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Three ways to build AI momentum inside your CRM

Three ways to build AI momentum inside your CRM

Synopsis
5 Minute Read

This article is part of a four-part series designed to help business leaders reimagine their CRM’s potential – focusing on visibility, usability, and AI-powered capabilities that drive value.

Our first focus will be on an increasingly prevalent topic: AI enablement.

In this new era of AI capabilities, one thing is certain: organizations are under pressure to do more with less. From automated workflows and intelligent insights to advanced AI agents, AI is helping strained teams accomplish more. However, the real value lies in teams working more efficiently, making informed decisions, and unlocking greater value from data without introducing technical debt or complexity.

In this article we’ll outline three unique automation and AI capabilities that Microsoft Dynamics 365 SalesCustomer Service, and Customer Insights offer to eliminate friction for your teams and customers.

Start with automation that’s built-in

Starting simple is a great way to cross off that first item on your to-do list. We recommend leveraging the out-of-the-box automation features already available in modern CRMs if available. These reduce manual setup and help you realize value right away.

In Dynamics 365 Sales

A screenshot of an email client interface showing three sections. On the left is a list of inbox emails, categorized into "Focused" and "Other." The center displays an open email titled "[EXTERNAL] Inquiry Regarding Specifications and Availability of New Coffee Machine Model" from Alistair Burgos. On the right, a "Copilot for Sales" panel includes options like "Opportunities," "Accounts," and a highlighted "Collaborate in Teams" section.

  • AI-powered lead scoring analyzes the top factors that influence conversion. This makes it easier to identify high-potential sales opportunities at-a-glance and focus your efforts where they’ll really count.
  • Relationship analytics tools evaluate email activity, meeting history, and response times to help sellers track the health of their opportunities and intervene before deals lose momentum.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Service

A screenshot of a settings window titled "Copilot AI features." It includes two sections: "Copilot help pane" and "Summaries." In the "Copilot help pane" section, checkboxes indicate that "Ask a question" and "Scan customer conversation and suggest a response" are enabled, while "Write an Email" is disabled. In the "Summaries" section, "Live conversation summary" is enabled and "Case summary" is disabled. Links to manage settings at the organization level are provided for both sections.

  • Automated case routing classifies and sends customer support cases to the most appropriate queue or agent. It’s based on AI-driven assessments of topic, urgency, and sentiment, reducing manual management and streamlining processes.
  • Real-time sentiment analysis monitors the emotional tone of customer interactions as they occur, enabling agents to respond empathetically while providing supervisors with a clear view of customer satisfaction trends.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

A screenshot of a workflow diagram in the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys interface. The workflow, titled "Announcing the Caf-A 100," is in draft status and includes steps like sending an email, waiting for a response, and branching based on conditions such as whether the email was opened. On the right, an "Entry" panel allows selection of an audience segment and configuration of scheduling details.
  • Unified customer profiles are automatically created by combining data from sales, service interactions, and marketing engagements into a single, comprehensive view. Outreach can be tailored to everyone’s unique preferences and stage of the buyer journey.
  • AI-powered segmentation dynamically groups customers by shared characteristics, helping teams tailor niche campaigns and offers with greater precision – giving customers that customized feel they’ve come to expect.

Use an AI assistant to eliminate manual tasks

Imagine giving every employee their own digital assistant – one who never forgets, works around the clock, and delivers the right insights at exactly the right time. That’s Microsoft Copilot.

Built directly into Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, and Customer Insights, each Copilot is purpose-built to ease the burdens on your team.

In Dynamics 365 Sales

A screenshot of a lead qualification notification. It shows linked records including Account: Northwind Traders, Contact: Ivan Kornashinsky (sample), and Opportunity: Interested in our newer offerings. The lead summary notes that Ivan Kornashinsky is rated "Hot," prefers any contact method, and was sourced from the web via the "Direct marketing template (sample)" campaign on June 12, 2024. The opportunity is open with an estimated revenue of $100,000.00 and includes handover instructions.
  • Email drafting and follow-up suggestions use interaction history and opportunity context to help reps respond quickly and consistently. It’s easy to cut down on manual writing time while avoiding cookie-cutter responses.
  • Next-step guidance provides best-practice nudges on deal progress, customer signals, and your sales funnel.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service

  • AI-generated case summaries provide a quick overview of customer history, issues, and prior communications, allowing agents to jump into a conversation without needing to comb through records or switch between applications.
  • Suggested knowledge articles automatically display relevant support content as cases evolve, enabling agents to resolve issues more quickly and share consistent, approved answers with customers.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

A screenshot of a Microsoft Customer Insights dashboard showing a segment expansion preview titled "SmallCitySegmentExpansion." It displays similarity scores for 1800 members, all rated as very similar (0.85–1.0). A table lists columns for CustomerId, SimilarityScore, SpringfieldCity, and FullName. The left-side menu includes options like Home, Customers, Data, Segments, Measures, Predictions, Custom models, Insights Preview!, Reports Preview!, and Settings.
  • Natural language journey creation enables teams to describe goals in everyday terms while Copilot builds real-time, multi-channel journeys with recommended touchpoints, transitions, and milestones to accelerate personalization.
  • Email generation with Copilot enables users to type prompts like “Invite customers to a special sale with a coupon,” instantly returning a customizable email template with editable layout, branding, and imagery.

Empower teams to build and evolve AI tools

Today’s AI tools help everyday CRM users become powerful agents of change. With the right structure, training, and freedom to experiment, teams can rely less on dev resources and gain the confidence to innovate on their own.

Using our continued example of Microsoft, thanks to Microsoft Copilot Studio, business users can build custom intelligent agents without writing a single line of code – and without you worrying about the logistics.

At MNP Digital, we train teams to confidently manage Copilot, AI agents, and automated workflows, while showing them how to spot new AI opportunities. We also establish the right guardrails to keep CRMs secure, compliant, and aligned with business goals as they continue to evolve.

While we’re always here to lend a helping hand, our goal is to give your team the confidence to move forward independently. You get a CRM that adapts to your business and a team empowered to keep improving it.

Final thoughts

AI is already built into modern CRM tools, ready to streamline work while improving user satisfaction, customer experience, and your bottom line. The capabilities are there for the taking – you just need to activate them by choosing the right features, supporting your teams, and making space for smarter ways of working.

In part two of our series, we’ll tackle a challenge that’s all too common with CRMs: what happens when you have all the right features, but your team still won’t use them?

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