At Zoho’s SMZ 2025 event, I sat down with Guru Raja Subbaiah Pillai Jawahar of Zoho Bigin to discuss the platform’s latest announcements. The conversation revealed how Bigin is doubling down on helping small businesses cut costs, save time, and improve customer relationships by integrating booking tools, accounting platforms, and privacy-friendly AI.
Built-In Appointment Management with Booking Pages
Guru explained one of the headline features: Booking Pages, an appointment scheduling tool that’s now baked directly into Bigin.
“Almost every small business would need an appointment management tool like calendar booking tool,” Guru said. “So right now, so far if someone is using Bigin for appointment booking needs, they need to go for some some other third party tool or any other a separate tool they have to buy a separate tool for managing their calendar, calendar booking. So right now the booking page is with the booking pages announcement. That actually eliminates that, so you don’t have to buy a separate software for booking management.”
For small business owners, this change removes the hassle of syncing two different systems and paying for separate tools. Now, appointment scheduling lives inside the CRM where customer data already resides.
Accounting and Payments: Closing the Gap with QuickBooks and Shopify
Zoho also announced deeper integrations with QuickBooks Online, Shopify, and payment gateways. These features address one of the most persistent headaches for small business owners: time-to-cash and reconciliation.
“If you don’t have this integration, you have to actually work with two siloed applications,” Guru explained. “Bigin will have all the information about your customers and QuickBooks will have all the information about your accounts like invoices, estimates or reconciliations. So with this integration, it actually bridges the gap.”
Now, opening a customer record in Bigin shows invoice and payment details from QuickBooks without the need to toggle between platforms. Small teams benefit from faster payments and fewer accounting errors.
Privacy-Friendly AI: On-Device Models
Another standout announcement is Bigin’s adoption of on-device AI for mobile users. For small businesses concerned with privacy, this approach minimizes the risks of sending sensitive customer data to the cloud.
“So since these are, you know on device like for instance Gemini. We take almost every data will be on device, there is no, there is no need for the data to go to a cloud service. So that’s the main concept behind this. On device AI assistant features,” Guru explained.
While these smaller AI models are still in early stages and may occasionally produce “hallucinations,” they come with clear benefits: offline functionality and enhanced privacy. “If users are concerned about privacy then on device AI features would help that,” Guru noted.
This makes the tool especially valuable for business owners in rural areas or locations with unreliable internet connections.
Prebuilt AI Agents: Guardrails for Real-World Use
Zoho also rolled out three prebuilt AI agents inside Bigin:
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Reply Assistant
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Cross Sell Genie
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Churn Analyzer
These agents promise to help small businesses respond faster, identify upsell opportunities, and prevent customer churn. But AI is only helpful if it avoids costly mistakes.
Guru reassured users: “If you are not, you know completely confident about an AI bot sending cross selling e-mail to your customer, what you can do is you can actually make it just create a draft inside your Bigin account instead of sending it to the customer.”
This gives admins oversight, ensuring no irrelevant offers go out automatically. Business owners can choose whether AI produces suggestions as drafts, notes, or ready-to-send emails.
Admin Controls and Future Flexibility
When asked about customization, Guru noted that Bigin’s AI agents are rule-based for now. Businesses can upload knowledge documents that shape how the agents behave. While advanced parameters aren’t yet user-facing, Guru suggested more options could be added via Zoho’s Zia Agent Studio in the future.
For small teams, this staged rollout offers a safe way to adopt AI while maintaining control over customer-facing communication.
Connecting External AI with Zoho MCP
Perhaps the most forward-looking announcement was integration with Zoho MCP (Marketplace Connector Platform), which lets small businesses link Bigin with external large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.
“If you would let your customers to, you know, connect their Bigin account with ChatGPT or LLMs like Claud, what they can do is they can get more insights around the CRM data,” Guru said.
For example, businesses could use these integrations to forecast which deals are most likely to close, spot at-risk customers, or analyze which sales team members are outperforming.
This opens the door for small businesses to gain enterprise-level insights without enterprise-level budgets.
Why These Updates Matter for Small Business Owners
Zoho Bigin’s new features reflect a clear theme: removing friction. Small business owners juggle endless tasks—sales, marketing, accounting, scheduling—and often pay for multiple apps that don’t talk to each other. By consolidating functions into one CRM, Bigin reduces cost, time, and complexity.
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Cost savings: One subscription replaces several third-party tools.
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Efficiency: Integrations with QuickBooks and Shopify eliminate double-entry.
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Control: On-device AI protects sensitive customer data.
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Scalability: AI agents and LLM integrations allow businesses to grow without hiring additional staff.
Guru summarized the value simply: “If you open a customer record in Bigin, it will have all the information … it bridges a gap.”
How to Get Started
Small business owners curious about these updates can explore Bigin directly at bigin.com. As Guru concluded: “Just go to bigin.com and every everything will be there.”
With these updates, Zoho Bigin positions itself as more than just an entry-level CRM. It’s becoming a hub where sales, finance, scheduling, and AI come together—tailored to the needs and budgets of small businesses.