3 ways AI improves CRM

Customer relationship management systems have become indispensable tools in running business operations. In an always-connected and increasingly digital business world, manually-updated CRMs can quickly become unwieldy drags on office productivity and efficiency. This makes CRM platforms prime use cases of how companies across industries can leverage solutions using artificial intelligence technology. 

There are still several misconceptions about AI. Fundamentally, AI is about understanding the importance of data analysis and how we can train machines to synthesize, analyze, and act on data as a human being could. At its core, AI technology is about liberating the human mind from mundane tasks.

The most common misconception about AI is that it is synonymous with automation, but in fact it’s so much more. The only shared elements between AI and automation are the reliance on data and the goal of streamlining convenience. To liken AI to automation beyond those commonalities is to ignore the greater elegance of an AI system. Whereas automated systems must be manually configured to execute monotonous, repetitive tasks, AI systems are independently adaptive once they have data to process, meaning that they learn as they go without continuous monitoring.

Thus AI has the power to liberate organizations from manual processes connected to the CRM system. Having built businesses in the AI space for years, most recently with AI solutions at Introhive, I can attest to a number of key advantages AI brings to CRM systems. I’ve outlined three big ones below.

Better customer engagement

Because AI solutions reduce the burden of data entry and other time-consuming administrative functions, teams have greater bandwidth to help customers and prospective customers. AI technology greatly assists with customer service and support functions as well. Chat and email bots ensure that customers get quick answers and direction. New AI technologies analyze voice and text in real time to help agents most effectively serve prospective and existing clients.

An often overlooked consequence of AI-assisted customer engagement is improved employee engagement. If an employee can be freed from the more time-consuming administrative responsibilities of their role, they can focus on the more meaningful aspects of their jobs: creative thinking, problem solving, and client support. Improved employee satisfaction and retention tends to follow.

Keener sales insights

Having a centralized record of clean customer sales data and communications means better sales forecasting and clearer insights into how deals were won or lost. AI integration ensures that your CRM captures customer data in the desired format using document, image, and speech recognition technologies. Just as better fuel quality leads to stronger engine performance on the road, capturing high-quality data is crucial for accurate and insightful AI predictions, which in turn strengthen business operations. 

High-quality customer data and accurate, AI-driven predictions also have important implications for how teams are organized to manage various accounts. Utilizing an AI application is effectively like giving a data scientist to each staff member to make sense of disparate business data that would otherwise be lost or delayed in analysis. 

Smarter social networking

This last point, smart networking, is of particular interest to me as I’ve spent the past decade thinking about the intersections of technology and human relationships. While new technologies are often criticized for making social interactions less authentic, I’ve long championed the power that technology has to strengthen connections and relationships, especially in business.

Introhive specializes in AI-driven relationship intelligence to better understand one’s client base and branching networks of prospective clients and referrals. AI integrations mine CRM platforms for transactional data, social contacts, and communication history. This information is then collected, grouped, analyzed, and distributed automatically so teams have insights about best engagement practices with customers, vendors, and other stakeholders.

As companies emerge from the pandemic and try to further capitalize on the gains made in virtual networking over the past year and a half, I foresee greater adoption of AI integrations across businesses, especially within the CRM market. If you are working in AI or AI adjacent spaces, what greater AI adoptions are you expecting to witness in the coming months?

Jody Glidden is the founder and CEO of Introhive. Founded in 2012, Introhive is the fastest-growing B2B relationship intelligence service and data management platform. The company was recently recognised by Deloitte’s Fast 50 and Fast 500 Awards and was named the 2020 MarTech Breakthrough Award winner for best CRM Innovation Software.