AI in CRM: Benefits and Use Cases of AI-Powered CRM System

Take your business game to the next level by turning to an AI-powered customer relationship management system, also known as an AI-based CRM, when it comes to handling customer data. With an AI CRM platform in place, you can effectively wear many hats while successfully managing your business.

Companies of all sizes are now using AI-based tools to improve customer service and optimize operations. The eCommerce industry demonstrates the highest adoption rate of CRM tools - almost 25% compared to other industries. No wonder, as a properly implemented CRM can deliver an ROI of more than 245%. Artificial Intelligence technologies - from predictive analytics to AI-based chatbots and AI-driven personalization - are changing the CRM landscape. The future of AI is here, and AI-powered CRM software, or CRM with AI, is the key to workflow automation, data-driven predictive analytics, and ultimately, revenue growth. Don't be left behind, take advantage of the opportunities that AI-powered CRM offers.

Let's find out what AI-driven CRM solutions, or CRM automation powered by AI, can bring to the table.

Unlocking the Power of AI-based Customer Relationship Management Systems

Before jumping into the ins and outs of implementing Artificial Intelligence in CRM, let's break down what a CRM system is and what the AI software market is all about.

What Is a CRM System?

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is the backbone of an organization's efforts in managing and nurturing customer relationships. At its core, a CRM system is a digital platform through which companies can efficiently collect, organize, and analyze customer data derived from various interactions and touchpoints.

A CRM is a centralized hub where each customer's information is stored, including:

• purchases and preferences;
• inquiries and feedback;
• contact information;
• interaction with sales and support;
• participation in marketing campaigns.

With a holistic view of each customer gained through CRM programs, a company can identify high-value customers, grasp their specific needs, and come up with targeted marketing or sales strategies.

CRM systems are usually feature-rich and equipped with several options:

• Contact Management: Tracking customer data and interactions.
• Lead Management: Tracking leads and sales opportunities.
• Sales Automation: Optimizing sales processes from lead generation to conversion.
• Marketing Automation: Managing and automating marketing campaigns and customer communications.
• Customer Service and Support: Handling customer support inquiries, complaints and requests.
• Analytics and Reporting: Analyzing data to gain insights into customer behavior and trends.
• Third-Party Integration: Integrating with other business tools to ensure a seamless flow of data.

CRM Software Market Key Findings

The customer relationship management software market is the largest and fastest-growing one. It is expected to reach $131.90 billion by 2028.

According to other data, the global CRM market is projected to reach $113.22 billion by 2027.

When it comes to customer service, CRM makes all the difference. According to a recent study, companies adopting CRM systems saw a 16% increase in customer retention, a 17% increase in conversions, and a 21% increase in sales force efficiency.

Going even further, we learn that according to a recent Salesforce report, 53% of financial services customers are willing to switch providers because of the quality of the digital experience, and 39% because of the quality of the customer experience.

Meanwhile, 42% of customers feel less financially secure than they did last year, and 65% of customers expect an immediate response when reaching out to a company.

All of this leads to the idea that we need to look for more secure and digitized ways to interact with customers. The future of customer experience definitely lies in human-AI cooperation. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in CRM is generally considered one of the major growth drivers for the CRM market in the coming years.

What Is an AI-powered CRM?

In the rapidly evolving field of business-to-customer interaction, you need to stay ahead of the curve to succeed. This is where Artificial Intelligence-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems play a key role. They help optimize and personalize customer interactions, predict trends in customer behavior, and improve data security - that's the power of AI in CRM. Moreover, the global AI market size is on the rise, which can indicate great prospects for the users of this technology. In 2023, the AI market size was valued at $150.2 billion and is projected to reach $1,345.2 billion by 2030. Moreover, by the end of 2023, 79% of enterprises will be utilizing AI-based CRM solutions.

AI-driven CRM Solutions: How Do They Work?

Behind the idea of AI-enabled CRM is the introduction of artificial intelligence into traditional CRM systems to improve various aspects of customer interactions. Artificial Intelligence technologies, including machine learning and natural language processing (NLP), are driving this transformation by empowering CRM systems with predictive analytics, automation, personalized communications, etc.

Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning In CRM

Predictive analytics and machine learning in Customer Relationship Management software with AI, also known as AI-based CRM, are transformative aspects. Predictive analytics, a fundamental element of AI-driven CRM solutions, involves processing historical customer data to predict future changes (AI-enhanced sales forecasting), customer behavior patterns, and business opportunities. Machine learning algorithms, a crucial component of CRM automation powered by AI, sift through vast amounts of data to accurately evaluate leads and forecast sales, assisting companies in making data-driven decisions and steering clear of guesswork.

Customer Segmentation and Personalization Using Artificial Intelligence

With NLP-driven CRM personalization, companies can group customers based on their behavior, preferences, and purchase history. This can result in AI-enhanced customer journey mapping. With AI-driven customer interactions, customer experiences and data can be tailored to offer personalized recommendations and content that meet their individual preferences. According to recent statistics, 75% of consumers believe that receiving personalized suggestions is "very cool." What's more, 22% of consumers are happy to share some data in exchange for a more personalized service or product.

Not surprisingly, properly implemented personalization can deliver an 8x ROI on marketing spend and increase sales by 10% or more. Impressed?

But we have more to surprise you.

CRM Chatbots and Conversational AI

Conversational AI brings a human touch to automated interactions, thus enhancing the customer experience. Moreover, today we can claim that CRM chatbots with NLP capabilities are the face of today's customer service. These intelligent AI-driven voice assistants for CRM communicate with customers in natural language, solve problems, address complaints, and offer personalized suggestions. In the business world, voice assistants are leading the way when it comes to customer service apps or employee management systems, literally becoming the voice of the brand. 77% of CEOs believe that voice recognition when interacting with CRMs provides control over the brand and customer experience. What's more, 62% of companies are using voice technology to drive revenue.

NLP for CRM: Text Mining for CRM Insights

Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology allows for speech recognition and sentiment analysis, enabling businesses to gauge customer satisfaction and make necessary changes to customer communications. This technology is at the heart of email sentiment analysis, social media monitoring, CRM document processing, and email responses based on customer preferences and sentiment.

AI for CRM Data Analysis and Optimization

AI enhances CRM data analytics by efficiently processing and categorizing data, allowing businesses to extract useful insights faster than before (or faster than competitors). This analysis enables optimized customer journey mapping, which contributes to streamlining processes and improving overall CRM efficiency.

Data Security and Recommendations: The Two-Fold Role of Artificial Intelligence in CRM

Unlike GPT-3 and GPT-4, AI in CRM provides robust security when processing customer data, which prevents information leakage and abuse and unifies the technology itself. In addition, AI enables recommendation systems that suggest products or services to customers based on their behavior, ultimately driving more sales, better customer service, and higher customer satisfaction.

This is great news for businesses, as survey results show that 96% of customers believe that excellent customer service builds trust.

AI-Powered CRM System Key Use Cases

Using Artificial Intelligence in CRM is all about sales. Wouldn't you agree? Marketing, customer relationships, lead nurturing, automated emails, and so on are all about sales and generating money. That's why the most common use cases for AI in CRM are the ones described below.

Sales

Above we have already touched upon the role of AI in CRM from a sales perspective. Let's focus on the most obvious aspects. On the sales side, CRM with generative AI provides its users with many opportunities:

• Predictive performance evaluation
• Automatically generated follow-up emails
• Improved sales forecasts
• Personalized recommendations
• Natural language search
• Data entry automation

By and large, AI in CRM systems is meant to help people, not work unattended. AI-powered CRM software helps companies better organize customer information and make it easier to access. As a result, organizations can segment leads and contacts more accurately, resulting in more effective relationships with potential customers. In addition, AI in CRM helps companies respond faster to customer inquiries by leveraging text analytics capabilities with NLP, and then provide more informed responses (e.g., with AI-integrated email marketing).

A whole new area of NLP-powered CRM customer service may become Intelligent Contact Routing. However, this is something that has yet to be thoroughly researched and implemented.

Marketing

This is where CRMs with Artificial Intelligence are proving to be of great benefit to businesses.

Marketing Campaign Optimization in CRM

When it comes to marketing campaigns, AI for CRM data analytics is paramount. Customer Relationship Management systems with AI can suggest:

• the right time to launch campaigns,
• the most appropriate marketing channels,
• the type of content that resonates with the target audience.

Predictive analytics in CRM helps predict the results of marketing campaigns, which allows businesses to allocate marketing resources more budget-friendly. Thus, CRM with AI can analyze past campaign data and recommend optimal budget allocation between multiple marketing channels to maximize ROI. No human intervention is needed.

Personalized Marketing

AI enables CRM systems to deliver personalized marketing experiences. How do they do it? Natural Language Processing in Customer Relationship Management can tailor marketing content to each customer's preferences, demographics, and behavior. This level of personalization drives engagement and conversion.

Customer Interaction

Customer communication is the cornerstone of any business, so all eyes are on this area.

Conversational AI

Conversational Artificial Intelligence, often in the form of chatbots and voice assistants, is an integral part of state-of-the-art CRM systems. AI-based chatbots for CRM can handle a wide range of customer queries, provide product information, and assist with problem-solving. Natural Language Processing (NLP) allows chatbots to understand and answer customer questions in a human-like manner, which greatly enhances the customer experience.

As a result, using the right voice technology can help you get to market faster. And the icing on the cake is the statistic according to which 68% of users believe that voice technology is not only easy to use and saves time, but also simplifies life.

Automated Emails

AI-enabled CRM platforms automate emails to deliver timely and personalized customer interactions. These systems leverage NLP to generate customized email responses based on context and interaction history.

Automated emails can be many different things:

• introductory responses;
• follow-up emails;
• customer satisfaction surveys.

You may have received such emails yourself. But only in the case of artificial intelligence, does it look like a real person is communicating with you (beware: it may know too much about you).

Lead Management

Dealing with leads is a whole different story. However, it is a crucial link in the sales chain.

Lead Scoring

In CRM, machine learning algorithms are used for lead scoring. As a result, leads are assigned scores based on parameters such as lead behavior, engagement, demographic information, etc. Such a lead scoring system helps sales teams focus on potentially promising leads that can convert. For example, a CRM with AI can assign higher scores to leads who have responded to a newsletter in some way.

Lead Conversion Strategies

AI helps you not only identify leads but also convert them. AI-enabled CRM can analyze successful lead conversion patterns and suggest customized approaches, such as specific communication styles or promotional offers, to increase the likelihood of lead conversion.

Process Optimization

In an AI-based CRM environment, workflows and chat threads are becoming increasingly significant. What needs to be done here in advance is to define a sequence of actions or steps CRM should take in response to an input or situation.

What it leads to:

• The likelihood of errors is reduced as AI-driven CRM can rely on clear data and structured routines.
• More personalized experience and more meaningful customer interactions thanks to personalized information and well-thought-out routines.
• Less time to respond to a customer (saving up to 80%), resulting in higher customer satisfaction and sales team offload.
• The AI in CRM anticipates possible communication problems and composes a suitable email. The only thing left for the person to do is edit it.

The difficulty, however, is that to instruct the AI about customers, a large amount of detail is needed. You need to create prompts, predict subsequent reactions, and feed the AI with the right data.

Benefits of AI-Powered CRM System

Here's what you get when adopting AI-powered CRM into your business processes:

• Your business is getting better: AI-based CRM automates routine tasks and processes, freeing up human resources to focus on strategic initiatives. This boosts overall business productivity.
• Your customers are treated with care and individual attention: Customer Relationship Management system with Artificial Intelligence enables hyper-personalized interactions. By analyzing massive customer data, AI adapts to individual preferences, cultivating stronger and more meaningful customer relationships.
• No more guesswork: AI and CRM combined equip you with predictive analytics to forecast customer behavior and sales trends. These predictions lead to data-driven decisions and future-proof strategies.
• Clients get answers around the clock: AI-based chatbots integrated into CRM platforms provide instant and personalized responses, facilitating superior customer interactions around the clock.
• Conversion rates are up: AI-driven CRM solutions use machine learning to evaluate and prioritize leads. As a result, sales teams identify high-potential leads to optimize conversion rates.
• You can save your money: By reducing manual labor and optimizing resources, AI-powered CRM platforms deliver cost-effective business operations.
• Your business is future-ready: Having AI in your CRM positions your company as future-ready. Any innovation in technology or customer relationship management is no problem for you.
• Data security first: AI-powered CRM ensures data security and compliance. Robust security measures are a must for modern software.

Real-life Examples of CRM Systems with AI

Here's how big-name companies are leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence in CRM:

• Salesforce is equipping customers with increasingly powerful AI-based marketing and sales solutions. Salesforce's previously announced Einstein AI platform has evolved into Einstein GPT, which delivers AI-generated content across every interaction with sales, marketing, commerce and IT. Salesforce also provides access to the AI Cloud powered by Einstein GPT. Salesforce recently announced general availability and pricing for sales and service GPT features secured with the Einstein GPT trust layer.
• HubSpot has released ChatSpot, an AI-based sales and marketing assistant designed to help its customers' businesses grow. ChatSpot brings together the benefits of GPT-4, HubSpot CRM, DALLE-2, and Google Docs. As we can conclude from the company's website, ChatSpot is all about accelerated sales prospecting, integrated content generation, deep insights, and SEO expertise.
• Zoho has rolled out an AI-powered conversational assistant called Zia. Zia is CRM-centric and is available from the mobile app, desktop, and for any data.

AI-Driven CRM Software with DDI Development

If you are looking to develop an AI-powered CRM or augment your existing CRM with AI features, let's discuss it. Below you can find the steps you can take to bring your idea to life while partnering with the DDI development team:

• Get in Touch: Reach out to us to translate your vision into an action plan. Our team is here to guide you through the process and answer any questions you may have.
• Outline Your Idea: Initiate a consultation with our IT outsourcing engineers to discuss your vision for the CRM system and its integration with AI. Share your business goals and how you envision AI enhancing your CRM.
• Explore the Power of AI in CRM: Dive into the ins and outs of applying AI in CRM. With hired software developers, you will learn how AI can increase customer engagement, automate tasks, and provide valuable insights for smarter decision-making.
• Check Out Our Past Projects: Take a moment to browse our portfolio of CRM projects. See real-life examples of how our IT outsourcing developers have built previous CRM, ATS, and ERP systems. Or maybe you are interested in recruiting software development? We are experienced in creating employee management applications and more.
• Decide On Integration Options: Consider the integration of advanced AI models like GPT-3 or GPT-4 to enhance interactions within your CRM system. Discuss the potential benefits and use cases of AI in the CRM system.
• Estimate Project Scope: Collaborate with our team to estimate the development time and resources required to create an AI CRM project. Gain insights into the development process and expected timelines.
• Choose the Development Approach: Discover the development strategies used - creating a CRM system from scratch or integrating AI capabilities into an existing CRM. Choose the most appropriate one.
• Opt for Staff Augmentation: Consider the option of augmenting your team with qualified software developers from DDI Development. As you will discover later, the Staff Augmentation collaborative model will bring a wealth of knowledge and subject-matter expertise to your project. The only thing left to do is to hire and then onboard the development team.
• See How Beneficial Agile Project Management Is: Learn about our Agile Project Management methodology, ensuring a flexible and efficient project delivery. Discover how we iterate through development stages, starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
• Make Informed Decisions: Based on the insights and discussions, make an informed decision about moving forward with DDI Development for your AI-powered CRM project.

We're here to support you at every step of this journey.

Bottom Line

Implementing CRM with AI, often referred to as AI-powered CRM or AI-enabled CRM, is a game-changing move. It's about empowering your customer relationship management system with the power of Artificial Intelligence. Whether you're starting from scratch or integrating AI into your existing CRM, this technology has the potential to transform the way you do business. From predictive analytics and personalized service to efficient workflow management, AI will turn your CRM into an agile, data-driven solution.

Drop us a line so we can help you on this transformative journey.