What Does AI Really Bring to a CRM?

What Works Well

Categorizing Incoming Emails. To which customer, to which case, how urgent. Errors are cheap to correct.

Summarizing Notes. After a long conversation, three sentences with the essentials and the next step.

Response Drafts. Based on the history – one person approves.

Searching in Own Documents. "What did we offer this customer in 2023?"

What Rarely Delivers on Its Promises

Closing Forecasts. A model needs many examples to learn. With two hundred deals a year, the data volume is too small – the prediction is hardly better than the weighted pipeline that does not require AI.

Automatic Evaluation of Contacts without verification. See lead scoring: The order may be determined by a system, but a rejection should not.

The Basic Rule

AI suggests, humans decide. A CRM that autonomously classifies customers, rejects them, or sets prices quickly violates Article 22 of the GDPR – and is also difficult to correct if it is wrong.

Data Protection

If customer data is transferred to a cloud model, this constitutes processing on behalf of a third party and requires a contract. For particularly sensitive data, an in-house model should be considered.

Honest Advice

Start with email categorization. It occurs most frequently, saves measurable time, and an error can be corrected in two seconds.