The real promise of AI isn’t automation for its own sake. It’s intelligent orchestration. CRM systems of the past were designed to log activities and manage pipelines. AI-native systems are built to anticipate needs, make recommendations, and take action.

“The future of CRM is a unified, AI-powered revenue platform that connects every step of the customer journey, from lead to quote to order to cash,” said Emily Rust, CRM and industry expert services practice leader at ServiceNow.

Instead of merely recording customer data, AI-powered CRM learns from that data—and responds. AI agents triage support cases, optimize workflows, and ensure that no opportunity or issue falls through the cracks. At ServiceNow, for example, AI agents currently automate 37% of customer support case workflows—freeing human agents to focus on more complex, higher-value interactions.

This is what agentic AI looks like in action: software that powers the customer journey, rather than just supporting it. And organizations with the highest levels of AI maturity are best positioned to reap the benefits. These AI Pacesetters, as identified in our Enterprise AI Maturity Index research, are more likely to have deployed agentic AI, and they’re already seeing measurable ROI.