Looking ahead at trends in CRM in 2018

One of the 2017 trends in CRM was to figure out how to provide users with that next-best lead, up-sell opportunity or marketing prospect. Those insights were achievable due to the implementation of AI, which analysts expect will continue into other aspects of sales, marketing and service. "You're starting to see more logical use cases across the CRM spectrum with AI," said Michael Fauscette, principal analyst at G2 Crowd. "You'll start seeing more intelligent assistants to take things off your plate, like scheduling meetings or finding the right PowerPoint -- those types of things will keep getting better." AI assistants have already found their way into the consumer space, but analysts see business users also benefitting from an algorithmic assistant automating the monotonous parts of the sales or marketing cycle.