The next big thing in CRM innovation is an infusion of artificial intelligence into a personal customer assistance tool that makes difficult tasks more manageable for customer service agents to meet sales, marketing needs and customer service.
This recognition came in a SugarCRM survey released in September which found that 60% of more than 800 sales, marketing, service and IT managers now use CRM as a centralized communications hub to nurture leads and sales. clients. Technological advancements over the past five years have pushed platform design and capabilities to give CRM a more strategic role.
New approaches and added AI capabilities take sales and marketing operations to new levels. The survey showed that while 43% of respondents leverage CRM for sales forecasting and pipeline insights, 41% use it to capture intent data and score leads.
The study clearly shows that organizations are demanding more from their CRM investments. For example, almost half (46%) have integrated marketing automation or email marketing solutions. More than a third (35%) of respondents have integrated analytics or measurement dashboards, while only 12% have integrated account-based marketing tools.
The role of CRM is changing radically. Nearly 60% of organizations perceive their CRM solution to be more important today than five years ago in achieving their sales and marketing goals. More than a third rely on CRM for sales pipeline visibility, and slightly more rely on it for lead quality and quantity.
“CRM is no longer simply a note-taking database. It must now analyze data and guide salespeople on where to focus their attention throughout the day,” according to Clint Oram, co-founder and chief strategy officer of SugarCRM.
The vision becomes the reality of the CRM platform
Oram welcomes a better CRM platform that technological advancements now make possible. He always envisioned CRM as a personal assistant rather than a simple note-taking tool.
“CRM should be a personal customer assistant that tells you something you don’t already know about your customers, what to do next and even doing the easy things for you,” Oram told CRM Buyer.
He sees AI combined with communication tools like email and WhatsApp to turn this vision into reality. For example, Predictive AI and machine learning (ML) can now instantly tell you which leads are most likely to convert into deals and which are most likely to close.
AI and ML can also tell you the best steps to take with a customer. Now, with the addition of generative AI, the customer assistant mentality will update deals with each customer’s latest status, draft the next email for you, and even tell you how to navigate a deal negotiation complex.
“If you look back over the last 10 years, you see a convergence of mobile, social and AI, transforming CRM into a conversational customer assistant or what the industry calls conversational CRM,” he said. explained Oram.
Cinematic entities like Tony Stark had Jarvis and Luke Skywalker had C3PO. With the new approach to CRM, everyone will now have a personal assistant to easily obtain information about their customers. Conversely, customers will use it to interact with a business.
AI in CRM Attention Required
The concept of a CRM evolving into a “customer personal assistant” is feasible and aligns with the broader trend of AI-driven personalization and automation, according to Mark N. Vena, CEO and principal analyst at Smart Technology Research. However, its success depends on various factors, including the organization’s resources, its technological infrastructure and the quality of the data available.
“Implementing AI in this way requires significant investment in AI technologies and data analytics, as well as a clear understanding of customer needs and preferences,” Vena told CRM Buyer.
While the concept is promising, businesses must carefully plan and execute their CRM strategies to effectively realize this customer-centric functionality. Still, he agrees that the increasing integration of AI into CRM systems is a notable trend driven by the need for increased customer engagement and more efficient business operations.
“While AI-powered CRM can bring significant benefits, it also raises legitimate security and privacy concerns. Organizations must ensure that sensitive customer data is protected and AI algorithms are used responsibly to avoid privacy violations or misuse of data,” Vena suggested.
He warned that transparency, ethical AI practices and robust security measures are key to alleviating these concerns and building trust in AI-based CRM.
Raising the Bar to Reduce Costs
The concept of a customer assistant is one of the key focus areas of generative AI, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. IBM’s initial testing with Watson has shown that AI generation, done well, reduces costs, increases customer engagement and loyalty, and increases customer satisfaction.
“Generative AI is poised to massively change the types of applications that connect with people verbally or via text message. Customers who see these benefits are screaming for them,” he told CRM Buyer.
Although implementing these models was cost-prohibitive until recently, experience and more advanced tools are rapidly driving down these costs, Enderle noted. He expects that in the near future, CRM/SFA (Sales Force Automation) software and other human interface tools will look and behave very differently thanks to generative AI.
However, cost cutting can also put the bar at risk, warned John Bambenek, principal threat hunter at Netenrich. The more organizations seek to reduce customer service and sales staff costs by leveraging AI chatbots and similar AI innovations, the more they risk their customer information that exists outside of their control.
“Generative AI has caused businesses to develop a voracious appetite for data from which they can learn. However, very little is known about where this data resides, how it can be accessed, and more importantly, what sensitive information can be inferred based on how these systems interact with attackers posing as customers,” Bambenek told CRM Buyer.
Better CRM with AI means more targeted security
AI-based CRM is no less vulnerable than other new applications, according to Gopi Ramamoorthy, senior director of security and GRC at Symmetry systems. New applications have generic security risks before they are addressed and hardened for security.
“Gen AI systems are no exception but carry inherent risks such as rapid engineering, potential data poisoning, data leakage and biased results,” he told CRM Buyer.
Using Gen AI for CRM applications may increase the risk of loss of non-public customer data through third-party systems or SaaS providers. Ramamoorthy added that introducing a new third-party system increases the potential data security risk.
“It also adds a list of systems and vendors needed as part of privacy governance,” he said.
More than CRM-specific concerns
SugarCRM has been delivering predictive AI and ML innovations for several years. The advent of large language models (LLMs) makes generative AI a practical reality. Generation AI is the next technological race, Oram noted.
“Figuring out how to seamlessly integrate this new technology into a person’s daily life, whether as an office worker at a company or as a customer interacting with that company, will define the winners and losers of this next technological frontier,” he said.
But this is not limited to CRM. We will see all forms of AI – such as predictive AI, machine learning AI and generative AI – manifest in all commercial and consumer applications, Oram predicted.
“This will become the next user interface,” he added.
Give new tasks to the CRM
The new role of CRM is already in place, Oram advised. Predictive AI and ML have been real and anchored in CRM applications for several years.
CRM applications recommend which leads are most likely to convert into deals, which deals are most likely to close, which contacts require immediate customer service attention, or which businesses are most likely to purchase more, a he proposed.
In each of these cases, front office staff are now able to provide proactive customer service and suggest next steps to prospects or customers before the customer even realizes they need help. This proactive customer service model reinvents the customer experience, from whoever responds best to whoever predicts best, Oram said.
SugarCRM’s survey showed that CRM users now rely on their CRM systems to manage their daily activities. A large part of the reason for this change in behavior comes from the new generation of CRM users.
“They know intuitively that sharing is more useful than hoarding data. They know that rapid collaboration makes customers happy, and they know that for every piece of data they put into a CRM system, they will get 10x more value with accurate insights and helpful advice,” he said. -he declares.
It’s a generational thing. Today’s CRM users are millennials who have grown up with technology in the classroom and in every other aspect of their lives. They intuitively know the value of CRM and don’t share Baby Boomers and Gen X’s concerns about technology in the workplace.
