From writing automated emails for lead generation to routing customer cases for swift resolution, automation lies at the core of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Modern CRM solutions help sales, marketing, and customer service teams streamline repetitive actions, allowing them to focus on what matters the most.

Just when the world thought automation could not be trumped with new advancements, the dominance of artificial intelligence (AI) in CRM began! Salesforce, one of the world’s leading CRM solutions, incorporated AI in the form of Einstein, a dedicated tool. Recently, the CRM giant released an impressive suite of open-source multimodal AI models for better visual language understanding. Other CRM service providers like HubSpot and Zoho are also leveraging AI to boost productivity.

So, how exactly is AI changing the game for CRM worldwide?

From lead management and forecasting to predictive analytics and customer service, AI has penetrated almost every arm of a CRM solution.

Let us explore this association a little more.

Predicting Lead Conversions

The core of any AI or machine learning solution lies in gathering large volumes of data and analyzing the same to find valuable trends. Keeping this spirit alive, AI-driven CRM tools help sales representatives in predicting the leads that are most likely to convert.

If you have been in the industry for quite some time, you must have generated leads. The AI component of your CRM will analyze this data and tell you which leads your team should focus more on. This prevents your sales representatives from spending their time and effort on prospects that are not likely to enter your sales pipeline.

Never Make Your Customers Wait

Gone are the days when customers had to wait for several hours (or even days) before resolving their queries. Thanks to the advent of AI in CRM, your customers can now interact with smart chatbots that understand the context of their problems and provide personalized resolutions.

As long as the knowledge base of your system is powerful, your chatbots can pull valuable information and provide it to your customers within a few seconds. If needed, these virtual assistants can also route the cases of suitable agents, bringing the “human touch” into the equation!

Knowing Your Audience Better

CRM literally begins with customers! They lie at the center of all your marketing and sales campaigns. AI in CRM lends your team a helping hand in knowing your customers better. It analyzes the behavior of your prospects, leads, and customers (ongoing and past) to provide you with valuable insights into customer behavior.

From the messages they respond to and the products/services they buy to the website pages they visit and the social media platforms they use to interact with you, AI takes note of everything to give you an ideal buyer persona. Your marketing team can use this persona to create targeted campaigns on CRM.

Forecasting Your Sales

No one knows if your sales representatives will meet their ongoing targets or not. However, you can do your best to forecast sales with AI in your CRM solution. While sales forecasting has been present in these solutions for a long time, AI gives it an unprecedented boost.

With seamless historical data analysis, an AI-driven CRM can make sense of your previous sales records and their seasonality. It can also identify trends and patterns a human eye can miss. As your sales reps do their best, the AI component of your CRM can also process real-time data coming in from multiple sources, including your system, social media, email, and more.

With artificial intelligence, you can analyze the risks and opportunities associated with dealing with specific leads or customers. This reduces human bias and gives you an assistant who can call a spade a spade!

Taking Automation Up A Notch

While modern CRM solutions have always been known for their automation abilities, AI gives them a much-needed push. The addition of an AI component in your CRM gives it context while automating tasks. These tasks may range from adding leads to your sales pipeline and scoring them to writing personalized emails for your prospects using pre-designed templates.

This prevents your team members from performing repetitive tasks while boosting your organization’s productivity.

The Final Word

Incorporating AI in CRM is like having a virtual assistant who knows you, your company, and your customers well. Having said that, you need not worry about replacing manpower anytime soon. While these technologies perform mechanical tasks faster, they need skilled professionals to ensure successful implementation. All the advancements we have seen so far are just the tip of the iceberg.

By upskilling their existing employees and hiring new talent well-versed in the application of AI, organizations can make the most of their CRM in the years to come!