It’s no wonder that CRMs offer artificial intelligence (AI) when you consider how much easier AI makes a lot of customer-related tasks.
AI’s unparalleled ability to analyze data, make predictions, and automate tasks has transformed traditional workflows. Additionally, AI makes finding your way around a CRM system effortless. You can save time, access data faster, and reduce the need for lengthy onboarding and training.
Feeling excited or intrigued about it? Me too. Let’s dive into some of the top CRM platforms that have embraced AI to see which CRM might be most helpful for you based on their use of AI. You’ll find the platforms, their AI usage, key features, and what I love (and don’t love) about them below.
In this article:
How Teams Use AI Today
We surveyed 1,350+ business professionals in the U.S. to discover how teams use AI today. 81% of participants agreed that AI could help them spend less time on manual tasks. Yet, only 14% of people agreed that AI/automation tools are an important part of their day-to-day role.
This makes sense — adding a new piece of software or task to your already existing (and working) process can be daunting. But it’s worth carving out some time to get rolling with a new or improved system when it comes to AI.
I’ve tested dozens of AI tools. I can promise you this: once you’ve got it running, your future self will thank you time and time again.
So, before you tell yourself you’re too busy to integrate AI, see how AI can enhance your CRM and which CRM is best for you.
How AI Enhances CRMs
It’s clear that AI is helping businesses, but how exactly is AI enhancing CRMs? Here are just some ways AI is making CRM systems better than ever.
Marketing
I like to think of my CRM and AI as the perfect marketing combination. AI takes the guesswork out of your marketing tactics. Here are a few ways you can use it.
Writing
There are two camps when it comes to writing and AI. Some people love it, some people hate it, but there’s no denying it: AI is used to streamline writing processes.
AI has been used in writing for quite some time. Grammarly used AI as early as 2019, if not before, to improve its users’ writing.
Now, AI is used to write content from scratch or rewrite headings so they’re more engaging. AI can rephrase content to a specific tone so it reads professionally, engaging, humorously, or friendly.
Within CRM systems, AI can improve email content, help you develop ideas for your blog, and more. AI’s data analysis can help you discover the type of content your audience wants to receive so you can create it in a way that lands.
Emails
I’ve shared the value of AI with email assistance above, but when email AI is integrated with a CRM, it gets even more exciting.
With the ability to analyze vast amounts of data, AI can predict user behavior. You can see who engages with your emails and when. This is helpful to know, so that you’re only sending emails your audience wants to read. Also, you can target specific send times for specific people — great for any marketing campaign.
AI can help you understand the gist of an email so you can prioritize the customers who need your support the most so you can allocate your time accordingly. This will do wonders to improve your customer support.
Customer Support
Speaking of customer support, there are several ways AI can enhance the customer service aspect of your CRM.
ChatBots
I like to think of AI as my personal customer service assistant. Integrating chatbots into your CRM can help you drastically improve your response time to customer service-related questions.
AI-enabled chatbots can suggest responses to customer questions, leaving your customer service reps free to complete other, more pressing tasks. They can also collect necessary data to help you stay informed of potential improvements for a better customer experience.
Sentiment Analysis
There’s no better way to get inside your customer’s head than sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis helps you understand how your customers feel about your product or service. This process also provides insights as to why they feel the way they do.
You can conduct sentiment analysis by handling surveys and reviewing the data. But, with AI, you can speed up your analysis and understand your customers in real time. So, the sooner you can calm a disgruntled customer, the better!
Predictive Analytics
I also like to pretend that AI is a well-informed crystal ball. Here’s why AI is beneficial for predictive analytics.
Reporting
Wave goodbye to the laborious tasks associated with generating a report. With AI integrated into CRMs, you no longer need a six-step process and exact knowledge of which filters live where.
With natural language processing (NLP), you simply need a command. Send a request to your CRM’s AI ChatBot and have a beautifully filtered report ready for your client or senior team members at the click of a button.
The immediate advantages are clear: You can get something in one command and a click instead of six clicks. But, what’s not so obvious is that with AI integrated into CRMs like this, learning your way around a CRM is easier than ever.
Ease of use equates to less training and shorter onboarding sessions. Plus, your team has more time to get on with the tasks where they add the most value.
Insights
Insights provided by AI can go above and beyond what we can physically do as humans. If you’re anything like me, you’re busy at work, and it’s hard to find the time to dig deep and find those low-hanging fruits.
Since AI can analyze data fast, we can rely on it to provide insights worth our precious human attention.
For example, AI can identify prospects with a high chance of converting by analyzing patterns in data. If you know that a prospect in your CRM has a pattern akin to those who convert, your team can double down on their efforts to nurture that particular customer. Or, if AI points out behaviors that lead to customer churn, you can take the appropriate action to stop it.
Insights will be generated based on what worked for previous customers, too, so you can take the recommended next step based on data.
Call Insights
Call recording software is here to help you analyze calls and improve training. Calls will improve if you know what makes a qualified call and what works to close prospects.
Not only that but if you’ve got real-life recorded calls that have been successful, you can use them for training or optimizing the sales process.
With AI, calls can be categorized and added to your CRM. The voice transcripts can be analyzed to highlight valuable insights for your team.
Data Collection and Cleansing
I’m not telling you anything new: your business needs good, quality data. Collecting data by hand can be a pain, and you risk the chance of creating errors. AI can help solve that problem.
Data Capture
Linked to email AI, data capture is automated when AI is integrated with a CRM. You can update records by selecting information from other sources, such as their email signature or social media platforms (That’s right! You can incorporate AI into your social media strategy.). The AI will populate the data and help you keep it current.
Correct data improves communications. There’s really nothing worse than receiving an email addressed to a previous name or job role. Your communications will feel more meaningful if they’re correct, plus save you the embarrassment of making a simple mistake.
Data Cleansing
CRMs are full of duplicate data. It’s a pain, but it happens to everyone.
Well-intentioned team members input data without realizing it already exists. Duplicate data harm your business in many ways, but one major problem when it comes to CRMs is lacking a single customer view.
If there are multiple records for a customer, you can end up with the information being stored against both customer views, meaning it would be easy to miss an update or vital piece of information.
For the most part, issues like this go unnoticed — that is, of course, until there’s a problem. Customer service plummets the moment a customer has to continuously update your team on an issue.
AI will spot duplicate data for you and flag the potential issue so you can merge data at the click of a button.
6 CRMS With AI
The sky’s the limit with AI, and although it’s tempting to use AI for everything, it’s best to start with the most impactful changes for your business goals.
So, here’s a list of the CRMs using AI, including highlights, what I like, what they do best, and some pro tips for getting the most out of your CRM.
1. HubSpot — ChatSpot
Hubspot’s ChatSpot is here to help sales, marketing, and service professionals. You can automate tasks and take the weight out of decision-making and CRM navigation by connecting ChatSpot to your HubSpot CRM.
You can access everything you need faster with ChatSpot. Using chat-based commands, HubSpot users can request actions that ChatSpot will deliver in minutes. The system can help send emails, improve content, generate insights, and create custom reports.
For example, you can ask the system to pull data about a specific account, tell you where a prospect is in the sales cycle, and more.
Core Features
- Integrates with the data in your HubSpot CRM, making gathering data faster
- Can help you write and send emails to prospects based on data from previous interactions
- Allows you to quickly build custom reports from the ChatSpot portal
- Has generative AI capabilities, so you can craft content that best resonates with your audience
Best for: Sales, marketing, and service professionals
Pro tip: Use ChatSpot to generate custom reports by writing your request using natural language. ChatSpot will understand what you’re after and deliver the report.
Price: ChatSpot is available on free accounts and up. HubSpot’s CRM offers foundational tools, free of charge, to get you started. Then, prices start at $30 a month for small teams, rising to $1,600 a month for enterprises.
Testing It Out
I wanted to test out how well ChatSpot can write an email to my prospects. The key to using any form of AI tool is to enter a thorough prompt. This is the ChatSpot prompt I used for the email:
“I want to send an email to my prospects to offer a discount code on my writing services. The sale begins on May 31 and ends on June 2. Please draft a short email, including an eye-catching subject line, to send to my prospects.”
Here’s what ChatSpot drafted for me:
Overall, I think this is a great email draft. It only took ChatSpot just a few seconds to generate the draft email. Before I send this email to my prospect, I would consider taking a few minutes to edit the draft to better match my tone of voice and personality.
If you use the HubSpot CRM, what are you waiting for? I 100% recommend the addition of ChatSpot to your workspace.
2. Zoho — Zia
Zoho’s Zia is a conversational sales assistant integrated into their CRM to make your life easier. Through a series of commands, Zia can help you get the information you need faster. Sales forecasting provides insights into sales activities to help you determine where best to spend your precious time.
Core Features
- Grades and scores lead based on their engagement level, activity history, and other data
- Provides real-time insights and suggestions to sales teams based on customer interactions and behavior
- Streamlines time-consuming tasks such as data entry and automatically assigns tasks to team members based on their skills, availability, and workload
- Uses predictive analytics to track customer behavior and trends, providing businesses with insights and predictions into future sales opportunities
Best for: Sales teams
Pro tip: Use their workflows to create the optimal UX to turn prospects into buyers.
Price: Zoho’s Zia and CRM start at $14 per month, rising to $52 per month.
Testing It Out
Zoho’s Zia is slated as an AI sales assistant. I appreciate that Zia offers a list of the AI tools I can do to help make my job easier. Using the suggested task list, Zia quickly generated responses appropriate for the task I selected.
However, I found that entering my own prompts into the chatbot box did not yield the results I expected. Often, Zia told me, “Sorry!” in response to one of my prompts. As a new user, I found that frustrating. However, realizing that Zia works best when sticking to the suggested lists of tasks, I found the tool to be quite useful.
3.Salesforce — Einstein 1
Salesforce has introduced Einstein 1, an AI that supports sales leaders within the CRM. They have options for pre-built solutions. For code-savvy users, you can also build and customize your AI.
Core Features
- Analyzes customer data and behavior to provide personalized recommendations and offers
- Uses natural language processing to engage with leads over various channels and nurture them with personalized content
- Analyzes customer data and behavior to automatically suggest the next best action for sales reps to take, providing timely communication and follow-ups
- Detects the customer’s sentiment, intent, and urgency, routing it to the appropriate customer service representative
Best for: Sales leaders and service leaders
Pro tip: Don’t miss the opportunity and account insights that remove the overwhelm from sales reps and help them identify the best step forward to close a deal based on data.
Price: With Salesforce, you’ll need to contact customer support to find the best package for you. Pricing depends on individual needs.
Testing It Out
I signed up for a free trial of the Salesforce CRM. Unfortunately, Salesforce doesn’t offer a trial of Einstein 1 during the 30 day trial period of the CRM.
However, there are plenty of YouTube demos available that gave me a good idea of what Einstein 1 can do.
After watching the demo video of Einstein, I learned Einstein has the capability to flag customer emails that mention competitors. I appreciate this valuable feature. Custom tags can alert your sales team to problems before they arise, making it easier to keep a customer happy and satisfied with your services.
4. Pipedrive — Sales Assistant
Pipedrive’s AI Sales Assistant supports salespeople in optimizing their sales pipeline. This tool can help identify the hottest leads so sales can focus on the deals most likely to convert. Supported by data, Sales Assistant can recommend the next best action for the most profitable result.
Core Features
- Monitors sales pipelines, analyzing them and providing accurate predictions of future sales revenue to help salespeople set realistic revenue targets
- Provides KPI tracking, which helps salespeople measure the progress of their sales activities
- Prioritizes leads and deals based on their likelihood to close, providing salespeople with valuable information they need to target the right prospects at the right time
- Allows for quick and easy creation of emails and campaigns
Best for: Salespeople
Pro tip: Don’t miss Pipedrive Academy, a learning portal to help salespeople improve.
Price: Pipedrive’s essential package starts at $12.50 a month, rising to $74.90 a month for enterprises.
Testing It Out
Pipedrive offers a free 14-day trial of their CRM. After signing up for the free trial, I quickly learned the AI tool is available to test out in the free trial, too. I appreciated this for one reason: I want to know what the tool can do before I sign up for a paid subscription.
Piperdrive’s AI can help write emails, too. I wanted to compare Pipedrive’s generated email to the email ChatSpot generated. That said, I used the same prompt:
“I want to send an email to my prospects to offer a discount code on my writing services. The sale begins on May 31 and ends on June 2. Please draft a short email, including an eye-catching subject line, to send to my prospects.”
Here’s what Pipedrive AI generated.
I like that I had the option to choose my email’s tone and length. Those features helped ensure the generated response better matched my desired outcome. Based on the generated response, there are only a few tweaks to the body of the message I would make before sending my email to prospective clients.
Overall, I think Pipedrive’s AI is an excellent addition to the CRM.
5. Freshworks — Freddy AI
Freshworks’ Freddy AI helps your team with the sales process. With Freddy, you can personalize your customers’ engagements and provide useful answers to customers through the chatbot. Freddy AI is also there to provide insights into processing for lead tracking and will help triage support tickets.
Core Features
- Leverages AI-powered chatbots to automate customer interactions across multiple channels
- Analyzes customer interactions and feedback for sentiment and tone, enabling customer support reps to address dissatisfied customers quickly
- Offers predictive analytics that helps sales teams predict trends, identify potential customer problems, and forecast revenue more accurately
- Quickly create targeted campaigns
Best for: Customer support teams
Pro tip: Customize Freddy AI to have the same look and feel as the rest of your site.
Price: Freshwork’s CRM starts at $15 per month, rising to $69 per month.
Testing It Out
Freshwork’s free trial includes a trial for Freddy AI. Unlike other CRMs that I tested, Freddy is easy to find in the CRM interface. I appreciate the inclusion of popular prompts, too. This makes it even easier to understand what Freddy can and cannot do in the CRM.
I was a bit surprised to learn that Freddy will only write an email draft if you connect your Shopify account. So, if you do not use Shopify for your business, you might find it a bit frustrating to use for drafting emails and campaigns.
6. Nutshell — Power AI
Nutshell’s Power AI is more than just an AI integration. Power AI takes sales calls to a new level by quickly transcribing and summarizing your Zoom calls. Plus, the voice-to-text feature makes note-taking even easier, so you can be sure all of your notes concerning your sales and your customers are in one organized place.
Core features:
- Leverages AI to generate timeline summarizes for individuals, companies, and leads
- Generates transcriptions and summaries of Zoom calls
- Uses AI to create voice-to-text transcriptions
Best for: Sales teams
Pro tip: Connect your entire communication tech stack to Nutshell, so you can stay on top of all things sales.
Price: Nutshell starts at $16 per month per user for the Foundation plan, rising to $67 per month per user for Enterprise. For Power AI, the plan costs $52 per month per user.
Testing It Out
Nutshell offers a free trial of the CRM. However, when testing out Power AI, I realized that I didn’t enter enough customer data to access the timeline summaries Power AI can create.
So, to get a better understanding of what Power AI’s summaries look like, I went straight to YouTube.
Based on the YouTube video, it seems as if the timeline summary appears at the top of each lead or contact you’ve entered into the CRM. This feature is helpful, especially for new employees to your team, so they can quickly get an understanding of the relationship between your company and the contact.
I also like that Power AI does not require users to add a new add-on or integration in order to use the feature.
Leveling Up Your CRM With AI
If your CRM platform already has AI functionality, you’re missing out if you don’t explore it. The powerful features given to us by AI will save immense amounts of time in the long run.
It’s always a bit overwhelming to introduce a new feature to your established processes, but AI is here to make your working life easier.
Get involved with your CRM’s AI and unlock new levels of efficiency, personalization, and data-driven decision-making.