{"slug": "7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows", "title": "7 CRM trends for 2026: AI brings decisive action to customer workflows", "summary": "Agentic AI is transforming CRM from a passive system of record into a real-time, autonomous system of action in 2026, according to analysts at The Futurum Group, Deloitte Digital, Forrester, IDC, and Constellation Research. Forrester data shows around 70% of companies already use AI in their CRM systems, and enterprises are moving from proof-of-concept to scale and execution across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. The shift is driving changes in workforce strategies, with organizations prioritizing broad experience over deep expertise as AI commoditizes specialized knowledge.", "body_md": "Agentic AI has advanced from the promises-and-pilots phase of 2025 to reality and rollouts in 2026. In the process, agentic AI is transforming virtually every aspect of [customer relationship management (CRM)](https://www.cio.com/article/272365/what-is-crm-software-for-managing-customer-data.html), the platform that manages sales, marketing, and customer service.\n\n“Last year, everybody was dipping their toes into the water,” says [Keith Kirkpatrick](https://futurumgroup.com/keith-kirkpatrick/), research director at The Futurum Group. This year, agentic AI has built momentum from the boardroom down, with companies recognizing that having an AI strategy is imperative. “They feel like if they don’t embrace it now, their competitors will.”\n\n[Harry Datwani](https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/people/profiles.gx-harry-datwani+f20748dc.html), a principal at Deloitte Digital, adds that enterprise CRM customers have transitioned from “proof of concept” to “scale and execution.”\n\n“Across sales, service, marketing, even in the commerce space, enterprises are really using AI and agentic,” he says.\n\n“CRM in 2026 is undergoing a structural shift, not just an incremental evolution,” says Forrester analyst [Kate Leggett](https://www.forrester.com/analyst-bio/kate-leggett/BIO2629), noting that AI is becoming a core part of CRM infrastructure, not just a feature or an add-on. According to Forrester data, around 70% of companies are already using AI in their CRM systems, she says.\n\nHere are the hot AI-driven trends in CRM this year.\n\nCRM platforms have traditionally served as passive, static systems of record. Now, agentic AI is transforming CRM into a powerful, real-time solution that can act autonomously.\n\n“Organizations that rethink CRM as a real-time, AI-powered system of action — and embrace agentic AI to handle complex, unpredictable work — are better positioned to deliver exceptional customer experiences,” says IDC analyst [Neil Ward-Dutton](https://my.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=PRF005191). “This approach not only enhances satisfaction and loyalty but also drives operational efficiency and business agility.”\n\nForrester’s Leggett says that AI-powered CRM platforms have advanced from simple data capture to real-time decision-making and execution. Standard capabilities include next-best action recommendations, call summaries, automated updates, generated emails, knowledge creation, predictive forecasting, and deal scoring.\n\nShe adds that AI agents can now execute workflows, such as routing cases, sending follow-ups, and updating records (with human oversight). They can also handle end-to-end service and sales tasks autonomously, including case resolutions and sales development activities.\n\nAI use in CRM systems is also impacting workforce strategies.\n\n“We used to hire for deep expertise,” says Constellation Research analyst [Liz Miller](https://www.constellationr.com/user/liz-miller). “AI has commoditized expertise because I can take all that data from my CRM and train my AI models to go deep, to know everything about any product I’ve ever sold, from what has worked, what hasn’t, every price, every sale.”\n\nNow, instead of hiring candidates with deep expertise, organizations are looking for candidates who can go wide. “I can train a model to have deep expertise. What I can’t train for is experience, because experience is what happens when a person has gone broad across a lot of different scenarios and faced complexity across that broad scenario,” says Miller.\n\nFor example, AI systems can automate many aspects of marketing, Miller notes, but there’s no substitute for creativity: people who can interrogate the data and come up with innovative marketing campaigns that connect with customers.\n\n[Terence Chesire](https://www.servicenow.com/workflow/author/terence-chesire.html), group vice president of ServiceNow CRM and industry workflows, says that organizations are using agentic AI to free up team members from repetitive, lower-value activities. Those employees have now moved to higher-level roles “where they’re working on transformational deals rather than just building a spreadsheet.”\n\n“That’s what we’re seeing as super-exciting as organizations not just free up people, but the speed and effort reduction and the friction reduction in what they can do,” he adds.\n\nAI’s promise to deliver actionable customer and marketing intelligence has placed even greater emphasis on the importance on sound data management practices for CRM.\n\n“The light bulb has flashed on very brightly for our clients,” says Deloitte’s Datwani. “Everyone is talking about AI agents, but your ability to really extract value is inextricably linked to the quality of your data and the ability to make that data accessible. What we’re finding is that despite large investments over time our clients still have fragmented data. And so, they are data rich and insight poor.”\n\nThe good news, says Datwani, is that AI agents themselves can [help clean up and organize data](https://www.cio.com/article/2140371/gen-ai-can-be-the-answer-to-your-data-problems-but-not-all-of-them.html). And vendors such as [Snowflake and Databricks](https://www.cio.com/article/4030966/snowflake-and-databricks-vie-for-the-heart-of-enterprise-ai.html), along with the traditional CRM powerhouses, are offering powerful data analytics solutions. “Everyone is battling for that data layer,” Datwani says.\n\nForrester’s Leggett adds that CRM platforms are converging with [customer data platforms (CDPs)](https://www.cio.com/article/308839/top-8-customer-data-platforms.html), real-time event streams, and external data sources to create connected customer data networks. These real-time, connected data models can help organizations deliver hyper-personalization at scale.\n\nThe shift from license- or subscription-based pricing to an [outcome or consumption pricing model](https://www.cio.com/article/3624540/how-will-ai-agents-be-priced-cios-need-to-pay-attention.html) has the potential to help CIOs tie their CRM costs to specific business metrics, such as the number of customer service calls resolved per hour. But it has also introduced a [new level of complexity](https://www.cio.com/article/4184688/it-hurtles-toward-the-great-enterprise-pricing-reset.html) when it comes to budgeting for CRM costs.\n\nFor example, Chesire says ServiceNow’s CRM pricing plan starts with a baseline subscription model, and on top of that, customers get a certain number of AI tokens per user and can buy additional tokens as AI usage ramps up.\n\nMeanwhile, Salesforce has [rolled out pay-per-resolution pricing](https://www.cio.com/article/4189183/salesforce-unveils-ai-help-agent-with-pay-per-resolution-pricing.html) with its recently unveiled AI Help Agent and last month [acquired usage-based billing specialist m3ter](https://www.cio.com/article/4183667/salesforce-to-acquire-usage-based-billing-specialist-m3ter.html). Oracle is also [piloting outcome-based AI pricing](https://www.cio.com/article/4184271/oracle-wades-into-outcome-based-ai-billing-waters.html).\n\nAll these approaches undercut the predictability of the subscription model, which will complicate CIOs’ cost calculus, Deloitte’s Datwani says. “Now, as you start to think about consumption and tokens, costs might look different. As folks are opening up the architecture with things like headless CRM, what will the cost model look like for API calls or MCP server calls? So, there’s many more variables,” he adds.\n\nTo act autonomously, agents need to access multiple data sets and software platforms seamlessly. As a result, the proliferation of agents, some embedded within specific vendor platforms and some created in-house, is going to require an orchestration layer, Futurum’s Kirkpatrick says.\n\nHe points out that organizations need to monitor and manage agents, enforcing the same type of policy-based access control that exists for people. Organizations also need to set limits on what domains a specific agent can get into, what types of data they can access, what lines can’t they cross.\n\nKirkpatrick predicts that a [new class of orchestration tools](https://www.cio.com/article/4138739/21-agent-orchestration-tools-for-managing-your-ai-fleet.html) will emerge, although it’s not clear whether that orchestration layer will be provided by the leading CRM vendors, hyperscalers, or third parties.\n\nDatwani agrees. “The orchestration layer is an interesting area, where the traditional vendors are in on it, the hyperscalers are also offering it, and there are third parties. It’s my belief that there’s not going to be a clear winner.”\n\nEnterprise users who have traditionally had to manually wrangle with CRM systems are likely to find the ability to employ voice commands using a natural language interface to be a game changer. For starters, a salesperson can say, “I have a meeting today with Customer X. Help me prepare.” The agent will collect relevant data, ingest it, and provide a summary with recommendations.\n\nServiceNow’s Chesire says voice-enabled CRM systems have an “almost magical” ability to record, transcribe, and understand the content of a call between a salesperson and a customer or potential customer. The system can then “build a quote” based on that conversation.\n\nOn the customer service side of the equation, AI-driven voice technology enables customers to speak to an AI agent, describe the problem using natural language, and get a response. The agent has the capability to, for example, solve a credit card dispute, order a replacement product, send out a service rep, or do whatever is needed to resolve the issue, says Chesire.\n\nBeyond that, agentic technology is capable of understanding the underlying business process flaws that led to the product snafu, and make recommendations for ways to fix whatever led to the issue in the first place, he adds.\n\nWith the emergence of outcome-based pricing, organizations are taking a fresh look at how they measure the benefits of CRM systems. That conversation is leading to an even more important analysis of underlying business processes. Or, as Constellation’s Miller says, “The old adage of applying new technology to old processes only gets you more expensive old processes.”\n\n“When we survey customers, we hear time and time again that the reason why they want to apply AI into their organizations is to foster exponential opportunity and exponential growth,” she says. “How do we get there with CRM has started to become the new conversation.”\n\nAccording to Miller, AI systems breach the walls of siloed data and can take a fresh look at legacy workflows. They also don’t get sucked into turf wars between marketing and sales teams. As a result, they often recommend new actions that can lead to better processes. “I think it’s starting to happen. You’re starting to see applications where AI is beginning to accelerate decision-making and decision velocity,” she says.\n\n“The next phase of maturity is going to be, how do we start to spread AI across our platforms so that we are seeing that holistic end-to-end relationship that we have always wanted to optimize. How do we thread that across platforms and across solutions. We’re starting to see organizations on the leading edge really start to pull those strategies together,” says Miller.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows", "canonical_source": "https://www.cio.com/article/1255983/customer-relationship-management-crm-trends.html", "published_at": "2026-07-23 10:01:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 10:07:08.599773+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["The Futurum Group", "Deloitte Digital", "Forrester", "IDC", "Constellation Research", "ServiceNow", "Keith Kirkpatrick", "Kate Leggett"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/7-crm-trends-for-2026-ai-brings-decisive-action-to-customer-workflows.jsonld"}}