Stop automating your CRM, start orchestrating: opinion

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Organizations using customer relationship management (CRM) systems to automate cost rather than orchestrate customer experience are reaching a finite competitive ceiling, as artificial intelligence (AI) enables a transition from CRM as a passive repository to CRM as an orchestration engine that redesigns service delivery across enterprise functions.

Solis frames CRM evolution as a leadership divide

Brian Solis, head of global innovation at ServiceNow, wrote in Forbes that “winning companies are going to make service intelligent, personal, and experiential,” drawing a divide between finite leaders who optimize CRM for efficiency and infinite leaders who redesign it to unlock new value from the capacity AI frees up.

Solis describes the finite leadership model as one where executives ask where to bolt AI into service operations to reduce headcount, a strategy with a floor because cost optimization can only go so far.

The infinite model treats freed capacity as an opportunity to redesign roles toward customer experiences that automation alone cannot deliver.

IKEA model shows CRM orchestration driving new revenue

“CRM transforms from a system of record into an orchestrated system of action,” Solis wrote, describing how workflow automation evolved CRM from a passive data repository into a system routing decisions, initiating workflows, and triggering actions across fulfillment, billing, and inventory.

Solis cited IKEA’s decision to reskill call center employees as interior design advisers using an AI chatbot, with the reskilled workforce generating €1.3 billion (approximately US$1.43 billion) in its first year.

Solis warned that organizations deploying multiple disconnected AI agents risk agent sprawl, with overlapping responsibilities, inconsistent controls, and fragmented customer experiences undermining the outcomes that orchestration is designed to deliver.

The orchestration framework Solis describes connects directly to the sourcing case for offshore outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO), where managed service delivery models operate as a unified service layer routing customer interactions, fulfillment triggers, and workflow decisions across enterprise systems.

When enterprise buyers replace siloed automation with an orchestrated service model, top BPO companies worldwide with cross-functional delivery capability and integrated CRM operations are positioned to serve as the human and AI backbone of the orchestration architecture Solis describes.

Solis’s Forbes op-ed confirms that CRM’s competitive divide lies between automation-focused models with a cost floor and orchestration-focused models designed for revenue expansion.

For enterprise buyers evaluating CRM and service architecture, Solis’s framework signals that provider selection should weight orchestration capability and cross-functional integration maturity over standalone automation metrics.

BPO operators with unified cross-functional delivery and integrated CRM workflows are positioned to serve as the orchestration backbone that finite automation models cannot produce.

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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.

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