5 Best AI CRM Software for 2024

In recent years, the business applications of AI have come a long way, from basic data analysis to AI app development, intelligent chatbots, rich content generation, and more. This rapid technological advancement is bound to transform multiple areas of business operations, including customer relationship management.

Forrester Research predicts that this year half of global firms will experiment with customer-facing generative AI, using it to assist various front-office processes. This number is not surprising — according to Nucleus, the organizations leveraging AI are already seeing an increase in productivity, close rates, and average deal size. One way to ensure that your business leverages the benefits of AI is to implement an AI-powered CRM.

In this article, we will go through the benefits of AI CRM, explain what features to look for when choosing one, and recommend five leading AI CRM systems.

What is AI CRM?

AI CRM is a customer relationship management software that incorporates Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to analyze customer data and trends, make predictions, recommend the next best actions, and automate routine CRM tasks.

Here are some examples of CRM tasks that can be addressed with AI:

• Customer segmentation: AI CRM can automatically classify customers into the corresponding groups based on their demographics, needs, and interests.
• Sales forecasting: AI-powered predictive analytics models assist businesses in forecasting customer behavior, such as churn risk, purchase trends, and product preferences.
• Lead scoring: AI CRM can analyze the likelihood of purchase for each lead that enters your pipeline based on historical data.
• Recommending next best actions: AI CRM can suggest actions and offerings that can encourage a prospect to make a purchase based on the analysis of successful deals in the past.
• Customer journey mapping: AI maps and analyzes customer journeys, discovering touchpoints and opportunities for customer experience enhancement.
• Dynamic content generation: AI can provide dynamic and tailored content for email marketing, online experiences, and product suggestions, enhancing engagement.
• Recommendations for customers: By analyzing consumer behavior and data, AI can propose products or content, increasing cross-selling and upselling potential.
• AI chatbots: Natural language processing (NLP) allows AI-powered chatbots to comprehend ordinary conversational language and reply to customer inquiries accordingly. Users don't need to follow a specific algorithm or a limited set of actions; they can converse with a bot just like with a human service agent.

Overall, AI CRM software serves as a powerful assistant that utilizes available customer data to improve customer engagement, conversion, retention, and value.

Let us look deeper into the benefits AI CRM brings to see the positive impact AI can have on your business.

Top 7 Benefits of AI CRM Software

Improved productivity

The ability to process and analyze customer data in real time and recommend the next actions to agents greatly increases the productivity of your employees. Let's take one of the most straightforward examples of increased productivity due to AI CRM — lead scoring.

Without AI, sales representatives would be looking at every individual lead and evaluating their readiness to buy, which would take hours every day.

AI CRM software allows you to use ML models trained on the previous sales data to calculate the likelihood of purchase for each lead, flag them for your sales representatives, and even create and send personalized emails to the prospect at each stage of the funnel with AI-powered automation. In addition to that, AI CRM software can recommend sales materials, schedule a meeting, or compile a proposal deck for a sales representative. A sales process that would take hours and days can now take seconds.

Consistent customer engagement

For global companies, being connected to their customers 24/7 has always been a challenge due to different time zones of operations. AI effectively eliminates the necessity for employees to work unconventional hours or for businesses to establish separate customer service and sales departments in each region. By leveraging AI-powered chatbots equipped with NLP, businesses can promptly address customer inquiries in real-time.

This real-time responsiveness ensures that customers no longer need to wait for specific working hours to receive assistance, eliminating negative feelings of neglect. As a result, businesses avoid the risk of losing leads or neglecting critical customer inquiries.

More effective marketing campaigns

AI-driven segmentation and advanced data analysis capabilities, along with Generative AI features of modern AI CRMs, empower organizations to tailor marketing campaigns with unprecedented precision.

By harnessing AI CRM tools, businesses can delve deep into customer data, gaining invaluable insights into individual preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns. This understanding enables the creation of hyper-targeted marketing campaigns, resonating more effectively with specific customer segments.

Increased customer satisfaction and retention

Tailored experiences foster customer satisfaction, encouraging repeat business and enhancing retention rates.

In addition to that, by utilizing predictive analytics, businesses can identify at-risk consumers, allowing proactive, personalized intervention to address their concerns. AI CRM can flag customers who need more attention and propose content and products that will solve their issues.

As a result, personalized approaches not only mitigate churn but also cultivate lasting relationships, driving sustained business growth and success.

Increased revenue per customer

The implementation of AI-driven personalized content and recommendations yields tangible benefits such as enhanced conversion rates and increased revenue per customer.

By tailoring offerings to individual preferences and needs, businesses can effectively boost sales and maximize the value derived from each customer interaction.

Data-driven decision making

As organizations continue to leverage AI CRM software over time, accumulating rich historical data, the depth and precision of its insights and predictions amplify significantly.

By harnessing this wealth of information, businesses gain a strategic edge, enabling them to make informed decisions swiftly and confidently. Whether identifying emerging trends, predicting customer behavior, or optimizing operational processes, AI CRM empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of the modern business landscape with clarity and precision.

Cost savings and efficient resource allocation

AI CRM enables dynamic resource allocation by continuously analyzing real-time data. This allows businesses to adapt their strategies in response to changing market dynamics or customer preferences. For example, if a particular customer segment shows increased engagement with a new product feature, resources can be redirected to capitalize on this opportunity, leading to improved ROI.

Additionally, AI CRM helps optimize resource allocation by identifying inefficiencies or areas of overspending. By analyzing customer interactions, sales data, and marketing campaigns, businesses can pinpoint areas where resources are underutilized or allocated ineffectively, allowing for cost-saving measures to be implemented.

How to choose proper AI CRM Software?

Most modern enterprise-level CRM systems offer AI capabilities, but it can be hard to know what to prioritize in AI CRM software without extensive research into the topic. This section is meant to give you guidelines on what features to look for in AI CRM software.

Here are some features to pay attention to when choosing an AI CRM.

• Functionality scope: An enterprise CRM will provide an array of out-of-the-box AI functionality, including prebuilt data analysis models, the next best action recommendations, Generative AI, chatbots for customer service, and sentiment analysis. However, some of these features might be absent in more affordable solutions catering to small and mid-sized businesses. Ensure you understand the primary use cases your organization values and find the appropriate functionality scope.
• NLP assistant: This tool enables users to interact with the AI CRM using natural language, similar to conversing with ChatGPT. For instance, a sales manager could simply request the AI assistant to compile a quarterly report that emphasizes the best sales practices and receive valuable insights. While not yet a standard feature in AI CRM software, industry leaders are actively working on its integration into their platforms.
• AI and ML customization: The ability to build your own ML models to analyze data gives you great flexibility and empowers you to gain more insights from AI CRM. Yet, many organizations lack employees with the technical expertise or coding proficiency required for model creation. Therefore, the integration of no-code tools becomes particularly valuable in CRM solutions. CRM platforms empowered by no-code tools allow you to use simple drag-and-drop functionality to train ML models for various business needs.

• Integration of closed AI models: Integration is an essential feature of any CRM system, but when it comes to AI CRM, pay special attention to connecting closed models. AI CRM software typically works with open-source or commercial but always publicly available models, such as Meta’s Llama 2. However, in case you want to connect a custom model trained on your own data set or provided by a partner, make sure the AI CRM of your choice supports that.
• Scalability: It's crucial to consider the scalability of AI CRM software and its capacity to accommodate your business's growth trajectory.
• Powerful governance tools: One of the biggest concerns around AI-driven software is security. Prioritize strong and easy-to-use governance features that enable you to oversee the permissions, no-code development processes, and deployment of custom AI tools. A comprehensive overview of your operations and complete control over them allows you to safeguard your AI CRM against errors and security threats.

Based on these criteria, we've curated a selection of five AI CRM solutions tailored to various needs and business sizes.

TOP 5 CRM AI Software Vendors

1. Creatio

Creatio is the best choice of AI CRM software for companies prioritizing customization and scalability due to its unique no-code composable architecture. It's an end-to-end AI CRM solution that enables you to automate workflows and CRM with a maximum degree of freedom.

CRM Creatio consists of three products for marketing, sales, and customer service that are built on top of Studio Creatio. Featuring an intuitive no-code UI builder, drag-and-drop business process builder, and various built-in tools for workflow automation, Creatio enables users to create applications for diverse industry workflows.

Sales Creatio Dashboard

Creatio's turn-key capabilities are equally impressive, providing powerful tools for CRM and workflow automation in 20 industries. Its Marketplace boasts over 700 applications and connectors, including an integration with ChatGPT that enables AI content generation inside the platform.

Creatio’s out-of-the-box AI capabilities include:

• AI and ML models for data analysis, intelligent scoring and predictions, customer segmentation, case routing and more;
• AI-driven business rules that allow you to automate routine tasks across marketing, sales, and customer service;
• AI-powered no-code development tools for AI-assisted development.

In addition to that, Creatio has recently presented Creatio Copilot, which combines generative AI and no-code in one technology seamlessly integrated into Creatio's ecosystem. It enables users to leverage out-of-the-box AI scenarios as well as create and customize new ones through intuitive no-code interfaces.

The Copilot Studio is a dedicated workspace for creating and customizing AI models and use cases based on the natural language descriptions. For end users, Creatio Copilot serves as a virtual assistant that can fetch specific information upon command, such as a customer's name or recent correspondence, and effortlessly construct bespoke apps while generating visualizations, charts, projections, and analyses on demand.

A list of scenarios for Creatio Copilot

Sales professionals can leverage Creatio Copilot for intelligent customer scoring, interaction summaries, and real-time coaching tips. Marketers can design optimal campaign flows and target responsive audiences. Customer service agents can automate case analysis and deliver personalized responses with ease.

Creatio Copilot analyzing a sales pipeline

Stand-out features:

• No-code tools to enable free customization and business app development with no professional skills required
• Creatio Copilot that combines AI and no-code to create a perfect AI assistant
• Comprehensive governance tools
• Transparent pricing

Pricing: 

Creatio offers a composable pricing model, allowing users to tailor their purchases to suit their needs. The core platform offers three plans: Growth for $25, Enterprise for $55, and Unlimited for $85 per user monthly. Additionally, its CRM products—Sales, Marketing, and Service—are individually priced at $15 per user monthly, providing users with the option to acquire them separately.

2. Hubspot

HubSpot is renowned for its customizable hubs, emphasizing marketing, sales, services, operations, and content management. These hubs can be combined into a unified offering tailored to specific business needs.

In addition to standard CRM features like tracking customer interactions, contact information, next steps, and progress through your sales pipeline, HubSpot incorporates AI CRM software tools to automate repetitive business processes and enhance team productivity. These AI capabilities enable team members to draft content, such as outreach emails, and analyze customer data in real time. For customer support agents, Hubspot provides an AI-powered chatbot for retrieving support resources on the fly.

HubSpot is well-suited for small and low-complexity businesses with straightforward CRM requirements.

Stand-out features:

• Generative AI for content generation
• ChatSpot, HubSpot’s chatbot, for real-time customer insights
• Conversation summaries customer profiles updates in real time

Pricing:

Hubspot offers a free version of the platform with limited capabilities. The pricing varies from $18 per user/month to $450.

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM, a fully integrated suite, encompasses sales, marketing, and customer service applications, complemented by project collaboration, business intelligence (BI), and analytics functionalities.

Zia, an AI CRM software tool integrated into Zoho CRM, enhances team productivity alongside standard CRM functions such as contact, deal, and lead management. This virtual assistant streamlines workload management by helping collect customer data, drafting emails and documents, and analyzing sales numbers.

With this AI CRM software, it's akin to having a personal assistant for every team member. Its capabilities extend to providing real-time support, making product recommendations based on customer behavior, and embedding chatbots on e-commerce websites to address customer queries.

Zoho CRM best suits small and midsize B2B and B2C organizations with moderate process management needs.

Stand-out features:

• Zia's AI-driven pattern recognition for automation suggestions
• Automatic research to provide customer details such as titles and contact information
• Automated cross-selling and personalized product recommendations

Pricing:

Zoho AI CRM software offers four plans: Standard at $20, Professional at $35, Enterprise at $50, and Ultimate at $65 per user monthly. AI predicting and analytics are exclusively available in the Enterprise and Ultimate plans.

4. Freshworks

Freshworks' CRM suite, comprising Freshmarketer, Freshsales, Freshdesk, and Freshchat, offers a unified and modern customer experience. The suite encompasses tools for IT, marketing, customer service, and sales, providing a comprehensive solution for businesses.

The notable AI CRM software features are the rule-based process guidance and next-best actions that enhance user experience. Additionally, Freddy, an AI CRM software bot, facilitates customer engagement by offering support and directing leads from web pages to the sales team. 

However, the suite supports only a small set of pre-packaged AI scenarios and offers simple reporting and dashboarding.

Freshworks is ideal for teams with straightforward requirements seeking an easy-to-deploy and user-friendly solution.

Stand-out features:

• Freddy AI Self Service offers customer support
• Freddy AI Copilot automates tasks through natural language processing, requiring no coding
• Freddy AI Insights provides real-time visualization of customer data

Pricing:

Freshworks CRM offers three plans: Growth at $19 per user per month, Pro at $49 per user per month, and Enterprise at $79 per user per month.

5. Zendesk

Zendesk specializes in CRM software designed for service businesses and sales teams, understanding the intricacies of selling services. Their suite of tools facilitates seamless customer connections and enables your team to engage with more customers effectively.

Powered by Zendesk AI built on OpenAI’s GPT model, these tools streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks, allowing your reps to focus on more meaningful interactions. Additionally, this AI CRM software provides valuable suggestions to resolve customer issues during interactions.

You can enhance AI CRM functionality further by integrating with Zapier or ChatGPT.

Zendesk best suits midsize and larger companies with substantial interaction volumes that prioritize customer service automation.

Stand-out features:

• Superb customer service AI tools
• ChatGPT integration through Zapier

Pricing:

Zendesk CRM prices range from $19 to $115 per user/month.

Enhance Your Productivity with AI CRM Software

AI CRM software integrates Artificial Intelligence and machine learning for customer relationship management. They streamline tasks, enhance interactions, and offer benefits like productivity improvement, personalized engagement, and data-driven decision-making.

The perfect AI CRM software offers powerful prepackaged AI CRM tools as well as the ability to build custom models for data analysis and automation. Try CRM Creatio to experience this balance for yourself and see how AI-powered CRM can transform your business.