Impact of AI in CRM in 2024: A Comprehensive Analysis
This research studies the impact of AI-powered technologies on CRM systems, providing a real-life example of such impact, which led to surprisingly positive results. Read on to find out more.
Backstory: The Genesis of AI in Sales and Marketing
The proper integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into sales and marketing began in the early 21st century, when companies started to leverage data analytics for targeted advertising and customer segmentation. This evolution was driven by the increasing volume of data and the need for more efficient and effective ways to process and utilize this information to drive sales and improve customer service.
The process arguably culminated in the early 2020s, with the release of ChatGPT and various AI-based image generation software (most notably, DALL-E and Midjourney). This took AI to a whole new level, allowing for its multiple use in creating authentic-looking, original images and texts for marketing purposes.
Examples of AI-Powered Technologies Used in CRM
Several AI-powered technologies have become integral to modern CRM systems, revolutionizing how businesses manage customer relationships, including:
- Chatbots and virtual assistants (for example, Sephora's chatbot offers personalized beauty advice, enhancing the shopping experience)
- Predictive analytics (Netflix's recommendation engine is a prime example, as it helped to increase user engagement significantly)
- Automated email personalization
- Sales forecasting
Statistics and Data Proving the Efficacy of AI in Boosting Sales
A survey by McKinsey & Company revealed that companies using AI in their sales processes experienced a 50% increase in leads and appointments, a 60-70% reduction in call time, and a 40-60% cost reduction.
Additionally, a study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasted that AI-driven CRM activities could increase global business revenues by $1.1 trillion by the end of 2024.
As AI technologies continue to evolve, their role in sales and marketing is expected to grow, offering even greater opportunities for businesses to enhance their customer relationships and drive sales.
Integration of AI into Bitrix24 CRM
Bitrix24 development team started working on the idea of implementing AI technologies in their CRM back in 2022.
There was a total of 3 original ideas, all of which were implemented in the product in November 2023:
- Using AI to write texts (product descriptions, special offer emails, etc.)
- Using AI to generate ideas for sales and marketing
- Using AI to transcribe phone calls and autocomplete fields in deals/leads
Right after that, the company saw its clients taking an active interest in the new AI-powered functionality (which may also have been bolstered by the massive promotional campaign that advertised these new features).
How Bitrix24 users reacted to AI: initial stats and impressions
Here are the stats collected after a full month of the company's clients' using the new AI tools.
Table 1. AI tools usage stats in Bitrix24, January 2024
* Here, “week” equals 5 working days (MON-FRI)
As evident from the table above, the level of engagement of the Bitrix24 clients with the new AI tools was quite high.
AI-generated texts and ideas are universal in their nature and can be used by pretty much any department and team (sales, development, accounting, marketing, etc.).
Financial and operational impact of AI on Bitrix24 clients
Right after the initial user engagement numbers came in, the company started to search for a way to measure the actual financial and operational impact of AI on its clients.
Asking these people to share private information was not an option, so the company had to use a clever workaround: they decided to take a look at several metrics that could indicate the positive impact of the newly added AI-powered features on the clients' businesses. These metrics were:
- Percentage of successfully closed deals
- Percentage of companies that issue invoices
- Percentage of companies using speech recognition inside CRM for phone calls
- Percentage of companies whose employees published posts
The first three are strictly business metrics that are directly tied with a company's operations and can be used as a more or less fair indicator of their business activity. The final metric has more to do with a company's internal activity, showing how involved its employees are.
Having decided on the metrics, the Bitrix24 team then figured out what periods should be compared to present a clear picture of the actual impact. They were as follows:
- Jan and Feb 2023 to Jan and Feb 2024 (to exclude the seasonal factor and measure the clear impact of AI)
- Dec 2023 and Jan 2024 (after AI) to Oct and Nov 2023 (prior to AI) — to measure user engagement in AI-powered tools
- Dec 2023 to Jan 2024 to Feb 2024 (this one is specifically for metric #3, to see if there was a growing number of posts due to a company's employees' getting more accustomed to using AI)
Using the comparison criteria described above, the company took 2,000 randomly selected Bitrix24 accounts across various regions, gathered the data, and put the results into these charts below.
AI in Bitrix24: percentage of successfully closed deals
In this chart, you can see the percentage of closed deals jumping from
24% in December 2023 (before AI) to
73% in January 2024 (after AI) and then leveling out at
57% in February.
Preliminary conclusion: the introduction of AI did have a positive impact on the business activity of the Bitrix24 users, allowing them to increase both the percentage and the absolute number of successfully closed deals (MoM).
AI in Bitrix24: number of issued invoices
In this chart, you can see the share of companies that started issuing more invoices after AI was introduced growing from 44% in Dec 2023 to 70% in Jan 2024.
AI in Bitrix24: companies using speech recognition inside CRM
What we see here is the share of companies using speech recognition inside CRM. Before we introduced AI in November 2023, all you could do is transcribe a phone call audio recording into text using a standard, non-AI tool.
Once AI was introduced into Bitrix24, we see a sharp increase in the usage of this tool – possibly, due to the fact that CoPilot in CRM allows you not only to transcribe a phone call into text in one click, but also use this information to autocomplete fields in the respective CRM lead or deal. Preliminary conclusion: the introduction of AI led to a 146% increase in the use of speech recognition.
AI in Bitrix24: number of published posts in the feed
As evident from the chart above, there is a sharp increase in the share of companies whose employees published posts in January 2024 compared to the previous month.
Preliminary conclusion: the introduction of AI led to a spike in the number of published posts.
Conclusion
The use of AI in CRM represents a transformative development in the realm of sales and marketing. As demonstrated in this research, AI is having a positive and measurable impact on businesses, allowing them to:
- Close more deals faster
- Save time and money on copywriting
- Automate certain manual processes (e.g., entering client data)
The adoption of AI in CRM is set to become the norm, with businesses that embrace this technology poised to gain a competitive edge in the ever-evolving marketplace.
