10 Best AI CRM Tools to Boost Customer Engagement

Companies always look for new means to know, interact, and keep clients. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software driven by artificial intelligence makes this possible by combining customer relationship management and artificial intelligence. This revolutionary addition to sales software promises to revolutionize the way firms deal with their clients.

At its essence, an AI-based CRM system combines artificial intelligence features with the conventional CRM functions. It is no longer simply a matter of storing customer information; it’s about analyzing, predicting, and automating real-time interactions.

What is AI CRM?

AI CRM is a software that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to process customer data and patterns, make predictions, suggest the next best action, and automate repetitive CRM tasks. AI CRM is an effective assistant that holds customer data at its disposal to enhance customer interaction, conversion, retention, and value.

What Do You Need to Look for in AI CRM Tools?

If you wish your team to enjoy the advantages of AI, select tools that are integrated with your CRM system and purpose-built for sales and customer support. The following are essential features to consider in order to ensure your AI tool will be productive for your team.

• Natural language processing: Your sales reps ought to be able to ask your AI product to perform a task or answer a question in plain English. Then the AI ought to respond in plain English so everything is simple, straightforward, and easy to understand—no technical skills needed
• Generative AI: If your machine learning platform can create original content, it will be able to assist your team members in responding to customers, composing follow-up emails, and re-writing their own content to make it clear and professional-sounding
• Real-time research and data: AI can browse the web and assemble customer research or intricate sales forecasting and reports within minutes, rather than the hours it will take a human being. As sales is a numbers-intensive business, make sure your AI tool is equipped with reporting capabilities

Prime Usage of CRM along with AI

Here are some uses of CRM that are resolvable through the use of AI:

• Audience segmentation: Employing methods like lookalike modeling, AI identifies similar traits of best customers, which allows organizations to contact potential buyers with similar traits and higher chances of engagement with their products.
• Customer journey mapping: AI can best perform customer journey mapping and analysis to establish touchpoints and opportunities for optimizing customer experience. Through the application of such knowledge, businesses are able to build frictionless and effective experiences across every step in the customer journey.
• Design of marketing campaigns: AI mechanizes marketing campaign design through designing marketing campaign workflows by itself, drawing from successful campaigns, analysis of the audience, marketing playbooks, and trends in the marketplace.
• Dynamic content generation: Generative AI enables companies to generate highly personalized marketing content around particular customer interests. Based on purchase history and demographics, AI generates personalized emails, ads, and product recommendations tailored to a single customer.
• Lead scoring: AI-powered lead scoring analyzes a variety of data sets such as lead interactions and engagement activities to prioritize probable prospects based on the greatest conversion opportunities. What this implies is that sales reps can focus on high-quality leads, increasing the likelihood of successful deals.
• Sales forecasting: AI enhances sales prediction through analyzing enormous sets of data such as market tendencies, behavior of customers, and economic indicators to predict future sales with high accuracy. Whereas classical methods deteriorate with fresh information, AI models dynamically adjust real-time, exposing hidden patterns and actionable intelligence.
• Presales research: AI supports presales by conducting extensive research of publicly accessible information and building data-driven pitches. An AI sales assistant, drawing from this research, provides the best-selling points for your sales teams to make highly relevant and effective presentations.
• Next Best Action: AI-powered CRM systems examine successful past transactions to make best action recommendations for driving purchases. These personalized recommendations help sales teams close deals more efficiently.
• Upselling and cross-selling: AI-driven solutions leverage variables such as purchase history, search, and comparison shopping cart to send personalized upsell and cross-sell recommendations to loyal customers with no manual intervention.
• Customer service chatbots: AI chatbots process customer queries quickly and effectively by delivering immediate, correct answers to repetitive questions. They can also manage activities like tracking orders and scheduling appointments and thus provide constant customer care and leave the service teams free for complicated matters.

10 Best AI CRM Tools

1. Hubspot CRM

HubSpot is well-known for its adjustable hubs, which focus on digital marketing, sales, services, operations, and content management. Each hub can be packaged together in an integrated solution designed for unique business requirements.

Apart from all the regular CRM features—such as tracking interactions with customers, contact details, next actions, and how they’re progressing through your sales funnel—it includes HubSpot AI.

These AI solutions assist you in automating repetitive business tasks and allowing your team to concentrate on developing more significant customer relationships. It can also assist your team members in writing content, such as outreach emails, and analyzing customer data in real time.

Key features

• Breeze Copilot insight generation
• Agentic AI workflow automation
• Generative AI content creation
• ChatSpot real-time customer insights

Pros

• Automatic lead scoring
• Email optimization
• Versatile chatbots
• Sales forecasting

Cons

• Some advanced AI features are only available at higher price tiers
• Surprising outcomes and wrong predictions filed

Pricing:

Hubspot has a free version of the platform with limited AI feature. 

2. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM, an integrated customer relationship management suite. It consists of sales, marketing, and customer service apps, augmented with project collaboration, business intelligence (BI), and analytics features.

It’s similar to having each team member having a personal assistant. Its possibilities include offering support in real time, suggesting products based on how customers behave, and integrating chatbots into websites of e-commerce businesses to reply to customer queries.

Zoho CRM is most appropriate for small and midsize B2B and B2C businesses with average process management requirements.

Key features

• Zia automation recommendations
• AI customer insights
• AI product suggestions

Pros

• AI chatbot assistant
• Intelligent sales forecasting and other predictive capabilities
• Filter deal records by AI predictions
• Talent allocation based on prediction scores
• Conversational AI

Cons

• Limited storage
• No white labeling or re-branding option

Pricing:

Zoho AI CRM software provides four plans:

•  Standard for $20
•  Professional for $35
• Enterprise for $50
• Ultimate for $65 .

3. Freshworks

Freshworks’ suite of CRM tools, consisting of Freshmarketer, Freshsales, Freshdesk, and Freshchat, delivers one and a modern customer experience. The suite features IT, marketing, customer support, and sales tools, providing an entire solution to enterprises.

The suite does not enable more than a few prepackaged AI situations and offers straightforward reporting and dashboards.

Freshworks is suited best for the simplest of requirements for teams searching for an effortless deployment and intuitive solution.

Key features

• Freddy AI customer support
• Automated solution of tickets
• Intent detection via AI
• Tailored customer experience

Pros:

• Instant customer feedback
• Improves agent productivity
• Easy automation of workflow
• Tightens scalability with business

Cons:

• Constricted control of customization
• Temporary response errors
• Higher-tier prices
• Improved integrations

Pricing:

• Free
• Growth: $19 user/month
• Pro: $49 user/month
• Enterprise: $79 user/month

4. Zendesk

Zendesk trades in service business CRM and sales teams’ CRM software with an understanding of the finesse required in the sale of services. Their toolset forms effortless customer relationships and enables your staff to converse with more customers easily.

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 CRM provides valuable suggestions to resolve customer issues during interactions.

You can enhance AI functionality further by integrating with ChatGPT.

Key features

• AI-powered ticketing system
• Omnichannel customer support
• Automated workflow management
• Self-service knowledge base

Pros

• Centralized customer communications
• Omnichannel support
• Customer support AI chatbots
• Automated lead nurturing
• Mobile accessibility

Cons

• Lacks advanced AI predictive analysis
• Limited customization of email templates

Pricing:

Start at $19/user/month.

Suggested Blogs on Top AI Tools:

• Top AI Tools For Game Developers
• Top AI Data Analytics Tools
• Top AI Ticketing Systems
• Top AI Virtual Assistant Software

5. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is personalized by organizations using custom fields, automatic formulas, and pipeline customization to facilitate distinctive sales processes, and the software is tailored to meet their requirements.

Key features

• Visual sales pipeline
• AI sales assistant
• Workflows that are customizable
• Sales reporting insights

Pros

• Chatbot has decent communication features
• AI enhances lead capture and data collection
• AI sales support

Cons

• No free plan
• Less feature-intensive compared to industry top dogs

Pricing:

• Essential: $14.90 per user/month
• Advanced: $27.90 per user/month
• Professional: $49.90 per month per user
• Power: $64.90 per month per user
• Business: $99.00 per month for each user

6. ClickUp

ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform that can be applied in multiple capacities to organize CRM work, automate processes, and track progress seamlessly. Sales and marketing teams are able to see pipelines in over 15 customizable views and get real-time insights using interactive dashboards.

With ClickUp Brain, an AI role-based feature that can be used for team needs, integrated into it, ClickUp is a fantastic software to use for content creation, customer relations management, and optimizing workflow efficiency.

Key features

• Task and project management
• Customizable dashboards
• Time tracking software
• Goal and doc management

Pros:

• Single-platform solution
• Fully customizable workflows
• Real-time collaboration software
• Efficient task organization

Cons:

• Difficult to learn
• Overwhelming for new users
• Occasional performance issues
• Mobile app limitations

Pricing :

Start at $10 per user/month and add on an extra cost of $7 for AI functionality.

7. Salesforce

Salesforce is an advanced AI-powered CRM system that automates sales and increases productivity. It combines strong AI capabilities with its virtual assistant, Einstein, to deliver predictive insights to sales teams, automate tasks, and simplify workflows. From lead generation to sales forecasting, Salesforce Sales Cloud enables businesses to maximize productivity and optimize sales pipelines.

Key features

• Agentforce configurable AI
• Generative AI email
• Conversation insights analysis
• AI Research Assistant
• AI sales forecast

Pros:

• Configurable platform
• Robust reporting capabilities
• Strong integration options
• Flexible for organizations

Cons:

• Expensive pricing plan
• Complex setup process
• Extremely complicated to master
• Blinding for small teams

Pricing:

The base cost is $25 per user/month and extra costs for AI tools

8. Freshsales

Freshsales, built by Freshworks, is a CRM platform providing solutions that automate the sales workflow, right from lead management through email and event tracking.

Its chatbots are built to interact with customers in real time, offering instant answers to questions, support, and lead nurturing day and night. This allows companies to remain responsive to potential opportunities at any given time. Freddy AI not only automates routine tasks but also provides predictive insights that enhance the efficiency and data-driven character of sales activities.

Key features

• Visitor tracking insights
• Customer support in real-time
• Email campaigns automated
• 360-degree profiles of customers
• Lead qualification insights
• Automated action triggers

Pros

• “Freddy” AI streamlines sales process
• Affordability compared to others
• Support for multiple languages
• Integrated telephony

Cons

• Free CRM does not have AI feature
• Examples are fewer in number compared to others

Pricing

Free version for a maximum of 3 users

9. Durable

An AI-enabled platform for small businesses, Durable provides a website builder, a CRM, an invoicing feature, and a virtual assistant. It’ll make you go live and manage your business in a flash.

Add a lead scoring form on your Durable website, and in-built AI features will organize contacts in your CRM automatically, follow up with leads, create personalized communication, and send out review requests.

Key features

• AI assistant for tasks
• Lead generation form
• Email sync follow-ups
• Automated request for review

Pros

• Simple interface
• Site creation speed
• Design aid powered by AI
• Reasonable price plans

Cons

• Few design options
• No code export
• Prices
• Starter: $12/mo
• Business: $20/mo

10. Nutshell

Nutshell AI CRM has AI-based options to streamline the sales process as well as relationships with customers and leads. Nutshell Business incorporates the AI as an option that is designed to automate processes, optimize team function, and bring actionable insights that can lead to sales success.

Key features

• AI interaction summaries
• AI Zoom summaries
• AI voice transcription
• AI contact insights

Pros

• Simple-to-use interface
• AI-powdered insights
• Automated lead management
• Seamless integration

Cons

• Insufficient detailed AI automation

Pricing:

Nutshell CRM pricing is between $13 and $79 per user/month, with extra AI features costing $59.

How to Select a CRM with AI?

Most of the latest enterprise-grade CRM applications include AI functionality, but it might be difficult to understand what to prioritize in CRM with AI without doing lots of research about the subject. This part is intended to provide you with some guidelines on the major features to pay attention to when selecting AI CRM software.

• Functionality scope: A business CRM will offer a range of out-of-the-box AI capabilities, such as pre-configured data analysis models, next best action suggestions, Generative AI, customer service chatbots, and sentiment analysis.
• AI assistant: This feature allows users to communicate with the AI in natural language, just like they would talk to ChatGPT.
• AI and ML customization: The ability to build your own ML models to analyze data provides tremendous flexibility and empowers you to extract more insights from AI tools. However, most organizations do not have employees with technical know-how or coding skills to create models. Thus, the inclusion of no-code tools becomes even more significant in CRM solutions.
• Closed AI model integration: Be careful to integrate closed models. CRM software for AI usually integrates open-source or commercially available but always publicly accessible models.
• Scalability: It’s important to take into consideration the scalability of your CRM and its ability to support your business growth path.
• Powerful governance tools: Security is one of the largest issues surrounding AI-based software.  Having a complete picture of your operations and full control over them enables you to protect your CRM with AI from mistakes and security breaches.

Conclusion 

With the dawn of the new era of customer relationship management looming, the infusion of AI CRM tools marks a revolutionary period. Those days are over when CRM systems used to be mere custodians of customer information; now they are emerging as smart platforms that are involved in decision-making, forecasting, and providing personalized customer interactions.

The integration of AI and CRM is not only making operations more efficient; it’s redefining the very essence of customer relationships. Enterprises can predict customers’ needs, personalize interactions with unmatched accuracy, and build stronger, more meaningful bonds. As AI continues to evolve, we can anticipate even more insightful and individualized customer interactions, cementing its position as an essential instrument in defining the future of customer relationships.

In this environment, companies that adapt and adopt AI-powered CRM products will certainly lead the way and establish new customer engagement and satisfaction standards.

FAQs

1. How is AI being applied in CRM?

CRM is applying AI to enhance customer interactions, predict sales trends, automate tasks, and provide personalized marketing insights.

2. Why do you need to look for a CRM with AI?

You need to look for a CRM with AI to maximize customer interaction, automate tasks, and make quick decisions.

3. What are three examples of AI in CRM?

Three of them are customer service chatbots, predictive analytics-based sales forecasting, and personalized marketing automation.

4. How is AI transforming CRM?

AI is transforming CRM by making routine jobs easier, providing practical insights from data analysis, improving customer experience, and making better decisions with predictive analysis.

5. What’s the future of AI CRM?

The future of AI CRM is about richer personalization, predictive analytics, and greater integration with other technologies, to drive more efficient and effective customer relationship management.