3 big shifts from HubSpot INBOUND | Fall Spotlight Releases

Marketing isn’t working like it used to. Sales cycles are slowing. Leaders are making decisions with incomplete data. At INBOUND, HubSpot made it clear: to move forward, we need to work differently.

That point came to life when HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan shared a simple, but powerful story from the stage during her keynote. 

Her son asked her: “What should I learn if I want a great future?”

Her answer spoke directly to every person in the room: Be curious. Lean into change. Learn how to think.

Both Rangan and Karen Ng, EVP of Product, articulated the same idea: our success isn't just about mastering a tool. It's about fundamentally evolving how we work.

Many of us need that evolution right now. 

HubSpot newest releases this year aren't just feature updates. They're HubSpot's new blueprint for breaking out of the stagnation so many teams are stuck in. Each one addresses specific challenges and gives us a new way of thinking and working. 

Our marketing isn't delivering the results it used to  ➡️  Enter Loop Marketing. 

Even the inventors of inbound marketing know it’s not working like it used to.

Rangan revealed the journey to Loop, “We launched pilots, we dug into data and put all of that together to create something completely new. A growth playbook for the AI era. This is not static. It’s not linear. It’s dynamic.”

The four-step loop creates a continuous cycle: 

• Express who you are and understand your customers
• Tailor messaging that resonates
• Amplify across relevant channels 
• Evolve in real time with AI-powered insights and iterations

We're struggling to increase our impact  ➡️  Enter hybrid teams of humans + AI.

“Our role is to lead with taste, strategy and judgement. AI’s role is to accelerate with speed, scale, and execution,” Rangan emphasized. “Humans lead. AI accelerates. That is the partnership. It is not just powerful, it is transformative.”

The vision of this hybrid approach recognizes that our value isn't in doing more tasks faster. It's in our ability to think strategically, build relationships, and make nuanced decisions that require human experience and instinct. 

Leaders are making decisions with incomplete data ➡️ Enter a Smart CRM. 

“Today the hybrid team is only as good as the data that powers it. But here’s the problem,” Ng continued. “Most of your data is tracked in emails or calls or conversations. We call this whole data set unstructured data and it makes up about 80% of your data today.”

The reimagined Smart CRM automatically captures and records these scattered insights so everyone can see and use them. 

The organizations that thrive will be the ones curious enough to experiment with these new ways of working, willing to lean into change, and those learning to think differently about what's possible.

As Rangan emphasized, AI-powered playbooks, CRMs and teams aren’t about replacing people. They’re about amplifying what makes each person and role uniquely valuable.

As we all learn how to work differently, we’ll need a few new tools to help us. 

So let's explore which releases will be key for revenue operations, marketing, sales, and service teams ready to evolve how they work.

RevOps Leaders

The fall spotlight is focused on uniting data across systems and teams, so there are many features for RevOps leaders to explore. Here’s three to start with:

Smart CRM 

Teams waste time on manual data entry and research while valuable customer insights sit trapped in call transcripts, emails, and service tickets.

Smart CRM automatically captures and organizes customer data from all interactions while providing role-specific views of the same unified information.

• Flexible Views display the same record data in different formats (Kanban boards, timeline, maps) so sales can see pipeline stages while service sees case workflows, all from one unified dataset. 
• Self-Generating Data completes records with contact details that are automatically pulled from email signatures (ex. Title, phone number, and location), backup contacts from out-of-office messages, and return to office dates.
• Smart Insights & Alerts proactively flag account changes, risk indicators, and growth opportunities with AI-powered analysis that alerts teams to important shifts in activity. 

Data Hub (formerly Operations Hub)

Teams waste hours manually exporting, cleaning, and importing data between disconnected systems leaving key customer data unusable. 

Data Hub transforms the existing Operations Hub (the technical RevOps hero of HubSpot) into a user-friendly platform for connecting data sources and improving data quality.

• Data Studio provides a spreadsheet-like interface that helps users combine data from multiple sources (apps, data warehouses, spreadsheets) without coding skills or developer resources. 
• Data Quality continuously monitors your CRM and can be set up to automatically fix common issues like formatting problems, duplicates, and missing information before they affect campaigns or reporting. 
• Custom Deduplication Rules allow you to set specific rules for how duplicates should be handled, with options to automatically merge selected records or flag them for review based on your business needs. 

HubSpot CPQ 

Eighty-six percent of B2B deals stall during the quoting process due to manual creation workflows, approval delays, and disconnected revenue data that breaks sales momentum.

HubSpot CPQ in Commerce Hub integrates AI-powered quote generation with billing and payments directly in HubSpot, meaning deals flow smoothly from Sales Hub to Commerce Hub, eliminating the need to leave the CRM to close deals.

• AI-Generated Quotes create complete branded quotes in minutes, including cover letters, executive summaries, and recipient emails. 
• This unified revenue platform keeps all deal data, quote building, sending, and payment processing in one system, giving teams visibility to all key pieces of the deal.
• CPQ streamlines the buyer experience with interactive quotes instead of static PDFs, enabling self-service changes and payment processing without back-and-forth communications. 

Note: HubSpot CPQ is currently optimized for smaller organizations (under 200 employees, under 100 SKUs in a simpler product catalog).

Marketing Teams

Marketing Studio 

Marketing teams often jump between tools to plan, create, and build campaigns while struggling to maintain team visibility and alignment.

Marketing Studio combines campaign planning, visualization, communication and execution into one whiteboard-style interface. 

• Visual Campaign Canvas helps teams plan multi-channel campaigns on a large canvas with sticky notes, comments, and task assignments that eliminate switching between external planning white-board or project management tools. 
• AI Campaign Generation lets marketers add a brief and receive campaign strategies with channel recommendations, content drafts, and scheduling suggestions. Marketers can combine this with AI tools like Content Remix for asset creation. 
• Asset management is simplified because teams can create, edit, and track all campaign assets (emails, social posts, landing pages) in one place. See asset status (draft, scheduled) and performance metrics directly on the studio canvas. 

Access Note: To use Marketing Studio, you must turn on your "Give users access to generative AI tools and features" in AI settings. Learn more about managing your AI settings.

Segments and Personalization

Manual audience building and creating personalized experiences often requires so much time and variant creation that it just isn’t prioritized at many organizations.

Segments and Personalization combine intelligent audience creation with dynamic content to deliver personalized experiences optimized for each visitor's behavior and engagement patterns.

• AI-Powered Segment Intelligence automatically identifies high-performing audience clusters by combining engagement levels with behavioral patterns (ex. Site visits or email opens) to build segments with a high likelihood of converting. 
• Dynamic Content Personalization creates multiple targeted versions of landing pages and CTAs that automatically display different content based on visitor segments (ex. Industry or location), site behavior, and Breeze intelligence data without manual set-up.
• Performance Optimization shows both segment performance comparison and personalization variant testing, with AI recommendations for content changes and audience refinements in one integrated dashboard.

AI-Powered Email

Email creation and optimizations takes more time than any marketer wants to admit. Anyone who has migrated existing email templates from one platform to another knows it’s a headache. 

Now, AI-Powered Email streamlines email migration and optimization through AI-powered template generation and personalized send timing.

• Instant Template Migration speeds up the process by converting any HTML email into ready-to-send HubSpot templates in seconds, eliminating hours of manual rebuilding and migration barriers. 
• Dynamic AI Personalization generates unique content for every recipient using CRM data through simple prompts. This moves beyond basic merge tags to create truly personalized emails without coding expertise. 
• Intelligent Send Optimization lets you set send times at the contact and campaign level to increase engagement, plus it flags performance anomalies so you can improve future campaigns. 

Sales Rep

Prospecting Agent 

Sales teams miss critical buying signals because they rely on reactive prospecting approaches and generic outreach that doesn't resonate. 

The updated Prospecting Agent creates proactive, continuous engagement that monitors prospects throughout the entire sales cycle and personalizes outreach. 

• Continuous Signal Monitoring watches prospects for buying signals throughout the entire sales cycle instead of just initial contact stages. It alerts reps to optimal engagement moments they would otherwise miss. 
• Advanced Selling Profiles let resps customize prospecting strategies by industry, customer segment, and buying patterns using detailed prompting instructions. 
• Enhanced Control & Global Reach add much-needed guardrails like weekdays-only sending, specific send-time windows, as well as tone and voice parameters. Plus multilingual email creation for international outreach. 

Self-Generating Data

Teams waste hours manually updating CRM records with information from calls, emails, and research while valuable insights from conversations sit unused and records become outdated. 

Now, key data will automatically be captured and enriched in contact records using AI analysis of email signatures, call transcripts, and communications to eliminate manual data entry.

• Email Signature Intelligence pulls phone numbers, job titles, locations, and other contact details directly from email signatures without any manual input or setup required
• Auto-Response Context Capture monitors out-of-office messages to capture return dates and automatically identifies backup contacts mentioned in "If urgent, contact..." messages for seamless relationship continuity
• Conversation Data Mining analyzes call transcripts, email threads, and meeting notes to automatically populate custom fields and capture industry-specific insights that standard data fields miss
  
  

Smart CRM Views 

Sales teams struggle to visualize territory performance and identify regional growth opportunities. 

New view options give sales teams visual formats including maps, Kanban boards, charts, timelines, and Gantt views that reveal insights specific to each team's workflow needs.

• Territory Map Visualization displays customer data geographically so teams can identify regional performance patterns, plan territories effectively, and spot growth opportunities.
• Role-Specific Visual Formats let each person switch between table, board, calendar, Gantt, and report views that work best for them.
• Pattern Recognition surfaces hidden trends and insights immediately through visual representations instead of manually scrolling through rows of data or creating complex custom filters.
  
  

Service Teams

Data Agent 

Customer service teams waste hours manually researching account history and customer context before each interaction. 

Data Agent automatically researches and answers custom questions about customers by analyzing CRM data, conversations, documents, and web sources to provide complete account context instantly.

• Data Agent answers specific questions like "What issues has this customer had in the past 6 months?" or "Are they mentioning competitors in recent calls?" by analyzing all CRM data, support tickets, and conversation history without manual research
• Reps have complete context, including information from support cases, call transcripts, emails, and web research in unified customer insights so they understand the full situation before picking up the phone.
• Proactive Risk Detection identifies potential risks by analyzing customer sentiment patterns, usage changes, and communication tone across all touchpoints to help service teams address issues before they escalate.

Smart Insights

Customer service teams spend hours manually reviewing case histories, email threads, and account data to understand customer context and sentiment before each interaction, often missing critical changes that could prevent escalations. 

Automatically analyzes all customer data to surface sentiment changes, performance shifts, and key account developments directly on contact records without manual review.

• AI Catch-Up Cards display customer sentiment changes, recent interaction summaries, and missing context directly on contact records so service reps understand the full situation before engaging with customers. 
• Proactive Risk Alerts monitor customer health indicators and automatically flag accounts showing signs of dissatisfaction, usage drops, or communication pattern changes that could signal risk. 
• Smart Digest Notifications deliver daily or weekly summaries of important account changes, performance trends, and recommended actions so service teams stay ahead of issues. 

Your AI Team

Breeze Assistant (formerly Breeze Copilot) & Custom Assistants 

Teams use external AI tools like ChatGPT for business tasks, but these tools lack CRM data context and company process understanding, leading to generic responses that don't leverage available customer information. 

Provides ChatGPT-like AI that understands your business context and connects to your entire tech stack while remembering conversation history and preferences.

• Breeze now provides business context integration that connects to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Slack while understanding CRM data to provide relevant, actionable responses instead of generic advice that ignores your customer history and processes. 
• Persistent Memory remembers your preferences and conversation history across sessions with availability on both desktop and the new mobile Breeze app, eliminating the need to restart conversations from scratch. 

Breeze Marketplace & Studio

Generic AI that doesn't understand your specific business and needs complex setup slows you down more than it speeds you up.

Breeze Marketplace & Studio provide a unified platform for discovering, customizing, and deploying AI agents tailored to specific business processes without requiring technical expertise.

• Agent Discovery Hub allows teams to browse, install, and configure HubSpot-built agents organized by marketing, sales, and service functions without technical expertise.
• Custom Assistant Creation enables businesses to build specialized AI for unique tasks like ICP analysis or industry-specific guidance using intuitive configuration tools.
• Unified AI Management consolidates the entire AI experience from discovery through deployment in one platform, eliminating the need for multiple AI subscriptions.

HubSpot Spotlights are exciting, but they can be overwhelming too. 

Let’s all follow Karen Ng’s INBOUND keynote advice: "Pick one process and ask how you can put the hybrid team to work." 

Uniting Data & Teams for Growth

If you prefer to get your updates while you're commuting or walking the dog, download our most recent episode of RevOps Champions. 

I sat down with Alise Kostick, RevOps Strategist at Denamico, to break down key releases in just 20 minutes. 

Listen to the full episode here or find RevOps Champions wherever you get your podcasts.

Need help prioritizing or implementing these new opportunities? We’re here to help!

Let’s talk.