CRM Playaz Panelists Predict AI Will Be Tablestakes in CRM in 2024

Just slightly more than a year after the release of ChatGPT, no one can deny the impact that generative artificial intelligence has had on the CRM industry. In fact, during last week’s installment of the “CRM Playaz” webcast, executives from 10 of the leading CRM vendors said that AI is not just table stakes right now but going forward it will be absolutely necessary for vendors and end users to be competitive.

The 10-member panel discussions, spread out over two days (Thursday, Dec. 7, and Friday, Dec. 8), by and large agreed that AI will be embedded into all tasks and processes in the coming year. AI, they said, would enable companies to break down silos, consolidate data, predict outcomes, and increase productivity among sales, marketing, and customer service teams.

The panels included the following:

• Adam Justis, director of product marketing for Adobe Experience Cloud.
• Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager of Fusion Cloud CX at Oracle.
• Seth Patton, general manager of customer and employee experience solutions at Microsoft.
• John Taschek, senior vice president of strategy at Salesforce.
• Terence Chesire, vice president of product management for customer and industry workflows at ServiceNow.
• Jason Miller, vice president of revenue operations and sales enablement at Creatio.
• Tara DeZao, product marketing director for adtech and martech at Pegasystems.
• Clint Oram, co-founder and chief strategy officer of SugarCRM.
• Vijay Sundaram, chief strategy officer at Zoho.
• Shampa Bagchi, founder and CEO of ConvergeHub.

But for all the promise of AI in CRM, there is still a lot of trepidation that will need to be overcome, panelists concluded. Doing this will require shifts in data quality, company cultures, and even perceptions of the technology.

And though there was some disagreement about the timeframe for when AI in CRM would go mainstream, the sense was that it is inevitable.

In two or three years, the CRM industry will not even be talking about AI anymore, not because it is disappointing but because it will be foundational to everything companies do, Oram maintained.

For a more detailed view of the commentary, click here.

And for the full program, click here for the Thursday (12/7) session; and here for the Friday (12/8) session.