Configure, price, quote (CPQ) is outgrowing its traditional role as a seller tool for configuring products, setting prices, and generating quotes. What is emerging instead is an intelligent commercial engine that supports every route to revenue, where AI will increasingly guide users and carry out more of the work behind the scenes. The new Forrester Wave™ evaluation makes that disruption visible. New entrants in the Wave have leapfrogged some established competitors, while other vendors have fallen out of the evaluation altogether. Yes, sellers configure complex products in CPQ solutions. But CPQ is also used by buyers for self-service and by partners to build proposals, all using the same product, configuration, and pricing logic.

Findings From The Wave

The Forrester Wave™: Configure, Price, Quote Solutions, Q4 2026 evaluates 11 significant CPQ providers. There are three recommendations for CPQ buyers:

  • Build a single commercial engine for every channel. CPQ has moved beyond the seller’s quoting workflow. Buyers, partners, resellers, customer success, and revenue operations all need access to consistent product, configuration, and pricing logic. Prioritize a common commercial foundation that can power different experiences without creating fragmented pricing and processes.
  • Make adoption the measure of success. Sophisticated capabilities deliver little value if users work around them. Usability drives adoption, data quality, process compliance, and ultimately the return on a CPQ investment. Look beyond feature checklists and test whether the experience makes everyday quoting easier for the people who actually use it.
  • Choose for an AI-driven future, not today’s workflow. Guided selling, quote generation, pricing recommendations, and approval workflows are increasingly ripe use cases for AI. Assess whether vendors use AI to eliminate routine work, improve commercial decisions, and move beyond assisted quoting toward increasingly autonomous execution.

AI Is Redefining The CPQ Market

AI isn’t simply adding capabilities to CPQ; it is changing which providers lead and what buyers should expect from them. Vendors turning AI into practical commercial intelligence and automation are gaining ground, reshaping a market once defined largely by configuration and quoting depth.

That makes yesterday’s CPQ shortlist a risky place to start your evaluation. Use The Forrester Wave™: Configure, Price, Quote Solutions, Q4 2026 to understand how providers compare and which capabilities matter most. Then request a guidance session with me to discuss which providers best align with your requirements and where your commercial strategy is headed.

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