CRM Industry News & Updates [Jan 2025]

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) plays a crucial role in modern-day business success. It evolves rapidly with new technologies, making it quite a challenge to keep up with the latest developments in the CRM space. That’s where we come in.

This story is your go-to resource for all the latest news, updates, and trends in the CRM industry. Today, I discussed Pipedrive’s new AI features, Zoom integration on Monday, and more. I also discussed the 2024 State of CRM Report from SugarCRM. 

Note: I will actively update this story with all the latest CRM news and events. Stay tuned!

Pipedrive’s New AI Features

Since AI is the name of the game, Pipedrive joined the bandwagon and introduced five new AI features for its CRM. These include an AI Sales Assistant, an AI email generator, an AI email summarization tool, Smart integration recommendations, and an AI-powered marketplace search.

The AI Sales Assistant, AI email generator, and AI email summarization tool are exclusive to users on the Professional plan and above. On the other hand, Smart integration recommendations and the AI-powered marketplace search are available to all Pipedrive users. 

Zoom integration on Monday

Monday has integrated Zoom on its platform. It works with Emails & Activities to centralize information in a client’s timeline. It pulls information like the name of scheduled and past Zoom meetings that you hosted with the client, the names of all meeting participants, the time and length of the meeting when enabled, a link to the meeting recording when enabled, and the meeting transcript. 

The integration is available on all Monday CRM Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans. Not only that, if you’re using Zoom’s AI Companion to summarize your meetings, your summaries will also sync with your Emails & Activities timeline. 

Build custom AI solutions on Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM Enterprise users can now create custom AI solutions using Catalyst’s QuickML directly from Zoho CRM. The company already has Zia, an AI-powered assistant for predictions and recommendations to improve customer relationship management. However, some customers had issues with advanced requirements or maintaining control over their data for custom AI tasks. Businesses often leveraged Catalyst’s QuickML to address this, which was adequate but cumbersome. That’s why now, by integrating with Catalyst, QuickML capabilities can be accessed directly within your CRM environment. 

Salesforce Launches Agentforce for Retail

Salesforce recently launched two new AI-powered innovations for retailers, ‘Agentforce for Retail’ and ‘Retail Cloud with Modern POS.’ These creations help store associates, customer service representatives, and digital merchants boost productivity and sales with more personalized shopping experiences. 

The Agentforce for Retail includes a new library of pre-built agent skills, which makes it easier for retailers to build AI agents that automate time-consuming tasks, such as order management and appointment scheduling, and deploy rapid shopper personalization at scale. 

Salesforce’s new Retail Cloud with Modern POS is a cloud-based system that combines online and offline shopping data on a single platform. It gives associates a single entry point to serve shoppers better and faster with mobile POS, clienteling, endless aisle, mixed cart and omnichannel fulfillment, inventory management, and more.

SugarCRM’s 2024 State of CRM Report

The 2024 State of CRM Report is a study that gathered insights from over 800 sales, marketing, service, and IT leaders worldwide. The report reveals that CRM has come a long way in the past five years. It’s no longer just a tool for contact management but a robust platform that helps teams work together to provide a personalized experience to customers.

It states that 60% of respondents believe CRM is more important for achieving sales and marketing goals than five years ago. It also illuminates some challenges organizations face, such as technology integration, platform feature limitations, internal knowledge, etc.  

Less Annoying CRM’s Automatic Email Logging and New Form Tool

The Less Annoying CRM already had an email logging tool, but it was manual and created a hassle for many users. That’s why the company has introduced a new automatic email logging feature. With this new feature, any emails to and from contacts already in the CRM will be logged automatically. However, an initial setup process will be required. 

The company also introduced a new form tool to automatically enter information into the CRM. Now, you can create a form in the CRM and have your clients, potential customers, or anyone else fill it out. Simply send them the link to the form and have them fill out the necessary fields. Once they do, they will be added to the CRM as a new contact, along with a form in the attached items section.

Strategic Segmentation on Bitrix24 CRM

Bitrix24 introduced its Strategic Segmentation feature that helps businesses understand and cater to their customer base more effectively. It allows companies to divide their customers into distinct groups based on their interests, product preferences, or other relevant factors. This enables businesses to tailor their marketing efforts and provide personalized attention to each group. 

Salesmate’s Duplicate Management, Enhanced Webforms, and More

There are three main updates in the Salesmate platform: Duplicate Management, Enhanced Webforms, and Snippets. With Duplicate Management, you can control how duplicates are handled in your data, set up matching rules, and block or warn users. Enhanced Webforms allow you to capture more information from leads and customers, including custom fields and file uploads, which can be used in Smart Flows to automate tasks. Snippets enable you to save frequently used text, such as quick replies or product details, and use them across emails, chats, or text messages, promoting consistency in communication. 

That’s all for now, but keep following Geekflare for the latest news and updates on CRM and other business software. From feature rollouts to expert insights, we’ve got you covered. Don’t forget to bookmark this page, as I will update it regularly with new developments to help you stay ahead in the CRM space. 

See you soon!