4 strategies to improve operational efficiency in 2026

Key takeaways from this article

• See why operational efficiency in 2026 goes beyond cost cutting and centers on smart automation and digital transformation.
• Learn how AI-powered configurators simplify configure‑price‑quote (CPQ) workflows and accelerate sales cycles.
• Discover how content syndication across partner channels ensures consistent data and faster go‑to‑market execution.
• Understand the importance of equipping sales teams with ready access to product and customer information through digital tools.
• Use a practical 30–60–90 day plan to pilot AI-led efficiency improvements, prove impact fast, and scale automation across journeys and teams.

Operational efficiency is a key factor in the success of any business. When you have an efficient workplace, you can focus on what matters most: ensuring customers have a positive experience with your business and increasing sales performance. In PwC’s Global CEO Survey, 30% of CEOs report increased revenue from AI in the last 12 months and 26% report lower costs, showing why efficiency initiatives increasingly center on automation and AI, not just cost cutting.

Does that mean you should focus on cutting costs? The answer is no. Achieving operational efficiency goes beyond simple cost-cutting measures. It’s more about investing in digital transformation, big data, machine learning, AI, and people. 

If you’re not already doing these things, here are 4 actionable strategies to help you get started. 

Embrace automation for labor-intensive and repetitive tasks 

Automation is a powerful tool for streamlining manual labor-intensive and repetitive tasks, such as data entry, invoicing, and customer service. It can also be used to increase productivity by reducing errors and increasing accuracy.

For example, retailers can implement digital self-service channels to deal with high-volume transactional requests like providing tracking orders, paying bills, or updating subscriptions. Or an AI-powered platform can make real-time supply chain decisions autonomously. The machine will automatically identify products that need to be sourced from suppliers and order them based on their availability in the market.

Another way to embrace automation is using a business process automation (BPA) tool like automated merchandising to quickly clean, enrich, and add contextual meaning to product data. This will ensure your product discovery experience is meaningful and successful — in any language.

Capitalize on technology to set up channel partner syndication

Businesses syndicate their products through multiple channels like wholesalers and retail stores. It’s important to have consistent product information so that all channels are aware of the latest changes or updates in the product line. Many still use spreadsheets to handle this process.

The problem with traditional data management is it requires a lot of manual effort. Your team will have to manually create the spreadsheets on an ongoing basis and then email them out one by one to your channel partners. This inefficient process takes up valuable time and resources — which could be better spent elsewhere, not to mention errors and inconsistencies that might happen along the way.

If you’re still using spreadsheets, it’s time to capitalize on technology to help streamline product data syndication. With the right platform, you’ll have a single source of truth for all product content and information. You can also be sure your data will be enriched and distributed seamlessly and consistently across channels — at the right time and in the right format.

Lindy, a computer and audiovisual connectivity product manufacturer, is an excellent example of succeeding in setting up product content syndication. The company runs multiple websites to serve customers from different countries. Previously, they used several platforms to manage data across those channels, making it challenging for them to ensure a consistent content discovery experience. But all problems were resolved after they implemented content syndication. Lindy now finds it easy to provide customers with clear, comprehensive, and user-friendly — no matter where they are. 

Take advantage of configurators to improve CPQ

Configurable products are a great way to engage shoppers, give them the power to customize their orders, and increase your sales. They allow you to offer various options and ensure every customer can get exactly what they want. 

It’s important to note, however, that configurable products can also be a major pain in the neck for sales reps and customers alike. The longer it takes for a sales rep or a customer to get their price and quote back for a configurable product, the less likely the deal will be closed. This is especially true if multiple options are available for selecting a particular configurable product type.

Here’s the good news: you can take advantage of interactive, visual product configurators to improve CPQ. No IT or coding is required, meaning it’s easy to set up this feature on your online store. Plus:

• It displays all available products and their compatible accessories so customers can build their own products quickly and easily. The result is an improved customer experience, with less time spent searching for the right components and more time spent creating the perfect product.
• It shortens sales cycles by removing tedious processes like quoting and ordering, leaving less room for error and providing more opportunities for sales reps to focus on closing deals instead of filling out forms.
• It acts as a guided selling. Customers can build a product in real-time and add parts and features as they go along. They’ll see the price update instantly with each change. By making it easy for customers to choose what they want and giving them confidence in the price they’ll pay, configurators help remove sales complexity and build buyer confidence.

Provide sales teams with better training material 

Sales teams are always on the move. They need to be able to access product information, have a way to communicate with customers, and remember all the details of your company’s offerings. If they don’t have these things, they won’t be able to do their job properly.

That’s why providing sales reps with the best training material is crucial. For example, think about digital assistants and configurations that can help them easily find the information they need when they need it — without having to spend time searching through files or calling the product support team for assistance. 

One way to do this is by providing sales teams with easy access to customer information and other relevant data they need, such as product information and pricing details. This makes it easier for sales reps to understand customers’ needs and, more importantly, how those needs align with the product or service offered.

Operationalize operational efficiency with Zoovu's next gen AI experiences

Operational efficiency improvements stick when they’re embedded into the customer journey and the internal workflow—not parked in a slide deck. In practice, that means using AI to understand intent, guide the right decision, and generate structured outputs that downstream teams can act on, without manual rework.

Zoovu is designed for exactly that: AI-powered search, guided selling, configuration, and bundling in a single platform, so teams can reduce tool sprawl while scaling consistent product discovery and decisioning across channels.

A 30–60–90 day plan to drive efficiency with AI

Days 0–30: Pick one journey and reduce “time-to-answer”

Choose one high-friction journey (e.g., “find the right product,” “build the right bundle,” or “configure-to-quote”) and define what “done” looks like: fewer back-and-forth questions, fewer invalid selections, faster handoffs.

Start where demand already exists: site search. Zoovu’s AI search is built to interpret queries (including synonyms and misspellings) and route shoppers to relevant products faster—so fewer sessions end in dead-ends or support tickets.

Establish your baseline metrics (before you change anything): search refinement rate, zero-results rate, product-finder completion rate, and “assisted” conversion.

Days 31–60: Replace manual triage with AI-guided decisions

Launch an AI-guided selling experience for the chosen journey. Zoovu’s AI-Guided Selling Assistant is positioned to create dynamic, adaptive experiences using Generative AI, natural language processing, and product data enrichment—so customers (and internal teams) get to a valid answer faster.

Shift repeated internal questions (“Which model fits?” “Which accessory is compatible?”) into a guided flow that captures structured inputs and produces consistent outputs.

If you need a more conversational experience, Zoovu describes digital assistants that analyze customer inputs, behavior, and context to match users with relevant products—helping reduce the burden on sales and support for repetitive, high-volume questions.

Days 61–90: Automate the output (and the handoff)

Tighten the “last mile” where most operational drag lives: configuration validity, bundle completeness, and quote readiness.

If quoting is part of your workflow, connect guided selection/configuration outputs to quoting processes. Zoovu positions its quoting software for manufacturing around automating structured outputs like BOM generation to support faster, more accurate handoffs.

Scale the model: expand to the next product family or the next channel once the first journey is stable—and keep governance lightweight so updates don’t become a bottleneck.

What to measure (so efficiency is visible)

Track a small set of operational metrics tied to AI-driven experience changes:

• Faster decisions: time-to-product, time-to-configuration, time-to-quote
• Less rework: invalid configurations, returns due to wrong selection, support “which one should I buy?” contacts
• More throughput: completed guided sessions, qualified leads, quote volume per rep (with the same headcount)

Improve operational efficiency for sustainable growth

It’s no longer a nice-to-have for businesses to operate in an efficient manner; it’s a necessity if they want to survive and thrive in today’s world. Businesses that have the greatest value to their customers are the ones that can deliver their products at an affordable cost and with the best quality. This requires significant operational efficiency, which can be achieved through automation, technology, and well-trained teams.