9 CRM trends for 2024

Generative AI can take over what Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, describes as “a lot of the mundane tasks that sales execs and marketing folks have really dreaded doing as part of the CRM process.” These include creating marketing materials or transcribing and summarizing customer calls.

More importantly, AI can take traditional business process automation (BPA) to the next level, automating repeatable processes and operational workflows, says Paul Greenberg, president of The 56 Group consultancy.

Another important application of ML/AI is data analytics. “That’s where we see the payoff from AI; truly doing what we always wanted CRM to do, uplevel those moments in time, develop deeper, more durable, profitable relationships with our customers,” Miller says.

AI-driven analytics enables salespeople, for example, to query the database in order to identify untapped markets. In the past, CRM dashboards contained historic data and trends that may or may not have been useful or actionable.

With AI, CRM systems can analyze vast amounts of data to deliver predictive analytics on business outcomes. It enables employees to “interrogate the data differently,” adds Forrester analyst Kate Leggett. “I get a little bit of a crystal ball.”

And the interactivity feature of generative AI creates a true digital copilot, enabling humans to “do what they do best, foster conversations, show empathy, and accelerate decision velocity,” says Miller.