What’s the future of CRM software? Ready or not, changes are taking place in the CRM industry. Some of these are major, and others are minor. Which trends and technologies will be game changers for your business?
Today, we’ll take a look at the emerging CRM trends and technologies you’ll want to adopt in your business this year. This includes a higher demand for omnichannel customer experience, more AI-powered CRM solutions, and the increasing need for social CRM. Let’s dive into some of the best CRM features for 2025.
CRM Trend 1: AI-Powered CRMs for Smarter Sales Processes
Some people are pro-AI, while some oppose it. Those who oppose AI applications in sales processes think that artificial intelligence cannot deliver high-quality products like humans can; therefore, why bother adopting AI to their CRM ecosystem? In reality, the evidence we’re seeing shows the direct opposite.
We’re seeing AI rapidly becoming one of the best innovative CRM technologies. How do we know?
- The world’s data doubles every 12 hours. Not too long ago, it took years for that to happen.
- The number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years, thanks to Moore’s law.
- As a result, AI computational power doubles every 6 mo.
So what does this mean?
AI gets a new, more powerful brain every two years, and the data they have to learn from doubles every 12 hours. If you’re not using AI and AI-powered CRM to grow your business, you should be. AI continues to change things for the better. Here’s how it will improve your CRM campaigns:
- Smarter predictive analytics: As AI learning models improve, CRMs will be better at predicting customer behavior, managing workflows, and anticipating customer needs.
- Advanced customer personalization: CRM and sales software will better personalize content for prospects, customers, and vendors throughout their respective journeys. This will naturally improve the user and customer experience and the sales reps.
- Low-code/no-code platforms enable employees to create AI sales workflows, processes, and systems, improving collaboration. Your employees will be much more productive and efficient, doing more with much less.
- Tight personalization: Personalization is easy when you have advanced AI support. Your emails, texts, phone calls, and updates are closely personalized for each prospect. This is especially beneficial if you have a large number of customers/prospects to deal with.
- Better data-driven decision-making: Research shows that 73% of the data collected and stored by companies goes unused, and what is actually utilized is often misused. Smart AI can pull hidden insights and missed opportunities from your data.
- Augmented support options: As AI models improve, the line between chatbots, virtual assistants, and human agents will begin to blur. Yes, this sets customer expectations of 24/7 availability. However, it’s a promise, thanks to AI, companies everywhere will be able to deliver on. With smarter AI CRM, you’ll get a more profitable product, providing all the benefits of CRM systems discussed above.
The smarter AI becomes, the more capable we will be. Smarter AI means better AI assistants. You’ll find that your CRM helps you close more deals and win more customers.
Take Pipeline CRM’s AI email writing assistant, for instance. This AI-powered email solution is backed by OpenAI technologies, allowing you to write or edit emails by clicking prompt buttons. Make it more personalized by asking the AI to ‘rephrase’ the messaging or make it ‘more engaging.’ no more switching between ChatGPT and your email CRM solution to craft highly successful email campaigns.
CRM Trend 2: Omnichannel Customer Experience CRM
What is an omnichannel customer experience (CX)?
Omnichannel CX is a seamless experience across multiple communication channels (e.g., email, phone, text, social, etc.). In layman’s terms, when you speak with a customer, it’s one conversation on any channel at any time.
How does an omnichannel CRM work?
Picture this: You email one of your clients with your proposal to upgrade their service. They text you to discuss the proposal and set up a time to discuss it via Zoom. After your meeting, you pull up the phone logs and support tickets with this client.
You see they’re worried about on-time delivery.
Your point-of-contact desperately needs you to work with third-party vendors, and they need final deliverables within the delivery window you’ve promised. Heads will roll if your point-of-contact fails to deliver.
Your client signs on the dotted line.
Project management updates appear in your CRM so you can shepherd your client’s project through the pipeline. Thanks to your efforts, the project is delivered three weeks early. Your point-of-contact is happy.
Here’s one of the major benefits of having an omnichannel CRM: the customer experience is seamless. Think of it as an ongoing conversation that picks up where you left off, regardless of the channel, vs. lots of fragmented conversations across multiple channels (e.g., social, web, text, phone, email, etc.).
In fact, according to Invespcro, companies with omnichannel customer engagement strategies retain, on average, 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement.
CRM Trend 3: Social Media to Social CRM
People are spending more and more time on social media. According to Statista, people are spending approximately 1.5 to 3.5 hours per day on social media.
This means that if you’re looking for customers, social media is where you need to be. However, here’s the problem: most companies are still taking the industrial-age approach, tackling these social networks one at a time. Social CRM aims to change all of that.
With social CRM, companies can pull communications/data from their social media profiles, incorporating that with their CRM and application data. Combining web, social, CRM and sales software, as well as application data gives companies a clear view of the customer journey.
Why does that matter? With social CRM, companies…
- Gain a deeper understanding of customers
- Can better manage prospect/customer inquiries
- Earn a direct line to their audience
- Can provide customers with faster, more direct responses to their support requests
- Have better segmentation for their customer and audience lists
- Offer more personalized communication
- Can monitor customer reviews, testimonials, and feedback
- Make data-driven decisions with more customer data
Social CRM will continue to become more prominent, especially as AI grows and evolves. As this trend evolves, customer expectations will continue to change.
CRM Trend 4: CRMs with Rich Integration Options
CRM integration is the foundation of everything we’ve discussed here. There are three types of integrations for CRM:
- Cloud-based integrations are app-to-app integrations. You connect your favorite apps to your CRM and sales software. This can include various tools like Quickbooks, Mailchimp, Asana, and Zapier—all of which can be seamlessly integrated if you use Pipeline CRM.
- IoT integrations are app-to-device integrations. You connect your CRM and sales software to your IoT devices, such as inventory management systems, smart devices, fleet management systems, and supply chain management.
- API integrations are code-to-code integrations. Your organization creates custom code designed to interact with, for example, Pipeline CRM’s Application Programming Interface, exchanging data and performing actions.
Items one and three are straightforward, but what about item two? Here’s a short list of IoT integration examples you can use based on your business niche:
- Retail/ecommerce: CRM + smart selves = tracking in-store inventory and prompting sales reps to follow up with customers.
- Manufacturing: CRM + IoT = monitoring inventory levels, automated restocking, tracking machine performance, predictive maintenance, etc.
- Real estate: CRM + smart home systems & security devices = automated property management, tenant/buyer interactions with home and automation systems.
We’re beginning to see an influx of integration-ready IoT devices. As more of these devices hit the market, we’ll see a race towards integration. CRM and IoT can be the future of CRM software and the start of a technology arms race.
CRM Trend 5: Low to No-code CRM Software
There’s a trend towards self-service CRM. Large, complex platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics are declining. As the market rapidly changes, more companies will begin to rely on self-service and low-code options.
But why? Aren’t companies interested in ownership? Or control over “mission critical” tools like their CRM?
In the past, the answer to that question would have been “yes.” Today, circumstances have changed; more companies are opting out of the traditional on-premise, big-ticket model and simplifying their stack. They’re moving towards simple, cloud-based SaaS tools.
Here are some reasons that drove the switch:
- Citizen developers: More companies are relying on “citizen developers.” These are non-technical users who can manage CRM applications and integrations. They use these low/no-code platforms to create workflows, set up automation, simplify processes, and create dashboards. Thanks to low/no-code platforms, these citizen developers can increasingly manage their company’s tech stack. Companies can save a significant amount of money.
- Native integrations with other tools: In the good ‘ol days, companies tried to be all things to all people. Feature lists were big, bloated, and in demand. When you purchased software, you owned it. It was a major investment. You needed consultants to provide your team with comprehensive training and support. Those days are gone. Today, most cloud-based tools are tightly integrated with the tool stack that their customers already use. Integration platforms like Zapier and Integrately connect thousands of apps in seconds. Expect these trends to accelerate.
- Data analysis and visualization: Today, the emphasis is focused on speed of decision-making. Real-time data analysis and data visualization mean companies can move towards revenue/profit in a much shorter period of time.
- Fast MVP and rapid iteration: Low/no-code platforms enable companies to create Minimum Viable Products quickly, test, interact, and grow. Is the product a failure? Shut it down quickly and try again with another MVP.
With low/no-code CRMs, your sales team can be up and running in minutes. Compare that with Microsoft Dynamics 365 where implementation takes 3-5 months for a straightforward setup. Running a mid-sized company with custom requirements? You’re looking at a 6 to 12+ month deployment with extensive custom work.
The Best CRM Features for 2025 Circle Back to Connecting with Customers
While the CRM trends of 2025 seem to head in various directions, they were still created to address one foundational aspect of sales: building trustworthy relationships with customers.
- Omnichannel experiences keep you connected to customers
- Product integrations keep your customers connected to the tools and resources they already use
- Low/no-code options give companies a faster path to revenue
- Social CRM keeps a direct line to your customers open
Each of these emerging trends and technologies connects your team to customers, products, revenue, or access. From AI-driven personalization to advanced integration capabilities and more, the nature of CRM is changing. It’s all about streamlining workflows, enhancing customer experiences, and driving data-driven decision-making. Look for ways to maintain connection, and you’ll find you’re ahead of emerging trends and technologies.
Get a sales CRM that supports you in closing deals more productively and effectively, like Pipeline CRM. We offer seamless integration with many popular sales and marketing tools, such as QuickBooks, CallRail, and Mailchimp. Our powerful email solutions enable you to easily create engaging emails (thanks to our AI email writing assistant) and send them out automatically using our email drip campaign feature.
Interested in giving Pipeline CRM a try? Sign up here for a 14-day free trial.
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