Zoho CRM's Zia AI engine can surface records that closely resemble a given record — useful for spotting duplicates, finding related prospects, or cross-referencing accounts — all through a single API call.
Why this matters
When you need to programmatically identify records that share similar characteristics to a known record, manually scanning your CRM is impractical at scale. The Zia similar records endpoint lets you automate this lookup within any supported module, feeding the results into downstream workflows, deduplication routines, or recommendation engines. This is especially valuable when combined with Zia's broader intelligence features, such as churn scoring, where understanding record similarity can sharpen predictions. [3]
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Step-by-step
Step 1. Understand the endpoint structure.
The operation you need is a GET request sent to /{m}/{rid}/zia/similar_records, where {m} is the module API name (for example, Leads, Contacts, or Deals) and {rid} is the unique record ID you want to find similarities for. [1]
Step 2. Identify your two required parameters.
Before making the call, gather the following:
m— the API name of the Zoho CRM module containing your source record.rid— the unique identifier of the specific record whose similar records you want to retrieve.
Both parameters are mandatory; the request will not resolve without them. [1][2]
Step 3. Construct and send the request.
Using whichever HTTP client or SDK you prefer, issue a GET request to the fully resolved path. In Python, the call looks like this:
result = client.get_zia_similar_records(m="Leads", rid="4876876000000123456")Internally this resolves to GET /Leads/4876876000000123456/zia/similar_records against the Zoho CRM API base URL. [1][2]
Step 4. Handle the response.
The response body will contain the records that Zia has identified as similar to the one you specified. Parse the returned payload according to your use case — for instance, flagging potential duplicates, pre-populating related-record suggestions, or feeding similarity scores into a reporting dashboard. [2]
Step 5. Iterate across modules as needed.
Because the module name is a path parameter rather than a fixed value, you can reuse the same call pattern across any CRM module by swapping {m}. This makes it straightforward to build a loop that checks similarity across Contacts, Leads, and Accounts in a single script run. [1]
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Common pitfalls
- Wrong module API name. The
{m}parameter must match the exact API name of the module, not its display label. For example, useContactsnotcontactorCONTACTS. An incorrect value will return an error or an empty result set. [1] - Invalid or inaccessible record ID. If
{rid}belongs to a record the authenticated user cannot access, or if the ID is malformed, the endpoint will not return useful data. Always validate the record ID before constructing the request. [1] - Zia features not enabled. Zia's intelligence capabilities, including similarity detection, must be active for your organisation. If Zia has not been configured or is unavailable on your plan, the endpoint may return no results even for valid inputs. [3]
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What to check
- Confirm the module API name by navigating to your Zoho CRM setup and verifying the exact string used in the API — display names and API names can differ.
- Verify record ID format by cross-referencing the
ridvalue against a known record retrieved via the standard records API before calling the Zia endpoint. - Confirm Zia is active in your organisation's settings, as the similar records feature depends on Zia's analytical engine being enabled and trained on your data. [3]
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*Beam Help is an independent expert support resource for Zoho products and is not official Zoho support. For platform-level entitlement questions, contact Zoho directly.*