Good news for consumers who are frustrated by roaming AI's street pools in search of customer service. Companies are reportedly returning to human agents “among the challenges of AI integration.”
A report released by Gartner said half of the organizations surveyed would abandon plans to significantly reduce their customer service workforce by 2027.
A poll of 163 customer service and support leaders found that almost all (95%) plan to maintain human agents along with AI.
Anyone who deals with a business that has eliminated humans from the customer service portal will nod wisely. Unable to understand what AI can and cannot, it leads to a rushed rollout and a big promise, and customers can either navigate through the selected book of adventure or come across an AI brick wall that cannot understand or solve queries.
“AI offers great potential to transform customer service, but it's not a panacea. In many interactions, the human touch remains irreplaceable.”
Someone plans to remove 10,000 customer service representatives from BT by 2030.
Brian Weber, VP analyst at Gartner Customer Service & Support Practices, said Register The projects that companies expected generative AI to solve all customer questions were “not as planned due to both the outcome and unexpected costs.”
“Customer service and support leaders expect cost savings from generated AI, but in many cases, they underestimate the total cost of ownership and make savings difficult,” he added.
“Customers want to be able to reach human agents. Being able to reach customer service employees was a second-highest priority for customers in service interactions.
“This could be the result of growing customer concerns that Genai could put human access at risk for support, as it claims that organizations are cutting frontline personnel and replacing agents with AI assistants.
“In fact, 51% of customers report that they trust human agents the most for solving customer service problems, while only 7% trust AI the most. What's more, 62% express concern that it will make it more difficult for AI to reach human agents.”
Weber said a third of the businesses surveyed will still be able to handle the majority of customer service volumes by live agents, but those planning more automation will spend the cost savings arising from a reduction in the workforce of new technology investments.
“Our vendor evaluations make it clear that agentless contact centers are still technically unfeasible and operationally undesirable,” he said. ®
