Tool Deep Dive: Power User Plays with Attio

If you're running your GTM motion on Attio, you're already operating on a different level. More than a flexible CRM, Attio’s AI-native infrastructure makes it agentic: a system that doesn’t just store data but actively understands, reasons, and acts. In other words, Attio is built like an always-on RevOps teammate.

Most teams today use Attio as a smarter database, using AI features in isolation. The best-in-class GTM teams combine these capabilities, transforming their digital ledger into an orchestration engine that senses opportunities, analyzes them, and executes - superpowering sales with a dynamic, on-demand thought partner. 

Let's break down five ways they're doing it, drawing from Attio's own playbook on objects, research agents, call intelligence, sequences, and AI attributes. And if you’re already on Zams (and you should be!) we’ve added tips to help you prompt your way to cross-tool pro plays.

‍

1. Build a semantic brain, not just a data model

The Standard Play: Creating custom objects in Attio to match your business model: Workspaces for PLG, Buyers and Sellers for a marketplace. It's a solid start for mirroring your business structure without the rigidity of legacy CRMs.

The Power Play: The elite move is treating Attio Objects as the semantic foundation for AI agency. These aren't isolated tables; they're graphs where every link adds context that Attio's AI can reason over. Connect a Deal object to Users for product usage signals, layer in call transcripts, and suddenly your CRM isn't just holding data - it's understanding relationships. This is how teams like Modal turn Objects into a living model that powers agentic behaviors, like auto-scoring leads based on interconnected attributes.

Zams Pro Tip: 

True agency requires feeding the graph with fresh data from everywhere. With Zams, you can pipe in data from your warehouse, enriching your Attio Objects with ground truth from your other systems.

‍

2. Research Agents in workflows: automate curiosity, not just tasks

The Standard Play: Using workflows for basic triggers—deal stage changes create tasks, data updates clean attributes. It's efficient for keeping processes on rails.

‍The Power Play: Power users flip workflows into an investigative powerhouse by embedding the Research Agent. This AI doesn't just follow rules; it scours the web for nuance, answering questions like "Does this company fit our ICP based on their recent pivots?" or "Who are their key decision-makers post-funding round?" It turns workflows from reactive automation into proactive intelligence gathering, automating the "judgment" part of prospecting that used to eat hours. Attio’s building agents that handle complex, human-like reasoning.

Zams Pro Tip: 

Once the Agent uncovers an opportunity, don't let the momentum die. Orchestrate the handoff to keep things moving.

‍

3. Turn conversations into structured gold

‍The Standard Play: Letting Call Intelligence transcribe and summarize meetings, freeing reps to focus on the dialogue instead of notes.

The Power Play: The advanced play is Call Intelligence as your unstructured data pipeline. Custom templates instruct the AI to extract not just words, but intent: buying signals, objections, tone, even body language cues from video. It structures this into your Objects graph, feeding AI attributes and workflows. Teams are turning every call into a data event that triggers actions, like auto-flagging churn risks or surfacing expansion ops. This embodies Attio's multi-modal AI vision: a CRM that "hears" and "sees" like a teammate, making every interaction fuel for agency.

Zams Pro Tip: 

Extracted insights are even more valuable when they spark immediate action. Bridge the gap to your comms tools for seamless follow-through.

‍

4. AI Attributes as your on-demand RevOps analyst

The Standard Play: Using AI Attributes to auto-fill basics, like categorizing a company by industry or summarizing a record.

The Power Play: Savvy teams deploy them as a reasoning layer over their data graph. Prompts like "Based on call intelligence and product usage, what's the renewal risk score?" or "Classify this lead's pain points from their website and our interactions" turn attributes into a dynamic analyst. It's not filling blanks; it's synthesizing insights across structured and unstructured data, enabling agentic behaviors like auto-segmenting PQLs or flagging high-intent accounts. This is Attio's closed-loop system in action—data informing decisions that refine the data itself.

Zams Pro Tip: 

When an attribute uncovers a hot signal, automate the response to capitalize on it right away.

‍

5. Turning cadences into signal-driven symphonies

‍The Standard Play: Building multi-step email sequences for outbound, with smart sending like time-zone awareness and auto-pauses.

‍The Power Play: The real orchestration comes when sequences are the action arm of your AI-native CRM. Trigger them not from lists, but from signals across the system - a Research Agent spotting funding news, Call Intelligence flagging interest, or an AI Attribute scoring a lead. This creates hyper-personalized, timely engagement, like renewal nudges based on usage drops or expansion pitches tied to competitor mentions. It's the full agentic loop: sense, analyze, act—all within Attio's ecosystem.

‍Zams Pro Tip: 

Feed the sequence with fresh, enriched data to keep the orchestra in tune.

What separates good Attio users from the great ones is embracing its agentic core: letting AI handle the understanding and action so your team can focus on strategy. And Zams turns agency into action, by automating out your cross-stack admin.

What plays are we missing? Let us know in the comments!