AI-Driven Customer Service Requests From Autonomous Agents To Drastically Increase, Says Gartner
Much of the focus on artificial intelligence’s impacts on customer service has been on increasing efficiency by having bots address basic questions, but AI agents are set to become much more autonomous, able to handle complex tasks on their own, according to Gartner.
A March report on agentic AI predicts that it will handle 80% of customer service issues without human interaction by 2029, reducing operational costs by 30%.
“Agentic AI has emerged as a game-changer for customer service, paving the way for autonomous and low-effort customer experiences,” Gartner customer service and support practice senior director analyst Daniel O’Sullivan said in a statement. “Unlike traditional GenAI tools that simply assist users with information, agentic AI will proactively resolve service requests on behalf of customers, marking a new era in customer engagement.”
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Advancing Capabilities
AI agents will be able to navigate websites to cancel memberships and negotiate shipping rates, so companies must shift their infrastructure to respond to humans and their AI tools, routing them through their service model accordingly. Gartner predicts that agentic AI will initiate 50% of all service requests by 2030. That will increase overall service volume but make it more difficult to gauge performance through customer feedback.
“Organizations will need to rethink their approach to managing inbound service interactions, preparing for a future where AI-driven requests become the norm,” O’Sullivan said. “In this future, automation will need to become the dominant strategy for all service teams.”
Agentic AI can also help companies proactively detect issues external AI may find. However, incorporating this technology requires developing guidelines to address data privacy, security, and escalation of customer service issues to human team members.
“As customers increasingly leverage agentic AI-powered agents to initiate, manage, and negotiate service requests on their behalf, service teams must adapt to this transformative shift, embracing new roles and skills to effectively collaborate with these intelligent systems,” O’Sullivan said.
