In 2026, will you even need a CRM anymore?

For the last 20 years, CRM has been the immovable centre of the customer operations universe. Everything - sales, service, marketing - revolved around it. But now it looks different. We’re in a world where AI can surface real-time, context-rich information directly into the agent desktop of your contact centre. Where platforms like Zoom Contact Centre can pull, transform, and present customer data from any source on demand.

So, here’s the big question: Do you even need a CRM anymore?

The CCaaS/CRM land grab

In CX-land, it’s hard to miss the direction of travel right now:

• Salesforce launches Service Cloud Voice - now your CCaaS is inside the CRM.

• Microsoft bakes Contact Centre into Dynamics 365.

• Other CRMs quietly building native voice, messaging, and ticketing capabilities.

The logic is obvious. If you already own the customer record, why not own the customer conversation too?

But here’s the problem: These aren’t neutral plays. They’re land grabs. And when your CCaaS is swallowed by your CRM, your operational agility gets swallowed too.

The new centre of gravity: data

Modern contact centres don’t need a single monolithic system of record. They need a system of truth, and that’s not the same thing. Instead of shoving every customer interaction into a CRM for later retrieval, why not pull exactly what’s needed, exactly when it’s needed, from a data lake?

With the right AI layer, you can:

• Assemble a 360° view of the customer in real time from multiple systems.

• Deliver that view into the Zoom Contact Centre agent interface before the customer says a word.

• Feed AI agents like Zoom Virtual Agent so they resolve queries without ever touching a CRM record.

No more jumping between CRM tabs and CCaaS tabs. No more “hang on while I load your account.” Just the right data, at the right time, in the right place.

Why CRM-first thinking is holding you back

CRM-first contact centre strategies tend to:

• Lock you in to a single vendor’s roadmap and pricing model.

• Add latency to customer interactions while agents load and navigate bulky interfaces.

• Constrain AI to what’s stored in the CRM, instead of tapping into all enterprise data sources.

And the ultimate irony? Half the time, the CRM is already out of date by the time the agent sees it.

The AI + CCaaS + Data Lake model

Here’s what’s emerging in forward-looking CX operations:

CCaaS (e.g. Zoom Contact Centre) becomes the hub for real-time conversations.

AI orchestration (Zoom Virtual Agent + IntegrationHub) surfaces insights dynamically from multiple systems.

Data lakes hold and unify enterprise data without forcing it into CRM-shaped boxes.

The result? A faster, cleaner, more flexible customer experience, without the cost and complexity of shoving everything through a traditional CRM layer.

The big question for 2026

If your CCaaS can pull exactly what’s needed from your data lake, enrich it with AI, and present it to agents instantly…

If your AI can resolve and close the majority of customer queries without human intervention…

...then what’s the CRM for? Record-keeping? Compliance? Sure, but do you still need it as the operational heart of your contact centre? Or is it time to break the habit?

Where Acceleraate fits

At Acceleraate, we help organisations rethink the tech stack, moving from CRM-dependence to AI-driven agility.

With IntegrationHub for Zoom, we:

• Connect Zoom Contact Centre to your data lake and critical business systems.

• Orchestrate real-time information flows without CRM bloat.

• Give agents and AI assistants the intelligence they need, when they need it.

The future of Customer Experience isn’t CRM-shaped. It’s conversation-shaped, fuelled by AI, powered by data, and delivered in real time.