The AI native architecture requirement going forward
According to Forrester research, generative AI will transform CRM by helping cross-functional teams personalize content, answer questions more quickly, summarize conversations and customer interactions and build analyses and reporting way quicker than before.
You then have Gartner predicting that by 2029, AI agents will solve the large majority (80%) of customer service issues without a human in the loop, causing a huge reduction in operational costs.
One Forrester analyst described how CRM platforms have stuffed so many new AI features into their products so quickly, that customers can’t keep up and are drastically underusing the features available.
The fundamental movement happening in CRM is architectural. Legacy platforms are gluing on AI features while newer platforms are being built in the storm so to speak, with architecture designed with AI in mind. The platforms that will win are the ones that combine these critical elements: flexibility, strong APIs and programmable elements, and design forward user experiences so it’s easy to get value quickly and understand how to use the new tools available.
Design is emerging as a new moat in CRM and software broadly. As AI handles more routine tasks, the platforms with easy to use, and ultimately enjoyable interfaces will win. Therefore in the world of CRM, a software category historically plagued by poor design and UX, those best positioned are ones designing not only with AI in mind, but humans as well.
Ranking the top 5 CRMs best positioned for AI in 2025 and onwards.
1. Attio - the challenger gaining momentum
Best for modern GTM teams who need a CRM that’s a joy to use, but also will be a frontrunner in the coming years.
Background
Attio just raised more than $50 million in Series B funding in late 2024, led by GV (Google Ventures), bringing total funding to $116 million. This isn’t a surprise, as the company has serious momentum as a genuine challenger to the legacy platforms.
Attio CEO Nicolas Sharp stated that “AI-native CRM needs a completely different foundation, one that allows you to truly understand every customer, take action fast and gives you the freedom to build exactly the go to market systems you need at scale.”
Why Attio will lead in the coming years
Attio’s flexible data model is the competitive moat that will keep on growing. Unlike traditional CRMs with rigid object structures, Attio uses a composable system where teams can model any business model or relationship without needing complicated and costly external development. This flexibility is essential for AI agents that need to understand and act on complex, evolving data.
Attio is starting to build out some very powerful programmable surfaces with strong APIs, and a new Apps SDK (in beta) that lets teams build and launch new features directly within the platform.
The recent Apps SDK has got the market very excited. It provides a sandboxed React environment where developers can build and run code directly inside Attio. This programmability means teams can create completely custom workflows and functionality directly within Attio, without waiting for Attio to build them. Something that is flat out not possible with other platforms.
Finally, but not least importantly, Attio is widely celebrated for its exceptional design and user experience, often described as a “Notion for CRM”. It has beautifully accented components, intuitive interfaces and the platform, that makes the platform a welcome change from traditional CRM interfaces we’ve all been forced to use in previous years.
Attio is relatively new compared to legacy platforms, but in absolute terms has been building for more than 5 years now, with famous customers like Granola, Lovable, Modal and Replicate, all world-renowned startups at the moment.
2. HubSpot - the incumbent fighting back
Best for mid market companies wanting proven enterprise features and infrastructure, but still going aggressive on AI.
HubSpot owes a lot to their VTO Dharmesh Shah, who’s got them where they are, but is also keeping them above water as AI shakes the market up. He independently even launched his own AI product called Agent.ai in 2024 which surged to 250,000 users by January 2025 showing how well he understands the use cases for new AI technology.
Why HubSpot will stay in the game
HubSpot has significant advantages: a massive user base, a feature set built over years and years, a cross-functional hub across sales and marketing, and a CTO actively pushing AI evolution. Shah’s side projects often become full featured HubSpot products like ChatSpot and Agent.ai.
Most significant recently, HubSpot was a featured integration for ChatGPT’s launch of its new Connector feature, adding a step advantage in distribution for the platform.
The HubSpot headwinds
HubSpot is a 15 year old platform. While it is moving faster than Salesforce, pivoting such a huge organization and product into a completely new paradigm of software will be difficult to say the least. The platform wasn’t designed with this upcoming technology shift in mind.
HubSpot also is known for design excellence (alongside Salesforce). The interface is functional, and arguably intuitive, but it’s cluttered compared to newer players and the design bar for software is much higher now. For teams that prioritize nice looking, intuitive UX for tools they’re going to be spending hours in, HubSpot won’t scratch that itch.
The question becomes speed : can HubSpot transform its platform and direction fast enough to compete with smaller more nimble platforms? Shah’s aggressive push makes it easy to be bullish on HubSpot but only time will tell.
3. Salesforce - too big to fail?
Best for large enterprises wanting the most established and mature platform, who might have complex requirements and massive budgets.
Salesforce reported $10 billion revenue in Q4 2025, up 8% YoY, and almost half the Fortune 100 are customers.
Their AI push is called Agentforce, and it’s claimed to have closed 5,000 deals with 3,000 paid customers. Within Salesforce’s own operations, the company quotes 380,000 customer support interactions with an 84% rate of not needing human intervention.
Why Salesforce is on this list
Salesforce has unmatched capital at its disposal. They can outspend any competitor on AI R&D and general feature development. Furthermore, for enterprises already invested in the Salesforce ecosystem, switching costs are very high, which is arguably deliberately engineered by the company.
Agentforce 3, the latest version released in June 2025, has expanded in global footprint to Canada, UK, India, Japan and Brazil.
The other side of the story
Despite the numbers, industry feedback has been mostly muted or negative towards Salesforce’s AI efforts, with general suggestions that Agentforce hasn’t met the initial sky-high expectations. Salesforce is iterating rapidly though, and Agentforce 3 indicate they are trying to address the gaps as fast as they can.
Salesforce’s size is both an asset and a liability. The capital advantage is huge, but it is also the slowest “ship” to turn. The platform was absolutely built for the pre-AI era, and the likely architectural changes needed are daunting.
According to Gartner, the CRM market is taking a “collective breath” waiting for the transformative impact of AI, with Salesforce maintaining its lead, but facing serious questions about the pace of transformation.
4. Day AI - an experiment
Best for early adopters wanting to experiment with a new platform and not needing a very mature feature set.
Day AI raised $4 million seed funding from Sequoia in June 2024 and was founded by a former Chief Product Officer of HubSpot. It positions itself as an AI-native CRM you can talk to, via a chat interface, that has access to various forms of data like meetings, CRM data and a knowledge base.
One to watch
Day AI is a bit of an edge case, but it has a compelling vision and its founding team has good experience. Their goal is to eliminate the CRM interface entirely and replace it purely with a conversation.
However, according to a recent review, Day AI is “still too basic” with no multi-channel sequences, no advanced automations and in general functionality that remains limited compared to market standards. Even the few native integrations available have been found to be unstable by users.
Day AI launched only recently, and while its conversational interface is novel, it’s unproven at scale and missing table stakes functionality most teams need without exception.
The platform is one to watch. It’s hard to recommend over more feature rich tools, and their opinionated vision for the future of CRM interface could be wrong, or right.
5. Clarify - the upstart
Best for founder-led sales teams that prioritize hands-off automation over control.
Clarify raised $15 million in June 2025 and is fully committed to its own vision of “AI-native CRM”. They, like many on this list, talk about needing AI to be built into the core of the product, versus being an add-on feature.
Clarify markets itself as an “autonomous CRM” that can automate pipeline creation, meeting admin and CRM updates. It’s an appealing vision for a world in which AI is very proactive and humans need to do very little except monitor and make big decisions.
A clarifying vision
Clarify has a focused direction it’s heading in. It wants to reduce CRM busywork through autonomous agents, and the value proposition is clear and attractive for early stage sales teams drowning in admin tasks that don’t directly drive revenue. The credit based pricing model is also potentially a winning point for smaller teams.
The thin platform
Reviews indicate Clarify is still “too basic” with significant functional gaps. The huge emphasis on automation can make things feel out of control, especially when AI technology is still in its infancy,
Clarify faces the classic startup challenge. They’re competing against established players (Salesforce, HubSpot) and well-funded scale ups (Attio) with deeper feature sets and more broad ICPs, whereas they are relatively low on capital, and building a very vertical CRM designed for a specific niche. In theory, going so vertical and focused is the play, but in practice the pace of innovation is so high, that at the moment they can neither win on flexibility or feature depth being such a new starter, and with the older competitors moving much faster than they have previously.
Founded so recently, and with only $15 million raised, Clarify needs to prove they’re here to stick around, and build a sustainable product for the years to come. Otherwise, it’s hard to bet entire GTM motions on it, if there’s a risk it won’t be around in a few years. Additionally, time will tell if humans really will want such hands-off automation, or whether they will want to be more in the driver’s seat.