Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

We now live in an era where we see several press releases every week announcing, "Our CRM system has also added AI functionality."

Companies such as Salesforce Einstein, HubSpot Breeze, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot, and Zoho Zia are competing to launch their own "AI-powered CRM" solutions.

But,Previous article (What is AI-Native CRM?)As I wrote before, there is a fundamental difference between a "CRM with AI added later" and an "AI-native CRM."
This article will honestly summarize the current state of major "AI-powered CRMs" and then compare the differences in design philosophy with EMOROCO CRM Lite.

This isn't about which is superior. It's about clarifying the differences in design philosophy, specifically "who it's made for" and "what the AI ​​is for."

Overview of 4 AI-powered CRMs to be compared

Salesforce Einstein

This suite of AI features was announced by Salesforce in 2016. It provides predictive scoring, anomaly detection, automated email generation, and sales opportunity forecasting, among other things.
Since 2023, it has evolved into "Einstein GPT" and "Einstein Copilot," which utilize generative AI.

Main uses of AI functions: Lead scoring, conversion prediction, automated email generation, churn prediction.

HubSpot Breeze

HubSpot announced a new AI features brand in 2024, which includes content generation, automated lead generation, and conversational intelligence.
Our focus is primarily on the use of AI in the marketing field.

Main uses of AI functionality: Content generation, lead research, SEO suggestions, marketing automation.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot

Microsoft's Copilot feature, integrated into Dynamics 365 using GPT-4.
We provide services such as email summarization, suggesting the next steps in business negotiations, and automatically generating meeting minutes.
Its strong point is its integration with Microsoft 365.

Main uses of AI functions: Meeting summaries, email creation assistance, sales negotiation summaries, and next action suggestions.

Zoho Zia

Zoho's AI engine.
We provide services such as sales forecasting, suggestions for optimal contact timing, lead scoring, and anomaly detection.
A key feature is its integration with Zoho's extensive range of business applications.

Main uses of AI functions: Sales forecasting, contact timing suggestions, sentiment analysis (email), trend detection.

Common "design assumptions" for the AI ​​functions of the four companies

Comparing the AI ​​features of the four companies reveals common design assumptions.

Premise ①: AI is a tool for "efficiency".

All four companies' AI functions aim to "make human work more efficient."
The goal is to increase the speed of business processes, such as writing emails quickly, prioritizing business negotiations, and automatically generating reports.

Premise ②: The analysis will primarily focus on "quantitative data".

Lead scoring, conversion forecasting, and churn forecasting—these all analyze "numerable data" such as purchase history, page views, email open rates, and sales phases.

Premise ③: The direction of "analyzing customers"

Many of the AI ​​features of these four companies are designed to "predict customer behavior." They treat customers as subjects for analysis and predict "what they will do next."

These are real values. The AI ​​capabilities of these four companies are particularly effective for large, marketing-driven enterprises that handle a large volume of leads.

The problem is that the assumptions behind this design are fundamentally different from the philosophy of CRM 4.0.

Comparison by function – EMOROCO's position

*◎ = Strengths, ○ = Supported, △ = Partially supported, ✕ = Not supported. Prices vary greatly depending on the plan of each company.

Fundamental differences in design philosophy—organized along three axes

Axis 1: "What is AI for?" — Efficiency vs. Resonance

Four companies' AI solutions: AI for improving business efficiency. These include writing emails faster, prioritizing business negotiations, and summarizing meetings. The goal is to reduce the cost of human labor.

EMOROCO CRM Lite: AI to realize CRM 4.0. Its purpose is to create a data infrastructure that resonates with customers' emotions, values, and deep psychology (ICX). "Efficiency" is not the goal, but a result obtained.

This difference lies at the very core of the design. Efficiency AI is designed to "speed up existing tasks." EMOROCO CRM Lite's AI, on the other hand, is designed to "deepen relationships that are not currently being achieved."

Axis 2: "What to learn" — Quantitative data vs. Quantitative x Qualitative integration

The AI ​​from the four companies primarily learns from quantitative data that can be recorded numerically, such as purchase history, number of visits, email open rates, and sales negotiation phases.

EMOROCO CRM Lite: It learns by integrating qualitative data such as changes in emotional temperature, narrative memos, and ICX capture ("words that resonated" and "words that didn't resonate") with quantitative data.

This difference directly relates to the types of patterns that can be discovered. An AI that has only learned from quantitative data can analyze "how many visits were made," but it cannot determine "which visits were meaningful." An AI that integrates quantitative and qualitative data can discover complex patterns such as "when cost reduction was discussed three months ago, the client's emotional temperature cooled down (qualitative) × the subsequent order amount decreased (quantitative)."

Axis 3: "Whose CRM is it for?" — Large corporations/global vs. medium-sized enterprises/Japanese market

The AI ​​solutions from these four companies are designed with large corporations and global enterprises in mind. Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, in particular, are designed for large-scale deployments involving hundreds to thousands of users.

EMOROCO CRM Lite: Designed with the premise that small and medium-sized enterprises can "start using it today." It's no-code, allowing field staff to configure it themselves, and is available for ¥1,500 per user per month. However, the infrastructure, security, and design philosophy are enterprise-level.

What happens when each company's AI functions are used in the "real world of small and medium-sized enterprises"

The reality of using Salesforce Einstein in small and medium-sized businesses

Salesforce Einstein is a feature-rich tool, but for small and medium-sized businesses to truly shine, it requires "massive amounts of data." Lead scoring needs enough opportunity data to be comparable, and conversion predictions need a sufficient sample size to be meaningful.

In a small to medium-sized enterprise with 5 employees and 20 monthly business meetings, there is insufficient training data for AI, resulting in many of Einstein's features being "available but unusable."

Furthermore, when you add the cost of the Einstein feature to the Salesforce license fee, the monthly cost can range from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand yen.

The reality of using HubSpot Breeze in small and medium-sized businesses

HubSpot Breeze excels in content creation, SEO suggestions, and lead research. However, these features are geared towards marketing-driven companies. They do not directly address the challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses, such as "deepening relationships with existing customers" or "maintaining relationships even after a change in contact person."

Furthermore, many of the Breeze features require a paid plan, and the typical HubSpot pattern of "starting for free only to end up paying" also occurs with the AI ​​features.

The reality of using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot in small and medium-sized businesses

Copilot excels at meeting summaries, email summaries, and suggesting next actions. However, these strengths are contingent on an environment that fully utilizes Microsoft 365. Small and medium-sized businesses that lack this ecosystem—including CRM integration with Teams and automatic synchronization between Outlook and CRM—will not be able to fully leverage Copilot's strengths.

Furthermore, setting up and operating Dynamics 365 itself requires specialized knowledge, making it difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) without personnel possessing Dynamics 365 skills to adopt it.

The "Adding AI Later" Problem: Why It Doesn't Resonate with Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The common challenge for all four companies can be summarized in one sentence: their design was one where "AI was added as an afterthought."

The system, originally designed and popularized during the CRM 1.0-3.0 era, was modified by connecting a generation AI API and adding it as a new feature. As a result, the following problems occur:

Problem ①: The "historical data" that AI learns from is biased towards quantitative data.

The data accumulated by existing CRMs consists of quantitative data such as transaction amount, number of visits, and email open rates. Qualitative data such as emotional temperature, narrative, and ICX were not designed from the outset, so there is no data to train the AI ​​with.

Problem ②: The purpose of AI is limited to "improving the efficiency of existing functions."

Add-on AI is limited to using it to "assist in managing existing sales phases." CRM 4.0-style uses, such as "learning customer emotional patterns and automatically generating proactive follow-ups," are not designed with this in mind.

Problem 3: It doesn't become effective the moment you start using it.

Retrofit AI only begins to function after a company has accumulated sufficient data. Immediately after implementation, it suffers from a "lack of training data." This creates a situation where it "needs to be nurtured over 6 to 12 months."

Three reasons why EMOROCO CRM Lite has a different design.

Reason ①: It functions immediately upon implementation based on collective intelligence.

EMOROCO is based on collective intelligence accumulated across various industries and business types. Even if you have no data on your own company, it has already learned insights such as, "In route sales for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, there is a high risk of customer churn if no follow-up is made within 30 days after the customer's emotional temperature changes from cool to cold."

It reaches a practical level within 2-4 months of implementation, and then optimizes to the company's unique patterns through retraining with its own data.

Reason ②: Qualitative data (emotions and narratives) are designed from the beginning.

Emotional temperature, narrative memos, ICX capture, and impactful language frames are not "features added later," but "the core of the design." The philosophy of CRM 4.0—resonating with the customer's emotions, values, and deep psychology—is built into the AI ​​design from the very beginning.

This enables "integrated learning of quantitative and qualitative methods."

Reason ③: Design that can be "used immediately" in the workplace of small and medium-sized enterprises.

At just 1,500 yen per user per month, with no initial setup fees, no coding required, and a user experience that takes less than three clicks, this system is designed for frontline staff at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to "start using tomorrow." The fundamental principle is not to "force" SMEs to use AI features designed for large corporations, but rather to "nurture" the system to suit the specific needs of SME operations.

Honest evaluation – what suits which company?

EMOROCO CRM Lite is most effective not for companies that want to acquire a large number of new customers using AI, but for companies that want to deepen their relationships with existing customers through data and create an organization where those relationships continue even if the person in charge changes.

Summary: "CRM with AI" or "CRM designed with AI"?

Between 2025 and 2026, all major CRMs began to claim to be "AI-powered." However, the design philosophy behind each company's AI—"for what purpose, what it learns, and for whom"—will fundamentally differ.

Salesforce Einstein is "AI for business efficiency." HubSpot Breeze is "AI for marketing." Microsoft Copilot is "AI for productivity improvement." Zoho Zia is "AI for all aspects of business."

EMOROCO CRM Lite's AI is "AI for co-creation with customers." It is designed to resonate with emotions, deepen relationships, and transform the tacit knowledge of individual employees into organizational knowledge.

A single update of the emotional temperature you input today will determine the accuracy of the AI ​​one year from now. Even if a competitor who "added AI later" tries to do the same thing a year from now, they won't be able to close the gap due to a year's worth of accumulated data.

[The first step you can take today] Start with a 30-day free trial and begin by setting up emotional temperature for all your customers. This accumulation of data will become the "learning data" that unlocks the true potential of AI-native CRM.

Digitalization and AI Implementation Subsidy 2026 Compatible Tool Number: DL07-0022934
Product Info:https://www.emoroco.com/

Related article

• What is an AI-native CRM? — Why EMOROCO CRM Lite is fundamentally different from tools that "added AI later."
• Why choose EMOROCO CRM Lite over Salesforce, HubSpot, or kintone? A comparison of the key differences from a CRM 4.0 perspective.
• Why are CRM and AI a good match? — How SoI, with its combination of quantitative and qualitative data, predicts customer behavior, and how to utilize EMOROCO CRM Lite.
• Reasons for abandoning Salesforce: The decision-making criteria of small and medium-sized businesses switching from high-performance CRMs.
• The limitations of HubSpot's free version: The real reason why your free CRM will eventually become a paid service.