The other day, a customer referred to us as the ZEPIC CRM. And another customer mention that we are core to their “CRM strategy.” We’re not so surprised with the CRM moniker being a marketing automation platform ourselves, but what we’re surprised with, and happily so, is the speed at which we are becoming a centerpiece application, like the CRM, in a B2C tech stack.

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ZEPIC — Redefining the modern CRM experience

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the definition of CRM has expanded far beyond sales force automation. Modern businesses need solutions that combine data intelligence, automation, and multi-channel engagement capabilities—and this is just scratching the surface. 

ZEPIC today has mainly five core capabilities working for our customers- 1) a fantastic Customer 360 view, (2) Email marketing automation, (3) WhatsApp marketing automation, (4) A Team inbox that consolidates WhatsApp customer conversations, (5) Zenie AI and Workflow automation that ties all the above together into timely, contextual customer experience journeys.

So, how would these get us that ticket to be referred to as the ‘CRM’? Simply put, rapidly evolving AI advancements and shifting business needs. 

A number of paradigm-shifting experiences have happened over the last few years, kickstarted by the pandemic, followed by high inflation and the widespread adoption of generative AI. (I still can’t get over the fact that it took just 5 days for ChatGPT to get to the first 1 million users!) Businesses were forced to rethink their operations fundamentally. The combination of rapid digital transformation and even faster AI adoption is creating entirely new expectations for 'CRM software' —and ZEPIC is benefiting from this shift. I jot down a few thoughts that may resonate with you:

Speed and agility‍

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“2 days to build that <xyz> app but so many days to build a workflow into our CRM?”

In one of my first projects using AI, we used a minimal combination of tools and generative AI to send out a personalized email sequence from scratch to 5000 prospects. We went live in under 4 hours with a tool total spend, including all the lists and AI needed, of less than $400. Every manager has likely experienced similar independence, smarts, and speed of execution of AI, which means serious questions will be asked if one’s CRM tool takes more than a day to turn around any workflow addition, change, or integration. 

Legacy CRM software that cannot make changes fast enough for teams needing these changes are going to be less used or be replaced with smaller tools that are fit for a particular purpose. We had a choice to employ a number of tools for outbound prospecting, but we chose to do most of it in-house using AI to cut down time and costs and extend flexibility and independence as we scaled the project. This combination of flexibility, independence and value is what we also want ZEPIC to extend. 

The evolution of modern user experience

New emergent ‘prompt’ behaviors forcing a rebuild of User Interfaces

Many of us are doing research at work and in our personal lives on ChatGPT prompt windows and not on search engines. We recently had a customer put in a (full-on!) prompt to create a whole tool in ZEPIC’s workflow generator. Clearly, the expectations are high not just for CRM software as a whole but even for the AI capability within the software. 

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As software makers, we can build ahead for these expectations or make way for another tool that can, and there will always come a tool that can. 

AI-powered intelligence

“Continuously learning & autonomous AI, are our CRM systems learning too?”

Now, we have AI that acts as an extension of ourselves—intelligent, continuously learning, and autonomous. Whether the industry calls these AI agents or copilots will be irrelevant one day as every piece of technology will have AI baked in to get the ‘work to be done’ X times faster. One of my favorite screens in ZEPIC is the Segment creation screen. It continuously learns from the data in the platform to present ‘smart cohorts’ that always sparks the next best campaign idea.

When AI is implemented well in CRM software, teams get to unlock the magnificent ability to process large amounts of data to provide real-time feedback to personalize customer experiences.

A new definition of CRM software (or is it going back to its roots?)

The history of CRM systems began four decades ago when tools were built for ‘contact management’ or ‘database marketing’. With the advancements in AI, are the CTOs now more likely to build what they need rather than shop around for 600 pound gorilla CRM systems? When Klarna famously (or fame-seeking?) got rid of their Salesforce CRM, you’d wonder if they’re now going back to the roots of ‘CRM’ being an inhouse, central store of customer data from which one builds out further or integrate with other smaller tools that do specific things fast, allowing them better, faster ROI & agility. Time will tell but we’re all definitely fans of “faster and better” technology in whatever shape it comes.

TL;DR

AI is not just upgrading CRM software—it’s redefining it. The expectations for agility, personalization, and intelligence have never been higher, and legacy systems are struggling to keep up. Tools like ZEPIC represent a new breed of solutions: lightweight, fast, and AI-first, capable of seamlessly adapting to the demands of modern businesses. As the landscape continues to evolve, the question isn't whether your CRM can do it all, but whether it can do it better, faster, and smarter.

Today, ZEPIC is a lightweight, fast-moving tool filling gaps in an existing B2C CRM ecosystem, a marketer’s CRM, if I may? We’re democratizing for the marketer, data and engagement workflows, with AI natively infused across the platform. We’re excited to be part of this next-generation transformation, helping businesses meet these challenges head-on and unlocking the true potential of their customer relationships.