Half of businesses rethink ditching humans for customer service bots

Agentless contact center 'not yet technically feasible, nor operationally desirable'

Good news for consumers frustrated by wading through pools of AI treacle in search of customer service - businesses are reportedly turning back to human agents "amid AI integration challenges."

In a report released by Gartner, half of the organizations it surveyed said that plans to significantly reduce their customer service workforce would be abandoned by 2027, "highlighting the complexities or challenges of transitioning to AI-driven customer service models."

The poll of 163 customer service and support leaders found that almost all (95 percent) planned to retain human agents alongside AI, "avoiding the pitfalls of a hasty transition to an agentless model."

Anyone who has dealt with a business that has removed humans from its customer service portal will be nodding sagely. A failure to understand what AI can and cannot do has led to some hasty rollouts and big promises that have resulted in customers having to either navigate through systems so restricted that they might as well be navigating a choose-your-own-adventure book, or come up against the brick wall of an AI unable to understand or resolve their query.

Kathy Ross, a senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, said: "While AI offers significant potential to transform customer service, it is not a panacea. The human touch remains irreplaceable in many interactions."

Someone better tell BT, it is planning to expunge 10,000 customer service reps by 2030.

Brian Weber, VP analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice, told The Register that projects where businesses expected generative AI to solve all their customers' queries "are not going as planned due to both the results and the unexpected costs."

"Customer service and support leaders expect cost savings from generative AI, but they often can underestimate the total cost of ownership, making savings difficult to realize," he added.

"Customers want to be able to reach a human agent. Being able to reach a customer service employee was the second-highest priority for customers in a service interaction.

"This may be the result of rising customer concerns that GenAI may jeopardize access to a human for support, as news headlines claim that organizations are slashing frontline headcount and replacing agents with AI assistants.

"In fact, 51 percent of customers report that they trust human agents the most for customer service issue resolution, while only 7 percent would trust an AI the most. Moreover, 62 percent express concern that AI will make it more difficult to reach a human agent."

Weber told us that a third of the businesses Gartner surveyed said that most of their customer service volume would still be handled by live agents, while those that planned more automation would spend any cost savings arising from a reduced workforce on new technology investments.

"Our vendor evaluations reveal that a agentless contact center is not yet technically feasible, nor is it operationally desirable," he said. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like