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10 CRM Trends on the Rise in 2025

10 CRM Trends on the Rise in 2025

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are some of the most valuable tools a business can have. They allow you to gather, organize, and analyze data about your customers to help you better hone your marketing and sales efforts, enabling you to generate more revenue overall.

Like all marketing technology, CRMs are constantly evolving, both in terms of the tools themselves and in terms of how businesses use them. That’s why it’s a good idea to stay on top of all the latest CRM trends so you can be sure to keep up with your competitors.

In 2025, there are several customer relationship management trends to know about. On this page, we’ll be looking at 10 of those trends:

CRM Trends

  1. Artificial intelligence (AI) features
  2. Decreased reliance on AI and bots
  3. More built-in features
  4. CRM à la carte
  5. Mobile CRM apps
  6. Low-code and no-code CRMs
  7. Social CRMs
  8. Increased emphasis on data security
  9. Integration with more applications
  10. CRM unification

Keep reading to find out more, and then subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — to get more info about marketing tips and trends delivered right to your inbox!

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1. Artificial intelligence (AI) features

It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has been getting introduced into practically everything, and CRMs are certainly no exception. More and more CRM platforms now feature various AI tools and use machine learning to drive a lot of automated processes.

Expert insights from nutshell logo transparent

A smiling person with short blond hair wearing glasses and a floral shirt against a yellow background.
Kevin Randolph Partnerships Manager at Nutshell

“AI is more prevalent than ever, and businesses are getting smart about using it. CRMs are now baking AI right into various features. It’s especially useful for quickly pulling insights from large amounts of information such as timelines of past interactions with customers.”

Just a few of the CRM tasks AI can handle include:

  • Transcribing phone calls
  • Analyzing data
  • Writing emails and other marketing materials
  • Migrating and organizing datasets

Expect to see CRM companies emphasizing the role of AI more and more in their tools.

2. Decreased reliance on AI and bots

Even as CRM companies are doubling down on AI, the businesses using those CRMs are backing off. That’s not to say that they aren’t still using AI for certain tasks, because they certainly are. However, one thing that’s become clear in the past few years is that customers want to interact with people, not bots.

Screenshot 2025 01 08 122859

That means that when customers discover that they’re reading AI-written emails or social media posts, or when they find themselves speaking to an AI chatbot rather than a human representative, they react very negatively. In short, using AI too much can actually hurt businesses.

Realizing this, many businesses are growing more careful with how much they rely on the AI capabilities of their CRMs.

3. More built-in features

Another of the biggest trends for CRM platforms right now is an increase in built-in features. There was a time when CRMs pretty much just gathered and organized data. But more and more, these platforms have evolved into all-in-one centers for analyzing your customer data and reaching out to those customers.

That CRM trend is continuing into the years ahead, with many CRM platforms adding even more features right into the tool. Some of the features being prioritized right now include:

  • Email marketing
  • Meeting scheduling
  • Price quoting
  • And more!

That makes CRM platforms bigger and more valuable than ever.

4. CRM à la carte

Traditionally, CRMs worked like many types of software — a given platform would offer a few different plans, with each plan adding more features as the price went up. But one of the latest CRM trends sees companies gravitating more toward an à la carte system, where a business can pick the specific set of CRM features they want, and then pay only for those features.

While it’s not yet the case that CRM companies are switching to this pricing model en masse, it’s definitely true that many CRM clients are demonstrating a preference for the handful of companies that are using the à la carte model.

5. Mobile CRM apps

Many businesses gather customer information when they’re out in the field, which makes it convenient if they have a way to immediately plug that info into their CRM. That’s why more and more CRMs have started offering mobile apps, which can help you stay more organized.

Screenshot 20170126 134633

That’s something a few platforms have done for years, but it’s only now rising up to the same level of popularity as the other customer relationship management trends on this list. Needless to say, the ability to access your CRM through your phone — meaning you can do it no matter where you are — is a huge benefit.

6. Low-code and no-code CRMs

For years, many CRMs were enormously complicated to use. Many of them required a certain level of coding knowledge, which meant that businesses had to hire experts to help them use the platforms. Fortunately, that circumstance is on its way out.

One of the latest trends for CRM companies is low-code and no-code CRMs. Those terms refer to CRMs that are largely self-service, meaning you don’t have to have a ton of coding or technical knowledge to use them.

Expert insights from nutshell logo transparent

A smiling person with short blond hair wearing glasses and a floral shirt against a yellow background.
Kevin Randolph Partnerships Manager at Nutshell

“Almost every business can benefit from a CRM, so you shouldn’t need to know how to code to use one. Many CRM customers are turning to options that are easy to use and customize without coding knowledge or the hiring of outside experts. CRMs also increasingly offer other no-code tools like email marketing software and landing page builders.”

Whatever you need to do with your CRM, you can make it happen on your own, with no outside expertise required.

7. Social CRMs

CRMs have been known to offer email marketing capabilities for a while. But now many of them are starting to offer help with social media, too. Social media is one of the best places to gather customer data, a fact that more and more businesses are realizing.

One of the leading CRM trends right now is that many businesses are integrating their social media accounts directly into their CRMs to help them track customer engagement and learn more about their audience. This trend works well with social listening, letting you pull insights about what customers are saying straight into your CRM. 

8. Increased emphasis on data security

Data security has always been important, but with CRMs growing bigger and more central to business operations, many companies are placing a bigger emphasis on it. After all, your CRM holds a lot of very sensitive customer and company data, and the last thing you want is for a hostile entity to get ahold of it.

To guard against cyberattacks, you’ll need to not only be in compliance with all relevant laws (like GDPR and CCPA), but also choose a CRM that comes with a lot of heavy security protocols. Fortunately, CRM companies are feeling the pressure and making a bigger effort to implement those protocols.

9. Integration with more applications

A CRM is designed to function as a central location for all your customer data, but that data comes from a variety of different sources. That’s why you have to integrate your CRM with a lot of other platforms. And while that’s always been the case, businesses are focusing on it extra heavily heading into 2025.

Expert insights from nutshell logo transparent

A smiling person with short blond hair wearing glasses and a floral shirt against a yellow background.
Kevin Randolph Partnerships Manager at Nutshell

“Most businesses today use numerous software tools, and it’s increasingly important that their tools work together. Because of this, CRMs are placing more of an emphasis on integrations. Some also help customers manage their integrations, like Nutshell does with our App Marketplace.”

These integrations aren’t just about gathering data, either. You can also integrate your CRM with ad platforms and actually export data to help inform your ad campaigns. Plus, with the number of automation features now present in CRMs, you can also run some of your campaigns (like email marketing) straight from the CRM itself.

10. CRM unification

Historically, it’s been common for businesses — especially large enterprises — to actually use multiple CRMs. That’s because different teams would operate independently, so the marketing team would use one CRM while the sales team would use another, and so on.

However, companies are now realizing how ineffective that is — not only does it lead to them spending more money for no reason, but it also causes data siloing, where different teams are operating based on different datasets. It makes way more sense for all the teams at your company to be on the same page.

The easiest way to accomplish that is to simply use one CRM across your entire business. It costs less, and it ensures that all your different teams are unified. That’s why using a single CRM is one of the biggest customer relationship management trends at the moment.

Get help driving results for your CRM with WebFX and Nutshell

Now that you know all of these current trends for CRM platforms, you can start refining the way you use your own CRM. You may even find it beneficial to switch to a different CRM that aligns with the trends on this list. But with CRMs being as big as they are, it can be a lot to manage. Thankfully, help is available.

By partnering with a professional marketing agency like WebFX, you’ll get backup from a specialized team of marketing experts who know how to use a CRM to drive more revenue for your company. And in the case of WebFX, you’ll even have the option of accessing our own CRM, Nutshell.

Interested in trying out Nutshell or partnering with WebFX for our digital marketing services? Just give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!

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