Companies must transform CRM architecture to benefit from advanced platforms that improve marketing, sales, services, new research says

Customer relationship management software plays an increasingly central role in enterprises, enhancing customer engagement to maximize growth and profitability, according to new research from global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III).

The 2026 ISG Buyers Guides^™ for Customer Relationship Management provide the rankings and ratings of 52 software providers and their products for the structured management of customer and prospect information. The series includes guides to providers of sales engagement, digital commerce and partner relationship management software, plus emerging CRM players. The research finds that CRM has expanded beyond record-keeping and sales force automation, becoming an AI-enhanced foundation for revenue operations, customer experience strategy and performance management.

“Companies need a shared, trusted view of customer interactions to create long-term value,” said Barika Pace, director of research, office of revenue, at ISG. “They rely on CRM to align marketing, sales and service teams and inform strategy and execution throughout the organization.”

Enterprise requirements for CRM have grown with the rise of digital commerce and the need to engage with customers across multiple channels, ISG finds. Companies increasingly seek CRM software that improves productivity, forecast accuracy and customer lifetime value. Though many organizations still use legacy CRM systems characterized by heavy reliance on spreadsheets and manual data entry, the need for integration to support workflow automation has increased.

AI has already enhanced CRM platforms through features such as predictive scoring, segmentation optimization and service routing, which still primarily augment human decision-making rather than act autonomously, the research finds. Agentic AI has recently emerged to take this trend one step further, enabling systems to plan and execute actions within certain parameters. These advancements are moving CRM from passive record-keeping toward active orchestration of revenue and customer engagement processes.

Enterprises can measurably improve sales productivity, forecast reliability and customer retention using CRM with advanced AI features, but they need to transform their CRM architectures first, ISG says. Through 2027, more than half of enterprises will not be able to deploy the latest AI technology for sales, customer service and partner relationships because their processes and system designs are outdated, ISG predicts. This may limit revenue growth.

Companies choosing CRM software should consider the provider’s AI strategy, architectural flexibility and ecosystem maturity in addition to functionality, ISG says. They should look for a balance between platform configurability and governance so adapting processes over time will not create excessive technical debt or customizations that limit future innovation.

ISG rates software providers in five evaluation categories: Overall, Product Experience (incorporating Capability and Platform) and Customer Experience. Providers ranked in the top three for each evaluation category are named as Leaders. Within each platform category, those that meet the greatest proportion of our evaluation criteria are named as Overall Leaders.

For its 2026 Buyers Guide for Customer Relationship Management, ISG evaluated software providers across five platform categories — Customer Relationship Management, CRM Platforms, CRM Marketing, CRM Sales and CRM Services. A total of 21 providers were assessed: Adobe, Aptean, BUSINESSNEXT, Constant Contact, Creatio, HubSpot, Infor, Microsoft, monday.com, Odoo, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Sage, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, SugarCRM, Veeva, Zendesk, Zoho and ZoomInfo.

For the Buyers Guide for CRM Emerging Providers, ISG evaluated eight providers: Creatio, EngageBay, Insightly, Maximizer, Nutshell, Pipedrive, SuperOffice and Workbooks.

The Buyers Guide for Digital Commerce includes evaluations of 18 providers: Adobe, BigCommerce, HCLSoftware, HubSpot, Infosys, Microsoft, Optimizely, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Rithum, Salesforce, SAP, Shopify, Sitecore, Squarespace, VTEX, Wix and Zoho.

For the Buyers Guide for Partner Relationship Management, ISG evaluated 13 providers: Channelscaler, HubSpot, impact.com, Impartner, Microsoft, Mindmatrix, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Partnerize, Salesforce, SAP, Unifyr and Zoho.

The Buyers Guide for Sales Engagement covers 19 providers: Allego, Apollo, Bigtincan, Gong, Highspot, HubSpot, Microsoft, monday.com, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Outreach, Sage, Salesforce, SAP, Seismic, Showpad, SugarCRM, Zoho and ZoomInfo.

Across the Buyers Guides for Customer Relationship Management, Partner Relationship Management, Digital Commerce and Sales Engagement, Salesforce and Oracle were the top two Overall Leaders in all platform categories. Hubspot was the third-place Overall Leader in six platform categories, while ServiceNow and Microsoft ranked third in one platform category each.

In the Buyers Guide for Customer Relationship Management Emerging Providers, Creatio was the top Overall Provider, followed by SuperOffice and Pipedrive.

In addition, the following providers were rated as Exemplary or Innovative in each Platform Category:

Customer Relationship Management: HubSpot, Oracle and Salesforce were rated Exemplary. Microsoft was rated Innovative.

CRM Platforms: HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Veeva and Zoho were rated Exemplary. SAP was rated Innovative.

CRM Marketing: Adobe, Creatio, HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Veeva and Zoho were rated Exemplary. SAP was rated Innovative.

CRM Sales: Creatio, HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Zoho were rated Exemplary. SAP and SugarCRM were rated Innovative.

CRM Service: HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Zoho were rated Exemplary. SAP and Zendesk were rated Innovative.

Customer Relationship Management Emerging Providers: Creatio, SuperOffice and Workbooks were rated Exemplary. Pipedrive was rated Innovative.

Digital Commerce: Adobe, HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce and Zoho were rated Exemplary. HCLSoftware and SAP were rated Innovative.

Partner Relationship Management: HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and Zoho were rated Exemplary. Oracle, NetSuite and SAP were rated Innovative.

Sales Engagement: HubSpot, Microsoft, Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce, SAP and Zoho were rated Exemplary. Apollo, Outreach and SugarCRM were rated Innovative.

“The CRM software an enterprise chooses can significantly influence its ability to adapt to new technologies and increase revenue and profit over time,” said David Menninger, executive director, software research, ISG. “This research evaluates CRM offerings based on features, integration capability and provider strategy so companies can find the best set of technologies for their CRM transformation.”

The ISG Buyers Guides^™ for Customer Relationship Management are the distillation of more than a year of market and product research efforts. The research is not sponsored nor influenced by software providers and is conducted solely to help enterprises optimize their business and IT software investments.

Visit this webpage to learn more about the ISG Buyers Guides^™ for Customer Relationship Management and read executive summaries of each of the five reports. The complete reports, including provider rankings across seven product and customer experience dimensions and detailed research findings on each provider, are available by contacting ISG.

About ISG

ISG (Nasdaq: III) is a global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm. A trusted partner to more than 900 clients, including 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is a long-time leader in technology and business services that is now at the forefront of leveraging AI to help organizations achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm, founded in 2006, is known for its proprietary market data and research, in-depth knowledge and governance of provider ecosystems, and the expertise of its 1,500 professionals worldwide working together to help clients maximize the value of their technology investments.

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Companies need a shared, trusted view of customer interactions to create long-term value. They rely on CRM to align marketing, sales and service teams and inform strategy and execution throughout the organization.