Customer relationship management systems (CRM) help companies keep track of their target audience and tailor products and services to their needs. Different corporate departments use CRMs for various purposes. Marketing, for example, compiles target customer portraits and designs appealing marketing campaigns. Sales departments use CRM as a database of past and present clients. Development teams think of ways to optimize customer support to cut costs. An ideal CRM in 2024 provides convenient access to customer information and uses artificial intelligence (AI) for the greatest efficiency.
Gartner predicts that 75% of businesses will use synthetic data to forecast product development opportunities and prototype marketing customer journeys and behavioral patterns in 2026. It means today is the best time to implement AI into existing tools, if not yet.
Depending on available resources, every business can opt for
- building a customized CRM solution
- buying a ready-made platform
- adding AI features to the existing tool
Experts from the Belitsoft software development company share their expertise on how AI improves the functionality of corporate CRMs in this post.
Operational CRM systems
The operational function of a CRM system helps to automate processes of sales, marketing, and customer support. A “single customer view” dashboard allows experts to assess the data related to a particular customer profile. CRM systems examine the sales cycle, from the first contact with a lead to the conversion through the marketing funnel. CRM also automates customer interactions through newsletters and social media to keep clients and generate lookalike leads. Existing customers use chats, ticket systems, knowledge bases, and FAQ sections on the site for support.
AI in operational CRM
- Generative AI can come up with different types of newsletters for customers. It can create emails on a request with a definite number of words and sections. Marketing managers can further use those generated emails as drafts and add a few personalized phrases to build rapport.
- Chatbots automate answering customers’ queries on the site or in messengers. Modern chatbot solutions, like Copilot and Gemini, have natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning at the core. Those technologies make chatbots more human-like. Virtual assistants have learned to be empathic and use soft tones in conversations.
- Sentiment analysis allows for prompt and precise customer feedback assessment. The software detects the changes in the tone of voice that indicate subjective customer feedback. Programs can now read between the lines and understand what customers think about a product.
Analytical CRM systems
The analytical powers of a CRM system allow experts to explore and evaluate the information related to customers, conversions, and sales and make well-grounded business decisions. The analysis includes data mining, correlation, pattern identification and comparison, and others. For example, comparing the number of generated leads from several traffic channels determines the most productive source. As a result, marketers invest more budget into working strategies.
AI in analytical CRM
- Machine learning algorithms analyze the data you keep about your sales and customers and predict current and future trends. AI tools also provide accurate reports and highlight the most important figures and data for sharing them with stakeholders.
- NLP helps to segment the target audience more precisely. Precise targeting results in cheap and high-quality leads. The system analyzes potential and real customers and suggests ideas for finding similar audiences.
Collaborative CRM systems
Collaborative CRM systems aim to unite experts from different departments under one umbrella. Communication in big companies might be slow. Experts do not share workflows and as a result, cannot tackle problems efficiently. This might also damage the competence of call center agents as they do not have the necessary updates. CRMs allow for synchronized work on the same platform and prompt updates.
AI in collaborative CRM
- AI tools summarize the data from customer interactions. The stakeholders receive shared reports and make relevant decisions. For example, sales managers might discover the need to order new inventories or change vendors. Marketing leads might add new keywords to their campaigns.
- AI technologies make meetings with stakeholders more productive. They support automatic transcription and outline of the points discussed. Microsoft Copilot, for instance, generates the highlights and the follow-up solutions after the meeting. It also provides a timeline with auto-generated chapters of the discussion.
Top CRM platforms with AI functionality
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Copilot is an AI tool in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. It allows for deep analysis of customer lifetime value, transaction history, and churn prediction. The system identifies customers who have not interacted with a business for some time and sends their profiles to the marketing team. Marketing specialists develop special offers or discounts to turn the client back. As a result, the departments share the data and swiftly react to triggers.
Salesforce Customer 360
Einstein is a virtual AI assistant on the Salesforce CRM platform. The platform allows integrated work of the sales, service, marketing, and IT departments. Experts refer to collective data diagrams, review performance indicators, and ask Einstein questions. Customer profiles contain data about interactions, feedback, deliveries, or refunds. Einstein highlights prominent events for different teams, like for example, top deals for sales.
Oracle NetSuite
The NetSuite Text Enhance AI algorithm helps users design personalized content for customers. For example, the AI sends a generated email to a potential client who expressed some interest in a product. The email contains the product characteristics, price, ongoing special offers, and discounts. Experts from Oracle call that “engineered selling”. Besides sending emails to customers, generative AI extracts data from invoices, completes scanned bills, creates inventory item descriptions, and performs other manipulations with content.
SAP Customer Experience
Joule is an AI functionality in SAP. Joule offers profiles of each customer containing the number of orders, total sales amount, and interactions with the support team. Joule can suggest responses to the open cases. E-commerce teams consult Joule for appealing product descriptions and catalog hygiene recommendations. Sales teams facilitate meeting appointments with Joule.
Follow-up
Influencers like Elon Musk resist the development of AI and predict its detrimental effects on society. However, Belitsoft experts believe that if used adequately, AI is a tool that can facilitate working routine, and increase sales and customer satisfaction.
