your favorite social media or streaming platform has gotten to know you…   

For Anaplan users, you can optimize your Connected Planning capabilities by ensuring all areas of your organization are feeding data into the platform. By breaking down and interconnecting enterprise-wide data silos, Anaplan’s AI functionality is uniquely positioned to make holistically minded decisions that produce the best outcomes for your entire business.  

The AI and machine learning capabilities of the Anaplan platform will only improve with experience. That’s how learning works. In return for customer utilization of these exciting features, we at Anaplan promise to continue to deliver the most efficient, scalable, and secure products possible. 

Understand and adapt to thrive 

AI may not be here to replace our jobs, but like any major technological shift, it has the potential to forever change our business landscape. Human skills and brainpower will still be essential — for now at least — and those most willing and able to adapt will be the most successful. 

The transformative power of AI is here and ready to help you grow your business. It’s time to reframe the way we look at these capabilities, not as complex, inaccessible tools, but as ways to put intelligent planning in the hands of business users. 

Backed by AI, key stakeholders can take new insights based on the most recent set of data and help strategize their action plan. With less time spent on gathering and interpreting data, you can focus on making the right decision for your business with confidence.