In 2025, 85% Of Customer Service Leaders Will Explore Conversational Generative AI: Survey

Eighty-five percent of customer service leaders will explore or pilot a customer-facing conversational generative artificial intelligence solution in 2025, according to a survey by Gartner Inc.

The Gartner survey of 187 customer service and support leaders conducted in July through August 2024 found that 44% of leaders report exploring a customer-facing gen AI voicebot, in addition to 11% who are already piloting this technology, and 5% who have this solution deployed.

Over 75% of customer service and support leaders said they feel pressure from executive leadership to implement gen AI. Under pressure from executive leadership to make gen AI adoption a success, customer service leaders are committing to improve their technology literacy in 2025. Sixty-four percent of service leaders said they plan to spend more time learning about technology next year, compared to just 3%, who plan to spend less time.

The customer service function has a growing level of influence over AI initiatives. The primarily people-and-process driven function has evolved into a technology-focused one. The survey found customer service leaders have primary responsibility for identifying new AI opportunities, roadmapping the evolution of AI activities, and driving the adoption of AI initiatives.

However, despite leaders’ eagerness to implement gen AI, many face barriers to effective adoption. Many customer service and support leaders will deploy conversational gen AI that relies on a well-maintained knowledge library. However, 61% of leaders said they have a backlog of articles to edit. Additionally, more than one-third of leaders have no formal process for revising outdated articles.

To overcome these challenges, service and support leaders need to dedicate resources to building an AI-optimised knowledge base in order to achieve their objectives.