“The future is Data + AI + CRM + Trust,” said Najah Phillips from Salesforce. It’s true: the business world is buzzing with the transformative potential of artificial intelligence. From marketing to customer service, AI is reshaping business operations across industries. And CRM is no exception.
CRMs are goldmines of customer data, usually scattered and difficult to process manually. AI in CRM can make a change. It’s a virtual assistant that organizes your contacts and predicts their next move, drafts persuasive emails, and reveals hidden sales opportunities. AI can truly empower your CRM – and we will show you how. So, read on.
How are CRMs leveraging AI?
Before we jump into technical details, let’s see how it all works, and what areas can be improved. Integrating AI for CRM transforms these systems into powerful, proactive tools. These sales and marketing processes can be enhanced in AI-powered CRMs:
Lead scoring. AI CRM software analyzes multiple data points to prioritize leads, increasing conversion rates by 30%.
Predictive sales forecasting. AI-based CRM systems examine historical data and trends, forecasting sales with up to 89% accuracy.
Sales automation. By automating repetitive tasks, AI in CRM boosts sales productivity by 35%, so reps can focus on relationship-building.
Customer segmentation. AI and CRM work together to identify customer segments for highly targeted marketing campaigns.
Sentiment analysis. CRM with AI monitors customer interactions across channels to gauge sentiment and address issues promptly.
Now that we know the areas artificial intelligence can improve, let’s overview benefits in more detail.
Quote about CRM and AI by Najan Phillips, Salesforce
The benefits of AI-driven CRM
The influence of AI integration in CRM systems is truly impressive. The benefits include:
Enhanced customer retention and satisfaction
By leveraging AI's predictive capabilities, businesses can anticipate customer needs and proactively address concerns, leading to a 52% increase in customer retention. This is a prime example of how AI CRM tools improve customer retention in ecommerce.
Reduced customer churn
Artificial intelligence has demonstrated its ability to reduce customer churn by 23% when connected to vast CRM data. AI identifies at-risk customers and implements personalized retention strategies. Simply speaking, it helps you avoid and reduce typical mistakes leading to customer dissatisfaction and churn.
Higher customer satisfaction
The customized experiences enabled by AI CRM systems impact customer satisfaction. By using customer data to anticipate needs, delivering tailored recommendations, and providing efficient support, AI-driven CRM systems boost customer satisfaction by an impressive 112%.
Personalized marketing
Marketing leaders recognize the power of AI in enhancing customer experiences. 69% of marketing professionals believe that AI CRM integration delivers deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling more targeted campaigns and tailored experiences.
Benefits of AI in CRM
As you see, an AI-driven CRM system brings tangible outcomes to your business. At COAX, we know how to do it right: our AI development professionals will integrate custom AI and machine learning models that suit your business needs and CRM requirements.
But it’s not all roses. Integrating a ready-made AI technology into your processes can still be challenging. How to do it right to reduce employee churn and bring value? It all starts with what you choose.
Selecting the right AI tool for your CRM: Tips and checklists
Selecting the right AI CRM tool can be a complex process. With numerous options available, businesses must carefully evaluate their needs and conduct testing to find the optimal solution. We have collected approaches and checklists for evaluating and testing AI CRM tools, helping you make informed decisions that drive business growth.
1. Define your needs
Here’s the algorithm and questions to discover your business needs for an AI-powered CRM solution:
You should start by specifying your pain points. Clearly articulate the specific challenges your CRM currently faces. Are you struggling with lead qualification, customer retention, or sales pipeline management?
Then, determine the desired outcomes of implementing an AI CRM. Do you aim to increase sales revenue, improve customer satisfaction, or optimize marketing campaigns?
Finally, list essential AI capabilities, such as lead scoring, predictive analytics, or customer segmentation.
This stage is critical, and it’s easy to make errors when analyzing your needs and areas for improvement. Here is where COAX can help you with comprehensive IT consulting. Our experts assess your goals and pain points and provide strategic advice on leveraging AI in your CRM for maximum business impact.
2. Estimate ROI
Calculating the ROI of an AI CRM is crucial for justifying the investment and measuring its impact. Here’s our checklist:
Estimate cost savings — quantify the potential reduction in labor costs, manual processes, or errors due to AI automation.
Assess how the AI CRM can increase sales, cross-selling, or upselling opportunities.
Consider Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) — evaluate the tool's ability to improve customer retention and loyalty, leading to higher CLTV.
Weigh the initial investment in the AI CRM against the expected ROI to determine its overall value.
Formula to calculate ROI of a CRM
3. Request AI product demos
Demos are the easiest way to see if the AI solution's features suit your needs and goals. You can follow this flow:
Request live demonstrations to assess the tool's functionality and user interface firsthand.
Focus on features that align with your strategic goals. For instance, if lead scoring is crucial, request a demo showcasing how the AI tool prioritizes leads.
Verify whether AI CRMintegrates with your existing tools (email, marketing automation).
4. Conduct thorough pilot programs
Once you select the AI tool, run a first pilot program to check its efficiency. However, it cannot be applied to a whole company at once. Try doing it step-by-step:
Choose a specific department or team to test the AI CRM in a controlled environment.
Define KPIs and metrics to track the tool's impact, such as conversion rates, sales cycle length, or customer satisfaction scores.
Collect feedback from users to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
After the feedback is gathered, you can analyze it using established metrics. After all, it’s easier to define the efficiency of an AI tool by using the same AI tool — ironically, you get a two-in-one solution. Still, even with the exhaustive preparations, the CRM failure rate stands between 18 and 69%. To avoid a costly mistake, consider using the experience and skillset of an expert.
5. Consult with AI integration experts
If you have a custom CRM or a less-popular system that doesn't support no-code AI integrations, our team of experts is here to help. We specialize in a range of services tailored to modernize and enhance your CRM capabilities:
Software integration services. We seamlessly integrate AI tools with your existing CRM, ensuring smooth data flow and security.
Legacy software modernization. We upgrade outdated CRM systems to incorporate cutting-edge AI technologies (and any other feature you need). You will be amazed at how fast and effective your system can be once it’s modernized. And reliable, too – as new technologies offer more data protection and granular control over every component of your CRM system.
CRM development. We build custom CRM solutions from the ground up, incorporating AI capabilities from the start.
With our deep understanding of both CRM systems and AI technologies, you will unlock the potential of your data, drive business growth, and stay ahead in the competitive world of AI-powered CRM.
10 most effective AI tools for CRM systems
The market for AI CRM software is rapidly expanding, offering a variety of tools to enhance customer relationship management. Here's our list of top AI tools that can integrate with your CRM system and bring growth.
10 best AI tools for CRM systems
Levity: AI-powered email assistant for logistics
Levity is an email management platform designed to streamline workflows, particularly suited for logistics businesses looking to enhance their CRM with AI. Levity's automated replies and workflow automation optimize response times and task management, freeing up your team to focus on core logistics operations.
While Levity is not a standalone CRM, it enhances existing CRM systems by providing AI-powered email management capabilities. Levity integrates seamlessly with your CRM, ensuring data consistency and providing a unified view of customer interactions. Levity's powerful AI capabilities extract valuable insights from your emails, helping you make data-driven decisions and improve logistics processes.
Levity interface
Levity’s key features
Email classification
Information extraction
Document summarization
Automated replies
Workflow automation
Ideal for: Logistics businesses seeking to enhance their CRM with AI-powered email management.
Integrations: Levity offers native integrations with popular tools like Zapier, Zendesk, Airtable, Hubspot, Gmail, Google Sheets, Salesforce, Slack, and more. These integrations allow for seamless data flow between Levity and your existing CRM system.
API: Levity provides a robust API for custom integrations, allowing developers to build tailored solutions that connect Levity with other business tools or CRM systems.
Pricing: Levity offers flexible pricing plans to suit your business needs. The Personal plan is free for up to 50 emails per month, making it ideal for individuals exploring the platform. For small teams, the Business plan provides 2,000 emails per month for $299. Larger enterprises can benefit from custom pricing plans tailored to their specific requirements.
MailerLite: AI CRM and marketing automation
MailerLite is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that empowers businesses to nurture leads, build relationships, and drive conversions. Its user-friendly interface and robust features, including email marketing, landing pages, and website building, make it a versatile tool for enhancing CRM capabilities. It is excellent for businesses looking to merge their AI-powered CRM with marketing tools.
Mailer email design feature
Key features:
Email marketing
Automation
Landing pages
Website builder
Subscriber management
Ideal for: Businesses seeking a comprehensive marketing automation platform to enhance their CRM and drive growth. Its user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality has an easy learning curve for teams of different sizes.
Integrations: MailerLite offers native integrations with popular e-commerce platforms, CMS systems, and other marketing tools. It integrates seamlessly with Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier, and more.
API: MailerLite provides a RESTful API that allows developers to create custom integrations and automate workflows between MailerLite and other systems.
Pricing: MailerLite offers a freemium model with paid plans for additional features. The free plan is perfect for startups and small businesses, providing access to basic features for 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails monthly. As your business grows, you can upgrade to the Growing Business, Advanced, or Enterprise plans, which offer more features and benefits.
Make: AI-enabled CRM automation platform
Make is a powerful automation platform that seamlessly connects apps and services, streamlining business processes. Its AI integration capabilities enable intelligent automation, transforming manual tasks into efficient workflows. Make is your AI-powered assistant designed to streamline your business processes. By seamlessly connecting apps and services, Make can save you time and effort.
Make AI organization dashboard
Key features:
Task automation
System integration
Intuitive interface
CRM integration
Ideal for: Businesses seeking to automate repetitive tasks with AI CRM use cases, such as automating follow-up processes and customer onboarding, social media scheduling, and data analysis. For operations, it’s great for automating data entry, report generation, and inventory management.
Integrations: Make offers hundreds of pre-built integrations with popular CRM systems, marketing tools, and business applications. It can connect with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and many other CRM platforms.
API: Make provides a flexible API that allows developers to create custom modules and expand the platform's capabilities, enabling integration with virtually any system.
Pricing: Make offers a flexible pricing structure to suit your business needs. The Free plan is perfect for individuals exploring the platform, providing access to basic features and 1,000 operations per month. For individuals automating simple tasks, the Core plan offers unlimited active scenarios and 10,000 operations per month for just $9.
Taskade: AI-powered productivity hub
Taskade is an AI-powered productivity tool for collaboration and task management, perfect for teams looking to enhance their CRM artificial intelligence capabilities with advanced project management features. Taskade combines task management, note-taking, and mind mapping with AI-powered features. While Taskade is primarily a productivity and project management tool, it can be integrated with CRM systems to enhance task management and collaboration within customer-related projects. Its integration with CRM systems provides a holistic view of projects, tasks, and customer interactions.
Taskade AI app interface
Key features:
Custom AI agents
Mind maps
To-do lists
Real-time collaboration
Video chat
CRM integration
Ideal for: Taskade is particularly suited for sales teams looking to automate lead generation, marketing teams planning and tracking campaigns, customer service teams managing tickets and providing support, and project management teams planning and tracking projects.
Integrations: Taskade offers native integrations with popular tools like Notion, Dropbox, Google Calendar, and WordPress. It also provides a Calendar Feed feature for connecting with various calendar services.
API: Taskade provides a Developer API that allows for custom integrations and extensions of the platform's functionality.
Pricing: Taskade offers a freemium model with paid plans for additional features. The free plan is perfect for individuals and small teams, providing access to basic features and limited AI usage. As your team's needs grow, you can upgrade to the Pro, Teams, or Enterprise plans, which offer unlimited AI usage, advanced features, and enhanced support.
Leap: AI-assisted CRM automation platform
Leap is an AI-driven CRM automation platform designed for sales and marketing workflows, making it an excellent addition to your CRM arsenal. Leap‘s specialized CRM automation platform leverages AI to generate content, enrich leads, and automate email outreach, increasing efficiency and revenue.
Leap AI blog content generation feature
Key features:
Content generation
Lead enrichment
Email outreach automation
CRM integration
Ideal for: Automating lead scoring and proposal generation, generating personalized content and nurturing leads, automating response generation, and customer surveys.
Integrations: Leap offers native integrations with popular CRM and business tools like Hubspot, Zendesk, Slack, and LinkedIn. It also integrates with automation platforms like Zapier and Make.com for extended connectivity.
API: Leap provides a RESTful API that allows for custom integrations and data exchange with other systems.
Pricing: Leap offers a trial period and flexible pricing plans to suit your business needs. The Starter plan provides basic features and limited users for $7 monthly. For comprehensive CRM functionality, customizable workflows, and integrations, the Growth plan is available for $298 per month.
Cody: AI-driven CRM data enhancement
Cody is an AI assistant that integrates with business knowledge bases, providing instant answers and suggestions to enhance your AI CRM system. This tool enhances CRM systems by giving them instant access to knowledge, troubleshooting guidance, and creative suggestions. Its integration with CRM platforms improves customer support and sales efficiency.
Cody AI marketing tool interface
Key features:
Knowledge base integration
Troubleshooting
Creative suggestions
CRM support
Ideal for: Cody is great for teams dealing with complex customer inquiries, troubleshooting issues, or generating creative content. For example, Cody can help sales teams draft personalized emails, customer service teams resolve complex issues, and marketing teams brainstorm new campaign ideas.
Integrations: Cody offers a native integration with Slack and can be connected to various tools through Zapier.
API: Cody provides an API that allows developers to integrate Cody AI into applications and services, manage conversations, and send messages.
Pricing: Cody offers a trial period and flexible pricing to suit your business needs. The Basic plan provides 2,500 credits, access to GPT-4 Mini, and basic features for $29 per month. For increased credits, GPT-4 access, more team members, and advanced features, the Premium plan is available for $99 per month. Organizations with extensive needs can benefit from the Advanced plan, which offers unlimited credits.
Browse AI: No-code data extraction solution
Browse AI is a no-code data extraction and monitoring platform that empowers businesses to extract valuable insights from web data and enhance CRM capabilities. Browse AI makes data extraction accessible to everyone, even those without technical expertise.
Browse AI new robot creation
Key features
Data extraction
Monitoring
Easy training
CRM integration
Ideal for: Businesses seeking to extract valuable insights from web data, improve market research, and enhance CRM capabilities. Specific use cases include gathering competitor data, tracking industry trends, analyzing customer sentiment, extracting contact information from websites, and identifying potential customers. It can also track product prices, identify pricing trends, and optimize pricing strategies.
Integrations: Browse AI offers native integrations with tools like Google Sheets and Airtable. It also connects with automation platforms like Zapier, Pabbly, and Make.com for extended connectivity.
API: Browse AI provides a REST API for enhanced connectivity and custom integrations.
Pricing: Browse AI offers flexible pricing plans to suit your business needs. The Basic plan provides essential data extraction features for $39 per month. Custom pricing is available for teams with more complex data extraction needs or higher volumes.
Dante AI: integration of conversational marketing into your business
Dante AI is a versatile AI chatbot that helps businesses build personalized customer experiences. Its seamless integration with CRM systems provides valuable customer insights and improves customer satisfaction. Dante AI offers a personalized AI chatbot platform without coding requirements, perfect for businesses looking to add conversational AI to their AI-powered CRM.
Dante AI chatbot interface
Key features:
Custom chatbot development
GPT-4 integration
Easy website deployment
CRM integration
Ideal for: Qualifying leads and capturing contact information through automated conversations, providing instant answers to customer inquiries, and recommending products or services. You can use it for marketing to promote products, collect customer feedback, and run targeted campaigns.
Integrations: Dante AI can connect with over 6,000 applications through various integration platforms, enhancing its ability to improve productivity and grow businesses.
API: Dante AI provides an API for custom integrations allowing a wide range of connectivity options.
Pricing: The free plan provides basic chatbot features and limited functionality. The Entry plan is available for $19 per month and offers full white-labeled AI experiences and advanced analytics for $99 per month. For agencies with extensive requirements, the Ultra plan is available for $299 per month.
Notion AI: AI-based CRM software and all-in-one workspace
Notion AI is an AI-powered workspace for notes, documents, tasks, and wikis, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to enhance their AI for CRM capabilities. While Notion can be used as a lightweight CRM, it's primarily a flexible workspace tool that can be customized to manage customer relationships alongside other business processes.
Notion AI feature
Key features:
Knowledge base
Project management
Collaboration
Customizable workflows
CRM integration
Ideal for: Teams seeking a centralized workspace to manage projects, collaborate effectively, and enhance CRM capabilities to track opportunities and automate tasks.
This tool is fantastic for planning campaigns, tracking content performance, and collaborating on projects.
Integrations: Notion offers native integrations with tools like Zapier and Typeform. Its API allows for connections with thousands of other applications.
API: Notion provides a robust API that enables developers to create custom integrations and automate workflows within Notion.
Pricing: Notion AI offers a freemium model with paid plans for additional features. The free plan provides basic Notion features with limited AI access. For unlimited AI usage, extra features, and increased storage, the Plus plan is available for $8 per user per month. The Business plan offers advanced collaboration features and security for $15 per user per month.
Creatio: versatile AI-powered CRM platform
Creatio is a comprehensive CRM platform with built-in AI capabilities that automate workflows, manage customer journeys, and drive business growth. Its no-code interface and flexible architecture make it adaptable to various business needs. With its built-in AI capabilities, no-code development, and flexible architecture, Creatio empowers businesses to automate workflows, manage customer journeys, and drive growth. Though Creatio is a full-fledged CRM platform itself, it can integrate with your existing solution, offering sales, marketing, and service management functionalities.
Creatio AI interface
Key features:
No-code development
Workflow automation
Omnichannel marketing
Sales management
Service management
Ideal for: Companies requiring a comprehensive CRM platform with AI-powered automation capabilities for automating proposal generation, executing omnichannel campaigns, tracking customer interactions, and providing personalized experiences. It can also streamline internal processes, automate data entry, and generate reports.
Integrations: Creatio offers out-of-the-box integrations with various external apps and services, including OneLogin, Active Directory, Google services, and telephony systems.
API: Creatio provides an open API that allows for custom integrations of any complexity.
Pricing: The Growth plan is ideal for SMBs with basic automation needs, starting at $25 per user per month. The Enterprise plan is available for full-scale automation and customization, starting at $55 per user per month. The Unlimited plan is designed for advanced enterprise scenarios, offering unlimited storage and support for $85 per user per month.
AI and CRM: Your shortcut to growth
The fusion of artificial intelligence and customer relationship management creates a paradigm shift. AI CRM systems are no longer just data repositories; they're evolving into intelligent partners that can predict customer behavior, automate tasks, and uncover hidden opportunities. By carefully evaluating AI CRM platforms and considering your requirements, you can select the solution that best fits your business, unlocking new levels of efficiency and customer engagement.
Integrating AI into CRM is a must for staying competitive. CRM development companies can help you implement these solutions and start leveraging the power of AI for CRM to transform your customer relationships.
FAQ
What is AI in CRM?
AI in CRM means the integration of artificial intelligence solutions into customer relationship management systems. This enhances CRM capabilities by automating tasks, providing personalized insights, and improving overall customer experiences.
How does AI impact CRM?
AI has a significant impact on CRM by automating tasks, providing personalized recommendations, enhancing customer segmentation, and improving data analysis. This ultimately results in better customer experiences and business outcomes.
What is AI integration in CRM?
AI integration in CRM refers to the process of connecting AI technologies to your CRM system. This can involve using APIs, SDKs, or other methods to enable AI-powered features within your CRM.
How can I use AI in CRM?
To use AI in CRM, you will need to choose an AI-powered CRM system or integrate AI technologies into your existing CRM. You will also need to train your team on how to use the AI features effectively.
