A recent survey by Gartner found that 85% of customer service leaders plan to explore or start using conversational generative AI (GenAI) solutions in 2025.
The survey included 187 leaders in customer service and support and was done from July to August 2024.
The data showed that 44% of these leaders are considering using a GenAI voicebot, 11% are already testing this technology, and 5% have it fully in use.
“More than seventy-five percent of customer service and support leaders said they feel pressure from executive leadership to implement GenAI,” said Kim Hedlin, Senior Principal of research in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice. “The customer service function has a growing level of influence over AI initiatives. This historically people-and-process driven function has evolved into a technology-focused one.”
Customer service and support teams are taking a leading role in using GenAI, even more than IT in some cases.
The survey found that customer service leaders are mainly responsible for finding new AI opportunities, planning the future of AI activities, and encouraging its use. Under pressure to make GenAI work well, many customer service leaders plan to improve their understanding of technology in 2025.
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64% of these leaders say they will spend more time learning about technology next year, while only 3% plan to spend less time on it. GenAI is in Focus, but Many Leaders Face Challenges Although customer service leaders are keen to use GenAI, many also face challenges.
For GenAI to work well, a well-organized team and knowledge are required. However, 61% of leaders say they have many articles that need to be updated and more than one-third need a proper process for fixing old articles.