AI CRM: Benefits, Use Cases & Top 10 AI-Powered CRM for 2025

The use of AI in business has come a long way – from simple data analysis to AI-powered app development, smart chatbots, and rich content generation. This rapid tech evolution is set to transform how businesses operate, including customer relationship management.

According to Nucleus, organisations using AI are already seeing boosts in productivity, higher close rates, and larger average deal sizes. One way to stay ahead of the competition is to implement an AI-powered CRM.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of AI-driven CRM, break down the key features to look for, and recommend ten top AI CRM systems for both SMB and Enterprises.

What is AI CRM?

AI CRM is a type of customer relationship management software that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to analyse customer data and trends, make predictions, suggest the next best actions, and automate everyday CRM tasks.

In essence, it acts like a smart assistant that leverages your existing customer data to boost engagement, conversion, retention, and overall value.

Top Use Cases for CRM with AI

Here are a couple of key ways AI can enhance your CRM efforts:

Audience segmentation

Using techniques like lookalike modeling, AI identifies common traits among your best customers. This helps you target potential buyers who share similar characteristics and are more likely to engage with your offerings.

Customer journey mapping

AI is great at mapping and analysing customer journeys to pinpoint key touchpoints and opportunities for improvement. With these insights, businesses can create smoother, more impactful interactions at every stage of the customer lifecycle.

Marketing campaign design

AI can automate the creation of marketing campaigns by building marketing campaign workflows based on past successes, audience insights, established marketing playbooks, and current market trends.

An AI assistant can trigger automated interactions with potential leads at the right moments, ensuring timely and relevant communication that boosts engagement and campaign effectiveness.

Dynamic content generation

Generative AI helps companies produce highly personalised marketing content tailored to individual customer preferences. By analysing data like demographics and purchase history, AI creates custom emails, ads, and product recommendations designed just for each customer.

Lead scoring

AI-powered lead scoring digs into data sets – such as lead interactions and engagement patterns – to prioritise prospects with the highest potential to convert. This lets sales reps focus their efforts on the best opportunities, increasing the chances of closing deals.

Sales forecasting

AI improves sales forecasting by analysing a wide range of data, including market trends, customer behavior, and economic indicators, to predict future sales with high accuracy. Unlike traditional methods, AI models adapt to new data in real time, uncovering hidden patterns and offering actionable insights.

Presales research

AI supports presales efforts by researching publicly available information and crafting data-driven pitches. An AI sales assistant can then highlight the most compelling selling points, helping your sales teams to deliver relevant and persuasive presentations.

Next Best Action

AI-powered CRM systems study successful past deals to suggest the optimal next steps for encouraging purchases. These tailored recommendations help sales teams close deals more efficiently, ensuring no opportunity is missed.

Upselling and cross-selling

AI solutions can analyse purchase history, browsing behavior, and similar shopping carts to automatically suggest personalised upsell and cross-sell opportunities to your existing customers.

Customer service chatbots

AI-powered chatbots handle a high volume of customer inquiries by providing quick, accurate answers to routine questions. They can also take care of tasks like order tracking and appointment scheduling, offering round-the-clock customer support and freeing up service teams for more complex issues.

Case routing

AI helps optimise customer service by prioritising cases and routing them to the most suitable agents. This ensures issues are resolved promptly, boosting customer satisfaction.

Knowledge base assistance

AI enhances self-service capabilities by recommending relevant articles from your knowledge base to both customers and agents. It can also help generate new articles based on resolved cases, continuously enriching your resource library.

Sentiment analysis

AI tools assess the emotional tone in customer interactions, enabling businesses to tailor their responses empathetically. This fosters stronger relationships and helps improve customer retention.

Smart Insights

AI delivers real-time alerts on data trends – like peak conversion times – so you can adapt your strategies on the fly. This data-driven approach ensures you’re always making informed decisions for maximum results.

AI-assisted CRM development

AI supports CRM customisation and improvement by helping create new automated workflows and business apps. Paired with no-code tools, it streamlines CRM development, reducing the need for professional developers and speeding up your response to evolving business needs.

Benefits of AI CRM Software

Improved productivity

AI-powered CRM software processes and analyses customer data in real time, suggesting the next best actions for your team. Take lead scoring, for example. Without AI, sales teams would spend hours manually assessing each lead’s buying potential. With machine learning models trained on past sales data, AI quickly calculates the likelihood of purchase for each lead, flags high-potential prospects, and even automatically sends personalised emails at every stage of the sales funnel.

Moreover, AI-driven CRM can recommend sales materials, schedule a meeting, or compile proposal decks – all tasks that used to take hours or even days, but now can be completed in seconds. This level of efficiency boosts productivity and frees up your team to focus on closing deals.

Consistent customer engagement

For global companies, staying connected with customers around the clock can be a challenge due to different time zones. AI solves this by eliminating the need for staff to work odd hours or set up separate service teams in every region. With AI-powered chatbots equipped with NLP, businesses can promptly respond to customer inquiries 24/7.

This real-time support means customers no longer have to wait for business hours, preventing frustration and reducing the risk of lost leads.

More effective marketing campaigns

Modern AI-driven CRMs offer advanced segmentation and data analysis capabilities, along with Generative AI features, to help tailor marketing campaigns with remarkable precision.

By digging deep into customer data, businesses can gain valuable insights into individual preferences, behaviors, and purchasing patterns. This deeper understanding enables the creation of highly targeted marketing campaigns that truly resonate with specific customer segments, leading to better engagement and results.

Increased customer satisfaction and retention

Tailored experiences boost customer satisfaction, encouraging repeat business and improving retention rates.

Using predictive analytics, businesses can spot customers at-risk and proactively offer personalised solutions. AI-driven CRM systems flag those who need extra attention and suggest content and products that address their concerns.

This customised approach not only reduces churn but also builds long-lasting relationships that drive sustained business growth and success.

Increased revenue per customer

AI-powered personalised content and recommendations can significantly improve conversion rates and boost revenue per customer. By tailoring offerings to match individual preferences and needs, businesses can effectively increase sales and maximise the value of every customer interaction.

Data-driven decision making

Over time, as organisations continue to use AI in their CRM systems, they build up a wealth of historical data. This deep pool of information enhances the precision of insights and predictions, giving businesses a strategic edge.

Whether it’s spotting emerging trends, forecasting customer behavior, or fine-tune operational processes, AI-driven CRM helps companies navigate today’s complex business landscape with clarity and confidence.

Cost savings and efficient resource allocation

AI-powered CRM enables dynamic resource allocation by analysing real-time data. This means businesses can adjust their strategies to match changing market conditions or customer preferences. For instance, if a certain customer segment shows growing interest in a new feature, resources can be redirected to capitalise on that trend, leading to a better ROI.

Additionally, by highlighting inefficiencies and areas of overspending, AI-driven CRM allows businesses to optimise resource use and implement effective cost-saving measures.

How to Choose an AI-driven CRM?

Modern enterprise-level CRM systems often come with AI capabilities, but figuring out what to prioritise can be a challenge. This section offers some straightforward guidelines for selecting an AI CRM that suits your business.

Here are some key features to consider:

• Functionality scope: An enterprise CRM typically offers a range of out-of-the-box AI features, from prebuilt data analysis models and next-best-action recommendations to Generative AI, customer service chatbots, and sentiment analysis. However, more affordable solutions for small and mid-sized businesses might lack some of these advanced functionalities. Make sure you understand the key use cases your organisation values and choose a system with the right functionality scope.
• AI assistant: Look for a CRM that includes an AI assistant, which lets you interact using natural language – much like having a chat with ChatGPT. For example, a sales manager might ask the AI assistant to compile a quarterly report that emphasizes the best sales practices to compile a quarterly report on top sales practices and receive valuable insights instantly.

• AI and ML customisation: The ability to build your own ML models gives you flexibility and deeper insights from your CRM. Many organisations may not have the technical expertise or coding proficiency required to create these models from scratch, so having no-code tools is a big plus. These tools let you train ML models easily using drag-and-drop features, making it simpler to tailor the CRM to your business needs.

  Pro tip: 

  No-code functionality gets even better with AI-assisted development. When you're building custom business apps, AI can suggest the right components or even generate data fields and blocks based on your description. This approach boosts customisation and makes it a breeze to tailor your CRM system to your specific business needs.

  • Integration of closed AI models: When selecting an AI CRM, make sure it supports closed models if that’s what you need. Most systems work with open-source or commercially available models like Meta’s Llama 2, but if you want to connect a custom model trained on your own data set or provided by a partner, ensure your AI-powered CRM can handle it.
  • Scalability: It's vital to consider how scalable your CRM is. Your chosen system should be able to grow alongside your business, accommodating your expanding needs over time.
  • Robust governance tools: Security is a major concern with AI-driven software. Look for CRM systems that offer strong, user-friendly governance features. These should help you manage permissions, oversee no-code development, and control the deployment of custom AI tools. A comprehensive overview and complete control over your operations will help safeguard your AI CRM from errors and security threats.

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

  10 Best AI CRM Solutions

  1. Creatio

  Creatio is the top choice of a CRM with AI for companies that values customisation and scalability, thanks to its unique no-code composable architecture. It's an all-in-one AI-powered CRM solution that lets you automate workflows and CRM with total freedom.

  

  Build on Studio Creatio, this platform comes in three flavours – marketing, sales, and customer service – all designed to work seamlessly together. With its intuitive no-code UI builder, drag-and-drop business process designer, and built-in workflow automation tools, Creatio lets you craft applications to suit your industry’s needs.

   

  Creatio’s AI capabilities are built right into the platform and include three key patterns:

  • predictive AI for data analysis, intelligent scoring and predictions, customer segmentation, case routing, and more;
  • generative AI that creates fresh marketing content, sales emails, knowledge base articles, etc.
  • agentic AI which can make autonomous decisions and interact with users as a virtual assistant.

  Being an AI-native CRM, Creatio enables you to harness these powerful features across all its products, helping your business streamline operations and drive growth.

  

  Creatio's AI Command Centre gives you the tools to manage, track, and build your own AI Skills – essentially, autonomous workflows powered by AI. The platform provides a multitude of pre-built AI skills for sales, marketing, and customer service, but you can also create your own AI skills using no-code tools and conversational language.

  

  Creatio's turnkey capabilities are pretty impressive, offering powerful CRM and workflow automation tools across 20 industries. Its Marketplace features over 700 integrations, including one with ChatGPT that lets you generate AI content right inside the platform.

  

  Sales teams can use Creatio AI for smart customer scoring, interaction summaries, and real-time coaching tips. Marketers can craft optimal campaign flows and target the right audiences, while customer service agents can automate case analysis, deliver personalised responses, and provide 24/7 support with AI bots.

  

  Best of all, Creatio AI is available to all Creatio users regardless of their subscription plan, making an AI-powered CRM accessible to any organisation, no matter their budget or size.

  Key features:

  • An end-to-end platform covering marketing, sales, service, and workflow automation.
  • No-code tools for easy customisation and business app development – no tech expertise required
  • Creatio AI, which blends predictive, generative, and agentic AI with no-code functionality
  • AI sales automation, including lead scoring, sales forecasting, and next-best-action recommendations
  • AI chatbots for customer service
  • AI content generation for marketing, sales, and service
  • Comprehensive AI governance tools
  • Transparent pricing with no extra costs for AI features

  Limitations:

  • Some training is needed to fully utilise its capabilities

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.7
  • Capterra: 4.7
  • Gartner: 4.9

  Pricing:

  Creatio offers a flexible, composable pricing model so you can tailor your purchases to suit your needs. The core platform starts at $25, while its CRM products – Sales, Marketing, and Service – are individually priced at $15 per user monthly.

  Experience the future of CRM with Creatio—harness AI for personalized and predictive solutions

  Get a demo

  

  2. Hubspot CRM

  HubSpot is known for its customisable hubs, covering marketing, sales, services, operations, and content management, all of which can be combined into a unified solution tailored to your business needs.

  

  Alongside standard CRM features like tracking customer interactions, managing contacts, mapping next steps, and monitoring your sales pipeline, HubSpot CRM also automates repetitive tasks to boost team productivity. Its AI tools help team members draft outreach emails, and analyse CRM data in real time. Plus, customer support agents benefit from an AI-powered chatbot that quickly pulls up support resources.

  HubSpot is ideally suited for small businesses and those with straightforward CRM needs.

  Key features:

  • Breeze Copilot – Hubspot's AI assistant that delivers data-driven insights on demand
  • Agentic AI for automating workflows
  • Generative AI for crafting content
  • ChatSpot, HubSpot’s AI-powered chatbot that provides real-time customer insights

  Limitations:

  • Pricing is geared towards enterprise-level businesses
  • AI features come at an extra cost of $50 per month

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.6
  • Capterra: 4.7
  • Gartner: 4.9

  Pricing:

  Hubspot offers a free version with limited AI capabilities. For full AI features – including AI agents and content generation – premium plans start at a minimum of $1300 per month.

  3. Zoho CRM

  Zoho CRM is a fully integrated solution for managing customer relationships, covering sales, marketing, and customer service applications – plus tools for project collaboration, business intelligence (BI), and analytics functionalities.

  

  At the heart of Zoho CRM is Zia, an AI tool that boosts productivity alongside core functions like contact, deal, and lead management. Think of Zia as a personal assistant for every team member — it garthers customer data, drafts emails and documents, and analyses sales numbers.

  It also offers real-time support, makes product recommendations based on customer behavior, and can even integrate chatbots on e-commerce websites to answer customer queries.

  Overall, Zoho CRM is a great fit for small and mid-sized B2B and B2C organisations with moderate process management needs.

  Key features:

  • Zia's AI-driven pattern recognition offers smart automation suggestions
  • AI-powered research delivers key customer details like titles and contact info
  • AI-driven cross-selling and personalised product recommendations help boost revenue

  Limitations:

  • Integrations are somewhat limited compared to other vendors
  • AI features are only available in the higher-priced plans

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.1
  • Capterra: 4.3
  • Gartner: 4.4

  Pricing:

  Zoho AI CRM is offered in four plans: Standard at $20, Professional at $35, Enterprise at $50, and Ultimate at $65 per user monthly. Note that AI forecasting and analytics are exclusively available in the Enterprise and Ultimate plans.

  4. Freshworks

  Freshworks' CRM suite, comprising Freshmarketer, Freshsales, Freshdesk, and Freshchat, delivers a modern, unified customer experience. It covers tools for IT, marketing, customer service, and sales, making it a solid all-in-one solution for businesses.

  

  Key features include rule-based process guidance and next-best action recommendations that improve the user experience. Plus, Freddy, an AI bot, helps drive customer engagement by providing support and routing leads from web pages directly to your sales team.

  That said, the suite only supports a limited set of prepackaged AI scenarios and comes with basic reporting and dashboard capabilities.

  Freshworks is best suited for teams with straightforward needs who want an easy-to-deploy, user-friendly CRM solution.

  Key features:

  • Freddy AI Self-Service provides AI bots for efficient customer support
  • Freddy AI Copilot automates tasks through requests in conversational language, no coding required
  • Freddy AI Insights provides real-time analysis and visualisation of customer data

  Limitations:

  • Offers fewer integrations compared to some competitors
  • AI features come at an additional cost on top of the subscription fee

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.5
  • Capterra: 4.5
  • Gartner: 4.3

  Pricing:

  Freshworks CRM is available in three plans: Growth at $35 per user per month, Pro at $83 per user per month, and Enterprise at $131 per user per month. Freddy AI is an add-on, costing an extra $100 for every 1,000 sessions.

  5. Zendesk

  Zendesk specialises in CRM software for service businesses and sales teams, with a focus on the nuances of selling services. Their suite of tools makes it easy for your team to connect with customers and engage more effectively.

  

  Powered by Zendesk AI – built on OpenAI’s GPT model – this platform streamlines workflows and automates repetitive tasks, freeing up reps to focus on more meaningful interactions. It even offers handy suggestions to resolve customer issues on the fly.

  For an extra boost, you can integrate it with ChatGPT.

  Zendesk is best suited for mid-sized to larger companies that handle a high volume of customer interactions and prioritise service automation.

  Key features:

  • Advanced AI bots for customer service that handle complex queries and deliver personalised responses
  • AI-driven performance insights to help optimise your operations
  • ChatGPT integration through Zapier

  Limitations:

  • Separate systems for managing tickets and workflows can make the UX cumbersome
  • There are restrictions on the number of steps you can configure in chatbots

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.3
  • Capterra: 4.4
  • Gartner: 4.2

  Pricing:

  Zendesk CRM is priced between $25 and $149 per user per month. AI agents are available on the Suite Team plan, which starts at $69 per user per month and is included in higher-tier plans. For advanced AI features, you can add an extra $50 per user per month.

  6. Pipedrive

  Pipedrive is a cloud-based CRM platform that makes sales processes simpler, manages deals efficiently, and automates routine tasks. With its visual sales pipeline and AI-driven features, Pipedrive lets sales teams concentrate on closing deals and hitting targets by streamlining workflows and offering actionable insights.

  

  Businesses can easily tailor Pipedrive by adding custom fields, automating calculations, and adjusting pipelines to match their unique sales processes, ensuring the platform fits their needs perfectly.

  Key features:

  • AI Sales Assistant identifies trends and suggests high-potential deals and next steps
  • AI email generator creates personalised sales emails
  • AI insights and summaries provide a quick overview of deals, customers, and email performance

  Limitations:

  • Steep learning curve for new users
  • AI features for customer service are somewhat limited compared to other vendors

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.3
  • Capterra: 4.5
  • Gartner: 4.2

  Pricing:

  AI features are available in select plans, with pricing ranging from $69 to $129 per user per month.

  7. Nutshell

  Nutshell CRM offers AI-powered tools that boost your sales process and provide deeper insights into customer and lead relationships. Its AI capabilities are available on the Nutshell Business plan, focusing on streamlining workflows, improving team efficiency, and delivering actionable insights to drive sales success.

  

  Key features:

  • AI Timeline Summarisation summarises customer interaction histories for actionable insights
  • AI Zoom Transcription Summarisation instantly creates summaries from Zoom meeting transcripts
  • AI Voice-to-Text Notetaker transcribes voice input into notes, emails, and activity logs
  • AI Contact analysis and summarisation with Nutshell Intelligence

  Limitations:

  • Lacks more in-depth AI automation features

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.3
  • Capterra: 4.3
  • Gartner: 4.1

  Pricing:

  Nutshell CRM pricing ranges from $13 to $79 per user per month, with additional AI features available on plans starting at $59.

  8. ClickUp

  ClickUp is a versatile, all-in-one productivity platform that streamlines CRM processes, automates tasks, and tracks progress effortlessly. Sales and marketing teams can visualise pipelines using over 15 custom views and tap into real-time data through interactive dashboards.

  

  When paired with ClickUp Brain – a role-based AI tool tailored to your team’s needs – ClickUp becomes a powerful assistant for generating content, nurturing customer relationships, and boosting workflow efficiency.

  Key features:

  • Role-based AI assistance for sales, marketing, and service
  • Hundreds of prebuilt AI prompts for CRM automation
  • AI sales tools to build territory plans, craft prospecting emails, and create elevator pitches
  • AI Workflow tools for summarising customer interactions and flagging action items
  • Generative AI to help service agents write or edit customer responses

  Limitations:

  • Limited mobile functionality

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.3
  • Capterra: 4.7
  • Gartner: 4.2

  Pricing:

  Starts at $10 per user per month, with an additional $7 for AI features.

  9. Salesforce

  Salesforce is a robust AI-driven CRM platform built to automate sales processes and boost productivity.

  With its virtual assistant, Einstein, Salesforce delivers predictive insights, automates routine tasks, and streamlines workflows. Whether it’s lead generation to sales forecasting, Salesforce Sales Cloud helps businesses make the most of their sales funnel.

  

  Key features:

  • Agentforce, a customisable AI agent for customer support
  • Generative AI for personalised emails and sales call transcription
  • Conversation insights to spot customer objections and suggest next steps
  • AI Research Assistant provides detailed information on prospects and qualified leads
  • AI predictions prioritise deals and forecasts sales outcomes

  Limitations:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Extra charges for AI features
  • Customisation can be a bit cumbersome

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.4
  • Capterra: 4.4
  • Gartner: 4.5

  Pricing:

  Pricing starts at $25 per user per month, with additional AI tools costing around $75.

  See also: Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors 

  10. Scratchpad

  Scratchpad is an AI-powered Salesforce add-on designed to streamline pipeline management for frontline sales reps while improving data accuracy for sales and operations leaders.

  

  While it’s not a standalone CRM, Scratchpad integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, making sales processes more efficient and ensuring data stays up to date.

  Key features:

  • AI Sales Assistant for summaries and CRM data updates
  • Zero Boards – personalised to-do lists for sales reps and managers to track leads and pipeline opportunities
  • AI-powered sales coaching features

  Limitations:

  • Only compatible with Salesforce

  Customer rating:

  • G2: 4.8
  • Capterra: 4.9

  Pricing:

  AI features are included in the Standard plan ($24 per user per month) and Business ($49 per user per month) plans.

  2025 Trends in AI CRM

  AI is evolving fast, and its potential for enhancing customer relationships is enormous. Looking ahead to 2025, three key trends in AI for CRM will take centre stage.

  Adaptive AI: the next level of personalisation

  Adaptive AI takes CRM to new heights by adjusting dynamically to individual workflows, preferences, and communication styles. Acting as a true collaborator, it tailors insights, automates tasks, and evolves with user habits.

  In customer service, AI agents handle routine queries and adjust tone based on customer mood, ensuring empathetic interactions. In sales, adaptive AI helps qualify leads, draft proposals, and set priorities, so teams can focus on building strong relationships.

  In short, adaptive AI delivers personalised, intuitive experiences that transform the way businesses interact with technology.

  Reevaluating AI ROI: a focus on value

  With AI investments on the rise, businesses are starting to take a hard look at their return on investment. Although AI adoption has accelerated, only about 20% of companies reported significant earnings benefits in 2024.

  As a result, firms are moving from experimental pilots to results-driven implementations. Incidents like the CrowdStrike outage of 2024 have also underlined the need for secure, resilient AI systems.

  This recalibration means organisations will be under more pressure to justify their spend while ensuring robust operations, with a focus on delivering actionable results and sustainable growth.

  AI-powered RevOps: streamlining Revenue Operations

  Generative, predictive, and agentic AI are set to become indispensable tools for Revenue Operations teams, helping to optimise processes and foster better collaboration across departments. For example, AI might suggest that marketing provides sales with targeted content for high-value prospects, or recommend sharing customer insights to refine messaging.

  By tracking cross-team interactions and analysing customer communications, AI helps ensure all teams are aligned in their goals and activities, driving a unified approach to revenue generation.

  Enhance Your Productivity with AI CRM Software

  AI-driven CRM software uses artificial Intelligence and machine learning to revolutionise customer relationship management. It streamlines tasks, enhances interactions, and delivers benefits like boosted productivity, personalised engagement, and data-driven decision-making.

  The ideal AI CRM offers robust, ready-made tools alongside the flexibility to build custom models for data analysis and automation. Give CRM Creatio a go and see how AI-powered CRM can transform your business.