---
title: "Personalize a playlist or deal room for an account with AI Mode"
slug: "/help/playlists/ai-mode-personalization"
tags: ["playlists","deal-rooms","ai-mode","ai","crm","salesforce","hubspot","personalization","demo center"]
description: "Use AI Mode to tailor a playlist or deal room to an account with read-only CRM context from Salesforce or HubSpot, web research, and the buyer's brand."
product: "playlists"
sidebar_label: "Personalize with AI Mode"
last_updated: "2026-10-22T12:23:29.724Z"
---

## **Overview**

**AI Mode** can tailor a playlist or deal room to a specific account. It reads the deal from your connected CRM (**Salesforce** or **HubSpot**), researches the company on the web, and picks up the buyer's brand, then writes the copy, picks the demos, and styles the hub around what it found.

All of this is read-only on the outside world: AI Mode never writes back to your CRM, and nothing it learns in a conversation is saved to your account's AI settings.

### **Snapshot 📸**

**Feature Status:** Generally available · consumes AI credits
**Role Access:** Anyone who can edit the playlist or deal room
**Location:** Playlist or deal room editor → **AI Mode** in the top command bar
**CRM:** Salesforce or HubSpot connected in **Settings → Integrations** (only needed for CRM context; web research works without one)

---

## **Try it**

Type prompts like these in the AI Mode panel:

- "Build a room for Acme from the open opportunity"
- "Personalize this playlist for Globex. Pull the deal from Salesforce."
- "Research their competitors and add a why-us section"
- "Use their brand: logo and colors from acme.com"
- "Who are the contacts on this deal? Tailor the welcome to the economic buyer."

For a from-scratch build, AI Mode can gather this context before it proposes its **plan card**, and nothing changes until you approve the plan. See [Build a playlist with AI Mode](/help/playlists/ai-mode) and [Build a deal room with AI Mode](/help/deal-rooms/ai-mode).

---

## **CRM context**

### **Which record AI Mode uses**

AI Mode decides which CRM record to read in this order:

1. **A specific record** you or a previous step already identified.
2. **A name you give it**: "the Acme opportunity". AI Mode searches the CRM by that name.
   - One match: it uses it.
   - Several matches: it lists them and **asks you which one**. It never picks for you.
   - No match: it tells you it couldn't find one.
3. **The deal linked to the room.** With no name given, AI Mode uses the Salesforce opportunity or HubSpot deal the deal room is associated with. To associate one, see [Create a deal room without an opportunity](/help/deal-rooms/create-without-opportunity).

If the room isn't linked and you didn't name an account, AI Mode asks you for the account or opportunity name. Playlists aren't linked to a deal, so in a playlist just name the account.

:::tip
In Salesforce, the name search matches the **opportunity name**. If "Acme" finds nothing, try the opportunity's name as it appears in Salesforce.
:::

### **What it reads**

| Data | Details |
| --- | --- |
| **Opportunity / deal** | Name, and in Salesforce also the account name, stage, and owner |
| **Account** | Name, industry, website, company size, and description |
| **Contacts** | Name, title, and email of the contacts on the deal |
| **Recent activity** | Activity logged on the deal in the CRM: type, subject, date, and summary |

AI Mode uses this to write copy aimed at the real buyer, choose relevant demos, and shape the mutual action plan in a deal room.

### **How it behaves**

- **Read-only.** AI Mode never creates, edits, or deletes anything in your CRM.
- **Cached per conversation.** A lookup is saved with that conversation, and later steps on the same record reuse it instead of calling the CRM again. Start a **New chat** to pick up changes made in the CRM since.
- **Partial data is still used.** If one part (for example, recent activity) can't be loaded, AI Mode carries on with the rest rather than failing.
- **One CRM at a time.** If both are connected, AI Mode reads from Salesforce. HubSpot needs deal sync enabled.

### **Connect a CRM**

CRM context uses your company's existing Walnut CRM integration. Nothing extra to set up for AI Mode.

- [Connect Walnut and Salesforce](/help/integrations/salesforce/connect)
- [HubSpot integration overview](/help/integrations/hubspot/overview)

With no CRM connected, AI Mode says so and keeps working from what you tell it and from web research.

---

## **Web research**

AI Mode can research the account without a CRM:

- **Web search**: finds real facts about the account, its competitors, and its market to ground the copy.
- **Learn from a URL**: paste a link (the buyer's site, a press release) and AI Mode reads the page. It applies to **that conversation only**.
- **Web image search**: finds a real photo when nothing in your Resource Hub fits. AI Mode prefers your Resource Hub first, since web images can carry licensing or quality caveats.
- **Brand logo**: looks up a company's logo from its domain for the header.
- **Brand colors**: give it the buyer's website and it infers their palette from the page, then applies it. If your company has a brand kit set up, AI Mode uses that instead unless you ask for the buyer's colors.

---

## **Variables in personalized rooms**

If your playlist or deal room uses library [variables](/help/demos/personalize/variables/create-variables), each one is filled from the first source that has a value:

1. **CRM**: a [CRM variable](/help/integrations/salesforce/crm-variables) reads its field from the opportunity linked to the room.
2. **Saved value**: a value saved on the room.
3. **Default**: the variable's default value.

Turn on **Preflight** in the editor's variables panel to have senders fill in variable values before they share the link.

---

## **Privacy and data handling**

- **Your company's integration, not your CRM login.** AI Mode reads through the CRM connection your admin set up, so it can look up any opportunity that connection can see.
- **CRM data goes to the AI model.** The account, contact, and activity details AI Mode reads become part of the conversation it reasons over, under the AI terms your company accepted in **Company Settings → AI**.
- **Stored with the conversation.** The CRM snapshot is saved with that AI Mode conversation so the run can reuse it.
- **Review contact details before you share.** AI Mode reads contacts to understand who the buyer is and may use names or titles in copy. Check the hub before you publish if they shouldn't appear.
- **Web research uses public sources.** Search queries, such as a company or competitor name, go to a third-party web search service. Pages AI Mode reads are fetched from the public web.
- **Nothing is saved to your account's AI context.** Pasted URLs and research ground the current conversation only. Account-level AI context is set deliberately in your AI settings.
- **Nothing is published.** AI Mode edits the hub you have open. Sharing it stays your call.

---

## **FAQs**

**Does AI Mode update my CRM?**
No. CRM access is read-only.

**It picked the wrong account. What do I do?**
Tell it the right opportunity name. When a name matches several records, AI Mode asks you to choose. It never guesses.

**I updated the opportunity. Why doesn't AI Mode see it?**
The CRM snapshot is cached for the conversation. Start a **New chat** to read it fresh.

**Can I use it without a CRM?**
Yes. Name the company and AI Mode researches it on the web and from any URL you paste.

**Can it see deals I can't see in Salesforce?**
It uses your company's Walnut CRM connection, so it sees what that connection can see. Talk to your admin about the connection's access if that matters for your team.

---

## **Related Resources**

- [Build a playlist with AI Mode](/help/playlists/ai-mode)
- [Build a deal room with AI Mode](/help/deal-rooms/ai-mode)
- [Create a deal room without an opportunity](/help/deal-rooms/create-without-opportunity)
- [Add CRM variables](/help/integrations/salesforce/crm-variables)
- [AI Control Center](/help/account/ai-control-center)
