Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has gained popularity for generating content, automating tasks, and generating data insights quickly in business systems like customer relationship management (CRM) software. The best AI CRM employs advanced analytic algorithms, intuitive chatbots, easy-to-configure workflows, and customizable reporting dashboards. After carefully reviewing multiple software providers that incorporate AI, we found the top 10 AI CRM software solutions:
Featured Partners
Fit Small Business is able to offer our services for free because some vendors may pay us for web traffic or other sales opportunities. Our mission is to help technology buyers make better purchasing decisions, so we provide you with information for all vendors — even those that don’t pay us.
1
monday CRM
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Any Company Size
Any Company Size
Features
Calendar, Collaboration Tools, Contact Management, and more
2
Pipedrive CRM
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Any Company Size
Any Company Size
Features
Calendar, Collaboration Tools, Contact Management, and more
3
HubSpot CRM
Employees per Company Size
Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+)
Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees)
Micro, Small, Medium, Large
Best AI CRM Software Compared
Why You Can Trust Fit Small Business
To ensure that we provide readers with the best answers, the Fit Small Business editorial process adheres to strict standards, including rigorous research, assessment, and scoring of providers.In this review, I examined the essential aspects of AI CRM software for small businesses, including their general and niche features, ease of use, pricing, and range of support services. My full methodology also involved firsthand experience testing software intuitiveness and reviewing real product users. Furthermore, I leverage the following work experiences when carrying out software reviews:
Sales & Customer Service Expert at Fit Small Business
HubSpot CRM: Best Free All-in-one AI CRM
Pros
- Free plan includes an AI content assistant, a chatbot builder, and Breeze Copilot command tools
- Unified platform for sales, marketing, and service management
- The interface is highly intuitive for navigation and easy to operate the AI tools.
Cons
- Huge price jump from Starter to Professional tier
- AI for data duplicate management, prospecting, and blog content is not available until the Professional plan
- Free plan does not include sales pipeline automation
Our Expert HubSpot CRM Review
My Expert Opinion
HubSpot CRM is one of my personal favorites because it impressively balances simplicity and ease of use with its robust set of features. It offers a generous free plan that includes tools for managing sales, marketing, service, content, operations, and e-commerce processes.
This platform’s high-value AI tools include a content assistant for writing emails and blogs and a chatbot builder for website engagement. Its Breeze Copilot makes everyday tasks easier with intuitive prompts for managing contacts, marketing, and customer service. As a small business owner, HubSpot CRM would be a smart and scalable choice for me to stay competitive without sacrificing usability or functionality.
- AI content assistant: Helps generate blog ideas, email drafts, and outlines directly in the free plan
- AI chatbot builder: Lets users create automated chat flows to qualify leads and support customers on their website
- Breeze Copilot Tools: Offers an AI-driven conversational interface to manage contacts, streamline tasks, and automate responses
HubSpot CRM Breeze Copilot for tasks. (Source: HubSpot)
Pipedrive: Best Smart App Recommendations
Pros
- AI-powered recommendations for the best apps to solve business problems
- AI Sales Assistant provides user recommendations to support sales outreach and customer service performance
- Sales automation for lead, deal, and proposal management
Cons
- No free plan, just a 14-day free trial
- Lacks AI capabilities for content creation
- Project management tools are locked in with the Power plan or require an add-on fee
Our Expert Pipedrive Review
My Expert Opinion
Pipedrive is my go-to option when it comes to simplicity, but more than that, it’s an AI CRM that’s focused on practical and actionable support. Its AI engine delivers smart app recommendations tailored to your specific business needs. This makes it easier for sales teams to discover integrations to enhance workflows without the guesswork. This CRM with AI Sales Assistant acts like a digital mentor, offering helpful tips, deal updates, and automation suggestions across modules.
- AI Sales Assistant: Provides timely suggestions, tips, and notifications across your sales pipeline
- Smart app recommendations: Uses AI to recommend third-party apps from Pipedrive’s Marketplace based on your CRM usage patterns
- Deal monitoring insights: Tracks deal activity and suggests automation opportunities to speed up the sales cycle
Pipedrive smart app recommendations. (Source: Pipedrive)
Bitrix24: Best AI Call Processing Tools
Pros
- AI-powered call processing features include call transcription, call summaries, and autocompleting CRM fields from call entries
- CoPilot AI feature for chat, feed, CRM, task, email, and website text assistance is available across all plans
- Free tools include automatic customer journey tracking and a sales intelligence website widget.
Cons
- Steep learning curve due to rich features and complex interface
- Lacks AI scoring capabilities
- The CoPilot AI for generating images is only activated starting from the Professional plan
Our Expert Bitrix24 Review
My Expert Opinion
Bitrix24 is my top recommendation for small businesses handling high-volume calls and wanting to save time on manual data entry. Its CoPilot AI tool automatically transcribes call recordings, summarizes conversations, and fills in CRM fields with key details, such as payment info or delivery addresses. This way, reps don’t have to sift through recordings or input data themselves. What I find most impressive is that its free plan offers AI assistance in writing text, assessing ideas, and formulating thoughts for chat, email, feed, and CRM.
- AI call transcription: Generates ideas, writes texts, checks grammar, and automatically translates chats, feeds, and tasks
- CRM field autocompletion: Pulls key info like payments or delivery details from calls and inserts them into CRM records
- Free AI CoPilot Assistant: Supports call summaries and data automation
Bitrix24 CoPilot in CRM for autocompleting fields, call summaries, and call transcriptions (Source: Bitrix24)
Zoho CRM: Broadest AI Use Cases
Pros
- Free and affordable plans ranging from $14 to $52 per user monthly
- Powerful Zia AI tool for gaining insights, managing data, and scoring leads
- Chat and call Zia options let you ask the AI questions or use voice commands for CRM tasks
Cons
- Zia AI tool is not available until the Enterprise plan
- Poor product usability ratings because of its complex user interface
- Free plan does not include phone features
Our Expert Zoho CRM Review
My Expert Opinion
I recommend Zoho CRM for small businesses looking for a versatile AI-driven CRM software that goes beyond basic automation. Zia, its AI assistant, supports a wide range of tasks, which include predicting lead conversions, detecting sales anomalies, enriching CRM data, flagging competitor mentions, and analyzing email intent. I especially like how I can chat with Zia to get answers or perform actions directly within the system.
- Zia AI Assistant: Offers predictions, anomaly detection, workflow suggestions, and performance insights
- Data enrichment: Zia enhances contact records using public web data and CRM behavior
- Email sentiment and intent analysis: Analyzes customer emails to detect tone and buying signals
Zoho CRM’s ZIA detects sales anomalies (Source: Zoho)
Freshdesk: Best for Customer Service Teams
Pros
- AI ticketing with suggested responses, ticket categorization, and automated workflows
- Multichannel support via email, phone, chat, social media, website, and WhatsApp
- Fast setup with a clean and simple user interface
Cons
- Lacks sales-specific features, like native deal and pipeline management
- Freddy AI tools are only available in Pro and Enterprise plans
- Freddy Copilot tool for smart automations and insights entails an add-on fee
Our Expert Freshdesk Review
My Expert Opinion
Freshdesk is my top pick for small business support teams that need a powerful, AI-driven customer service platform with native CRM integration. Its Freddy AI assistant automates ticket prioritization, generates intelligent auto-responses, and delivers insights through advanced analytics. These features help small teams respond faster, manage higher volumes, and keep service quality high without burning out. Plus, I find it very easy to set up and use because of its clean, simple, and highly intuitive user interface.
- Freddy AI ticket triage: Prioritizes incoming tickets based on urgency and context
- Automated responses: Generates AI replies to common queries to reduce agent workload
- Customer analytics: Offers insights on support performance and customer satisfaction trends.
Freshdesk’s Freddy AI Agent drafting a suggested response to a customer ticket. (Source: Freshdesk)
Capsule CRM: Best for Autogenerated Emails
Pros
- Free plan includes an AI content assistant to help craft and optimize sales emails
- Strong opportunity management features
- Little to no learning curve due to clean and intuitive interface
Cons
- Users are restricted to 10 AI content “assists” on the Free and Professional plans
- AI capabilities are limited to helping with email content
- Bare-bones free plan only allows 250 contacts
My Expert Opinion
Capsule CRM is a great fit for small businesses that want an easy-to-use CRM with built-in smart email automation. Even on the free plan, you can access its AI content assistant, which quickly generates professional email messages by guiding reps through prompts for tone, length, and focus. I find it convenient since it works right from the email composer in each contact record. Moreover, this platform has strong usability ratings and efficient deal-tracking features.
- AI content assistant: Helps users compose, refine, and format emails using tone, length, and topic prompts. It also allows users to directly embed AI-generated content into email drafts
- Sales pipeline management: Provides a clean, visual pipeline to track deals and opportunities through customizable sales stages
- Project management: Allows users to manage projects with task lists, deadlines, and milestones to keep post-sale work organized
Capsule CRM AI content assistant for writing emails. (Source: Capsule CRM)
ClickUp: Best for Content Management
Pros
- AI tools are available on all free plans as an add-on ($7 per user, monthly)
- A complete work management system that you can tailor to any business function and incorporate AI for content management
- Over 15 project view options, including Gantt charts and Mind Maps
Cons
- Not a traditional CRM system; users must create their boards from scratch or through premade templates
- Tough to navigate with many software modules and tools
- AI capabilities require an additional fee and are limited to content creation, editing, and summarizing
Our Expert ClickUp Review
My Expert Opinion
ClickUp is the best AI-powered CRM alternative for small businesses focused on content-heavy workflows. While I don’t like its steep learning curve, it shines when it comes to AI-driven content creation. Its AI tools help teams generate, outline, edit, and summarize written content like reports, emails, and articles. Sales teams can also use AI for lead scoring, deal tracking, and follow-ups. Plus, you can customize the system into a CRM to manage sales, marketing, and service pipelines.
- AI Writing Tools: Automates content generation, outlining, and summarizing for blogs, reports, and emails
- AI for sales ops: Helps with lead scoring, follow-ups, and task automation in sales pipelines
- Custom CRM setup: Allows users to tailor ClickUp for CRM use with flexible workspaces
ClickUp AI replying to task comments. (Source: ClickUp)
monday CRM: Best for Building No-code Workflows
Pros
- Leverages low-code design for custom automations
- Built-in AI email generation assistant
- Offers sales ops management features for rep capacity planning, onboarding, and sales material storage
Cons
- No free plan, just a 14-day free trial; requires a minimum of three users
- Lead management tools and AI email generator are not available until the Standard plan
- Lead scoring and team goal tracking require the custom-priced Enterprise plan
Our Expert monday CRM Review
My Expert Opinion
monday CRM offers a flexible system that allows you to build custom workflows without writing a single line of code. Its AI tools seamlessly support workflow creation and content generation, helping users write, polish, and template emails from within the platform. What I like about this platform is its intuitive, drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for me to automate tasks. These include updating records, assigning leads, or sending emails based on deal triggers.
*Requires a minimum of three users.
- Drag-and-drop automation builder: Lets users set up custom workflows based on triggers like deal status changes
- AI email assistant: Helps write, polish, and template sales emails with AI suggestions
- Workflow recommendations: Suggests and sets up process automations for lead assignments and task routing
monday CRM AI automation blocks (Source: monday.com)
Apollo.io: Best for Outbound Sales & Prospecting
Pros
- Offers smart email generation and sequence automation
- Massive business-to-business (B2B) database with over 260 million contacts for outbound campaigns
- Pipeline integration support
Cons
- Not a full CRM; lacks native sales pipeline and account management features
- AI scoring and advanced automations are locked in with higher tiers
- User-reported issues with outbound email deliverability
My Expert Opinion
Apollo.io is hands down the best AI CRM in this list for small businesses focused on outbound sales and prospecting. Its AI-powered tools take the guesswork out of lead generation by delivering intelligent lead suggestions, auto-enriching contact data, and providing detailed sales intelligence. I love how these features are all included in a single platform, making it incredibly easy for small sales teams to find, research, and engage with the right prospects faster.
- AI-powered lead recommendations: Suggests ideal prospects using behavior and firmographic data
- Data enrichment tools: Auto-fills contact and company profiles to streamline outreach
- Sales intelligence engine: Delivers insights for smarter outreach timing and messaging
Apollo.io CRM contact data enrichment. (Source: Apollo.io)
Accelo: Best for Service-based Businesses
Pros
- Uses AI and historical data to forecast revenue, resource needs, and timelines
- All-in-one sales, project, billing, and CRM system for agencies and consultants
- Highly customizable workflows for roles, retention, triggers, and client portals
Cons
- Lacks built-in chatbot and sentiment analysis features
- More focused on project and client work management rather than traditional prospecting and nurturing
- No transparent pricing; can be expensive for small teams
My Expert Opinion
If you’re a small service-based business owner, like a consultancy, agency, or legal firm, then Accelo is the right AI CRM for you. It leverages AI for time tracking, project forecasting, and operational insights, helping you automatically log work hours, monitor project progress, and predict resource needs. While Accelo’s high customizability translates to a steep learning curve, this platform makes it easy for you to run complex service workflows and manage client relationships at the same time.
- AI time tracking: Automatically logs billable hours based on activity
- Project forecasting tools: Predict project delivery timelines and resource needs using past performance data
- Service performance insights: Helps teams understand workload, efficiency, and client profitability
Accelo billable hours tracking on the utilization dashboard. (Source: Accelo)
Methodology: How I Evaluated the Best AI CRM
I evaluated the best CRM for AI software programs by carefully reviewing each platform’s AI features and broad use cases. For instance, AI tools with only content writing capabilities would not score as high as those that can also make sales predictions, automate workflows, and complete sales tasks for users. Additionally, I wanted to see the providers offer AI and CRM capabilities for an affordable price and ensure the tools are easy to use.
The tabs below provide insight into my comprehensive evaluation process of the best CRMs with AI features:
20%
Advanced / Niche Features
25% of Overall Score
Since it is assumed each of these CRMs has AI capabilities, I first looked at general features crucial to CRM software regardless of specialty or use case. Customizable modules, a mobile app, and extensive third-party integrations, for example, are vital attributes of any CRM AI software. I also wanted to see robust analytics and reporting features that may or may not be powered by an AI tool.
20% of Overall Score
Niche and advanced features specifically looked at AI capabilities and how they can be applied to a business operation. Use cases like AI-assisted lead scoring, forecasting, content management, chatbot building, and task assignment are all great examples of how a CRM could deploy this technology.
15% of Overall Score
I assessed the cost of accessing the CRM’s AI features. Additionally, I determined whether the CRM providers offer free-plan options or foundational tools, and scalable paid plans. Lastly, I evaluated each CRM provider’s billing flexibility and whether users could save by subscribing to an annual plan.
15% of Overall Score
When I assessed the best AI CRMs, I used this metric to describe how users can easily navigate and use the features of a solution. I evaluated the ease of use of the providers in terms of built-in templates, automation, onboarding, ease of setup, and scalability.
15% of Overall Score
Extensive customer support allows users to get the best possible experience while operating their CRM tools. I evaluated this in terms of channel availability through phone, email, or live chat, and the hours of operation during which you could reach a service member. I also assessed whether the provider offers self-service options like a CRM knowledge base, user forums, and product guides.
10% of Overall Score
I had firsthand experience using these AI CRMs. I also evaluated what actual users are saying based on verified online reviews. These criteria allowed me to see how subscribers felt in terms of value for the price paid and how useful the AI features are to their business. This also allowed me to understand the solution’s ease of use in terms of navigation, operation, and CRM system setup.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The CRM with the best AI will ultimately depend on what you’re looking for. HubSpot CRM’s Breeze Copilot covers many aspects of business operations, including sales, marketing, customer service, content management, and commerce. Pipedrive’s Sales Assistant is best for sales-focused teams looking to automate their lead generation processes. If you’re looking to leverage AI to automate customer service, Zendesk is an excellent choice for you.
Yes. Most CRM systems already have built-in AI models, while some need integration with AI software to access their AI functionalities. With AI in CRMs, sales teams gain a significant advantage in automating tasks, generating content, understanding customer responses, and extracting valuable data insights. Many CRM providers, like HubSpot CRM and Bitrix24, have built-in AI assistants that don’t need third-party app integrations.
The next five years will see 80% of businesses starting to leverage AI in their existing CRM. There are several trends and technological advances that are likely to influence the future of AI and CRM’s evolving partnership. These include hyper-personalization of business communication using AI algorithms, AI-powered customer journey mapping, AI-powered predictive maintenance for products and services, and AI-driven customer service innovation.
Bottom Line
The best AI CRM software allows users to complete mundane tasks and gain intelligence on their data without any manual requirements. I consider HubSpot CRM the best AI CRM system because of its robust AI capabilities combined with its free tools for sales, marketing, and customer service automation. However, other products could be better fits depending on your use case requirements, budget, and user experience standards.