SASKATOON, SK, CANADA, March 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vendasta, the AI workforce platform for small and medium businesses, announced the launch of CRM AI, a living, self-updating CRM that automatically captures sales conversations, updates records, surfaces actionable insights, and coaches reps in real time — helping sales teams move faster from lead to revenue. The product is available today, with a public showcase event on March 18 at 12 PM ET.

"Most SMBs are operating on 20% of their actual revenue intelligence. The other 80% — every call, every conversation, every buying signal — evaporates the moment the call ends," said Brendan King, CEO of Vendasta. "We built CRM AI to reclaim that 80%—turning hidden conversation data into a visible, actionable roadmap for revenue."

90% of teams now record every meeting, yet nearly three quarters still cannot turn those conversations into consistent follow-up. The gap between what gets said on a call and what actually gets acted on is where deals go to die. Vendasta calls it the execution gap — the costly distance between a qualified lead and a closed deal. For most SMB sales teams, it is the most expensive problem they are not actively solving. CRM AI is built to close it. The findings are drawn from Vendasta's 2026 State of AI-Driven Sales Execution report, a survey of 233 sales professionals across the SMB economy. The full report is available at https://www.vendasta.com/content-library/guides/state-of-ai-driven-sales-execution-2026/.

No More Digging. No More Data Entry. No More Dropped Deals.

Unlike legacy platforms that require constant feeding by sales reps, CRM AI ships with four integrated capabilities designed to do the work automatically:

AI Sales Assistant: Automatically updates CRM contact and company records after every meeting, surfaces pipeline opportunities through a natural-language chat interface, and creates follow-up activities based on conversation outcomes — without any manual input from reps. Conversation Intelligence: Records and transcribes every sales meeting via built-in Google Meet and Microsoft Teams integrations. AI-generated summaries and action items are stored directly in the CRM, giving managers complete deal visibility without attending every call. Sales Coaching: AI scores every customer interaction against leading methodologies — BANT, MEDDPICC, Sandler — surfacing specific improvement opportunities for each rep so new hires ramp faster and every rep performs more like the team's top closer. CRM Custom Objects: Enables businesses to model their exact industry workflow — tracking properties, jobs, vehicles, or equipment — within the CRM without enterprise-level implementation complexity. “The insight that shaped CRM AI is simple: recording a meeting and acting on a meeting are two entirely different things, and almost every tool on the market stops at recording," said John Vars, Chief Product Officer at Vendasta. "We built the connective tissue between the conversation and the next action, so the CRM updates itself, the rep gets a coaching moment, and the manager sees the full picture. No manual steps required."

Early Adopters Report Real Results

Klint Rudolph, a scaling agency leader, described the before-and-after plainly: "Before CRM AI, a lot of my mental energy went into remembering who I needed to follow up with, where a conversation left off, what needed to be logged. Now that the AI captures every conversation and understands the context of the business, I can focus on strategy, relationships, and solving problems for my clients. It turns the pipeline from a static report into a living, AI-analyzed picture of our actual revenue."

For Nick Prentice, a relationship-focused agency owner working across real estate and trades, the impact showed up directly in revenue outcomes. "When we come back two or four weeks after a conversation and we have an agenda that so closely mirrors the last discussion, it really makes us look like we're on the ball. It absolutely increases our closing rates. And it allows us to upsell like there's no tomorrow."

Both customers noted that CRM Custom Objects extended the value further, allowing them to tailor the CRM to industry-specific data — properties, job types, equipment — without a developer or a separate integration.

Availability & Launch Event

Vendasta CRM AI is available immediately to all Vendasta platform partners and their clients. Existing customers can activate from their platform dashboard today.

A public launch event, "Meet CRM AI", takes place on March 18, 2026 at 12 PM ET, featuring live product demonstrations, customer panels, and a keynote on AI-driven sales execution. Registration is free at vendasta.com/content-library/events-webinars/meet-crm-ai/.

About Vendasta

Vendasta is the AI workforce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Vendasta provides AI Employees that execute the work of marketing, sales, and operations automatically — helping local businesses reclaim time and scale without the overhead of traditional hiring. Founded in Saskatoon, Vendasta has a global network of 60,000+ partners to help SMBs stop managing software and start achieving outcomes.

Learn how to hire your first AI employee at Vendasta.com.

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Vendasta Launches CRM AI - Social

Vendasta CRM AI Launch Event - Social

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Vendasta

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[email protected]

Source: Vendasta