How to build a CRM with AI

These are the parts a CRM needs before it is useful. Each one is something the plan covers.

• Contacts, companies and deals: The core records, relationships between them, owners and lifecycle status.
• Pipelines and stages (kanban): Move deals through configurable stages with ordering, win/loss reasons and stage history.
• Custom fields: Let each workspace add typed fields without schema migrations, and still filter, sort and report on them.
• Activities, notes and tasks: Log calls/meetings/notes against records and schedule follow-ups with due dates and assignees.
• Saved views, filters and search: Table views with column choice, sort, filters and shared team views.
• Roles, record scope and field-level permissions: Decide who can see and change which records and which fields.
• CSV import: Bring existing data in safely, with a preview, validation errors and idempotent commit.
• CSV export: Download filtered data without stalling the app or leaking hidden fields.
• Bulk actions: Reassign, change stage, tag, delete or update many records without timeouts or partial states.

• In-app notifications and email reminders: Task due, deal assigned, mentions in notes.

Each table below becomes part of the Postgres database that belongs to your app.

• workspace_members: role: admin|manager|rep|viewer|custom; the last admin cannot be removed or demoted (checked in the same transaction); invitations expire after 7 days.
• companies: domain lowercased and stripped of www; custom validated against custom_field_defs before write; soft delete purged after 30 days.
• contacts: email_norm = lowercase trimmed email, maintained by trigger; do_not_contact blocks bulk email actions; phone stored E.164; PII table, see compliance.
• pipelines: kind: sales|renewal|custom; archiving a pipeline requires moving or closing its open deals.
• pipeline_stages: exactly one won and one lost terminal stage per pipeline; probability 0-100 drives weighted forecast.
• deals: status: open|won|lost; amount stored in minor units with an explicit currency, never float; rank is a fractional-index string so reorder touches one row; stage change and history insert happen in one transaction.
• deal_stage_history: insert-only; source of truth for funnel and velocity reports.
• activities: subject_type: contact|company|deal; body is plain text or sanitized markdown, max 20,000 chars; system activities record stage moves and assignments.
• tasks: status: open|done|cancelled; recurrence is phase 2.

• No email or calendar sync, outbound webhooks or workflow automation in phase 1 (designed for, deferred).
• No raw SQL or user-supplied query fragments from the UI, ever.
• No inline processing of imports, exports or bulk actions in the request.
• No float money; amounts are integer minor units with a currency.
• No unbounded 'select all' that exceeds BULK_MAX_ROWS.
• Outbound webhooks and public API: plan for it, build it later.
• Email and calendar sync: plan for it, build it later.

Forge64 matches your description to one of 12 reference architectures, writes the plan and data model into the project, generates the app, and runs a quality gate over the code before you see it. Each app gets its own Postgres database and sign-in with no per-user fee. Hosting on Forge Cloud and Forge Payments are rolling out.

This is a reference design for the category, not a promise that every item is generated today. Built-ins such as email, background jobs, file uploads and search are coming soon, so anything here that needs them is something you add yourself for now.

What does a CRM need first?

Contacts, companies and deals, pipelines and stages (kanban), custom fields, activities, notes and tasks, saved views, filters and search and roles, record scope and field-level permissions. The plan for a CRM covers all of these before it generates code.

What should I leave out of the first version of a CRM?

No email or calendar sync, outbound webhooks or workflow automation in phase 1 (designed for, deferred). No raw SQL or user-supplied query fragments from the UI, ever. No inline processing of imports, exports or bulk actions in the request.

Which products define the CRM category?

Well-known examples include HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Attio and Close. Use them to decide which features your users expect, then describe your own version.

• CRM architecture
• Example prompt for a CRM
• CRM security checklist
• CRM scaling checklist
• Often combined: SaaS dashboard
• Often combined: AI document chatbot
• All app types