Everything You Need To Know About AI Copilots for CRM

The artificial intelligence (AI) market is projected to grow from $5.8 billion in 2020 to $32.6 billion by 2030, and the technology is already developing at a rapid pace. According to research from Slack, 86% of IT executives believe generative AI will have a major impact on their business, and 80% of those using it say it’s helping them to be more productive.

In just over a year, the conversation around AI has changed from generative AI and chatbots to AI copilots. We recently launched Einstein Copilot to help customers better understand their customer relationships using their own trusted data. But what is an AI copilot? It’s an intelligent assistant that connects to your workplace tools and can help you do just about every aspect of your job better and unlock higher margins. They can do the work of thousands of individual applications based on one simple prompt.

AI copilots use Conversational AI, so you can chat with them in everyday English (or any other language — they can translate in real time). They’re more advanced than chatbots and virtual agents. They’re intelligent systems that predict your needs, proactively suggest next steps, and provide personalised assistance with whatever you’re working on.

AI copilots use machine learning to become more intelligent over time, which means they adapt the support they provide in response to user behaviour and needs. AI copilots can help you:

• Streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks
• Free your team to be more creative or focus on strategic initiatives
• Enhance decision-making with AI-generated insights and next-best actions
• Reduce operational costs and optimise resources
• Boost customer and employee satisfaction
• Improve your competitive edge

What to look for in an AI copilot

There are several AI copilots available on the market, as well as options to build your own. Some vendors have rebranded their AI assistants as copilots as they’ve added more functionality, so it’s worth doing some research and finding the best fit for your needs.

Application-specific copilots

These are optimised for different teams and embedded in your applications. They’re a cost-effective option for companies who only want to use an AI copilot for one specific team. According to a report we conducted with Forrester Consulting, more than 50% of the global business leaders we surveyed use AI within sales and marketing applications, and plan to explore the service next. 

Here are some examples of what you can do with application-specific copilots:

• Sales copilots: These will help your reps to be more productive and to focus on the right leads. They can suggest text to personalise interactions and contracts. Of the companies that use AI for sales, 84% report that it has a major or moderate impact on helping reps make the best use of their time.
• Service copilots: A service copilot can suggest answers to customer queries that your agents can check and send, summarise case histories automatically, and suggest resolutions based on how previous cases were solved. Using AI to optimise service is the most common use case among organisations we surveyed.
• Security copilots: If you want to boost security, a copilot can provide more advanced protection against attacks by detecting suspicious behaviour patterns, analysing datasets, and triggering remediation actions in real time.

AI copilots for CRM

CRM is emerging as an important foundation for AI-driven transformation, and AI copilots for CRM have a broader use than those embedded in applications. Einstein Copilot, for example, works across each Einstein 1 platform application to drive enterprise-wide productivity. It generates trusted and accurate recommendations to help staff carry out tasks related to their role — whether they’re on the commerce team and want to build a digital storefront that converts, or developers on the IT team writing custom code.

Einstein Copilot Studio is one of the solutions available to customise your own AI copilot for sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT. Customisable AI copilot optimised for CRM is great for industry-specific tasks.

For example, an education administrator can personalise the student experience and map their skills and interests to specific courses. An automotive service provider can use vehicle data to predict which spare parts to order or proactively schedule services. Or a financial advisor can use AI to analyse client spending and savings and generate a personalised plan for them to check and send out.

Whichever option best fits your needs, always check out the security and governance the vendor has built into the tool — 79% of IT leaders are concerned about the security risks that come with advanced AI. Einstein Copilot and Einstein Copilot Studio include Einstein Trust Layer, our secure AI architecture to meet enterprise safety standards. It masks personally identifiable information and scores outputs for toxicity. And unlike other AI copilots, Einstein Copilot maintains strict data governance without the need for expensive AI model training.

How do AI copilots work?

AI copilots rely on AI algorithms applied in natural language processing, contextual understanding, and Machine Learning to predict user needs and provide personalised, relevant prompts at the right time. AI copilots for specific teams or CRM platforms are integrated with a vast range of systems to create a single, connected hub for task management.

In simple terms, they learn about your business based on the data they’ve been trained on, apply reasoning to understand the context of what’s happening, and suggest actions. Users can provide feedback on how helpful the response was, and combined with behavioural data, the AI uses Machine Learning to become smarter over time.

It’s really important to make sure you have clean, high-quality data before starting any project involving CRM and AI — 92% of business leaders believe a strong data strategy is critical to success with AI, but only 34% actually have a formal strategy in place. Don’t risk rushing ahead before you’re ready. AI can’t deliver meaningful insights or actions if it’s not trained on good data.

How AI copilots for CRM pave the way to a brighter future

Enterprise-level AI copilots are a big investment, but they can be a game changer. With a super-efficient, focused, and happy workforce, you can fuel growth, streamline operations, delight customers, and innovate faster.

As technology evolves and your implementation matures, AI copilots are only going to get better, smarter, and more powerful. With 78% of IT leaders saying the role of AI is well-defined in their workplace, copilots are set to become the next ‘must-have’ intelligent technology for leading organisations.