ABB Robotics Bets on AI-Driven Commerce with Coveo Partnership: A Strategic Play for Future Growth?

ABB Robotics, a leader in industrial automation, is doubling down on its digital transformation with an ambitious partnership aimed at redefining how customers interact with its products. The company’s April 2025 announcement of selecting Coveo AI for Commerce to overhaul its Robotics One Customer Portal marks a significant step in its push to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for competitive advantage. By integrating Coveo’s advanced AI tools, ABB aims to transform its customer experience into a seamless, data-driven ecosystem—potentially unlocking new revenue streams and operational efficiencies.

The AI-Driven Portal Overhaul
At its core, the partnership seeks to modernize ABB’s customer portal, which serves as a central hub for customers, system integrators, and sales teams. The overhaul will introduce Coveo’s AI-search technology, enabling users to navigate ABB’s vast catalog of robots, software, and services with unprecedented ease. Key features include:
- Dynamic Faceting and Personalized Recommendations: Customers will access millions of SKUs with context-aware search, reducing the time spent sifting through technical specifications.
- Real-Time Pricing and Entitlement Management: Proprietary indexing ensures customers see accurate pricing and availability based on their configurations.
- Generative Answering: AI-powered tools will answer complex technical queries instantly, cutting down on support requests and empowering self-service.

The Business Case: Measurable Gains and Strategic Bet
Coveo’s platform has already delivered tangible results for other clients, including a 7% uplift in average order value and 15% increase in search engagement within 30 days of implementation. For ABB, these metrics could translate into higher customer retention and cross-selling opportunities. The partnership also aligns with ABB’s broader strategy to pivot toward software and AI-driven solutions, which now account for over 80% of its offerings.

ABB’s leadership sees this move as critical to addressing industry challenges like labor shortages and sustainability. Marina Bill, Global Head of Marketing and Sales at ABB Robotics, emphasized that Coveo’s ability to manage large, complex catalogs at scale was pivotal to the decision. The platform’s integration with SAP Commerce Cloud and certifications like ISO 27001 and SOC2 compliance further underscore its enterprise readiness.

Investment Implications: Can AI Drive Shareholder Value?

The partnership’s success hinges on whether it can deliver on Coveo’s cited 21% year-over-year revenue growth in similar implementations. For investors, the stakes are high: ABB’s robotics division is slated to spin off as a standalone entity by Q2 2026, a move that could amplify pressure to demonstrate profitability.

Coveo’s recognition as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Search and Product Discovery (2024) adds credibility, but execution is key. Competitors like PTC and Siemens are also doubling down on AI-infused customer platforms, making ABB’s initiative a race to set industry standards.

Conclusion: A Strategic Move with Measurable Upside
ABB’s bet on Coveo is a shrewd response to the growing demand for AI-driven customer experiences in industrial automation. With 15% higher search engagement and 7% higher order values already validated in pilot phases, the partnership could catalyze ABB’s revenue growth while reducing operational costs.

Crucially, the move positions ABB Robotics to capitalize on a $102 billion industrial automation market projected to grow at 5.6% annually. If the portal’s Phase 2 rollout—expanding quote generation and technical insights—delivers as promised, ABB could solidify its leadership in an increasingly AI-centric sector.

For investors, the partnership signals a commitment to innovation at a time when software and AI are the engines of growth in industrial tech. While execution risks remain, the strategic alignment with Coveo’s proven AI capabilities, coupled with quantifiable targets, suggests this could be a pivotal step toward unlocking ABB’s next phase of value creation.