Eighty-five per cent of customer service leaders will explore or pilot a generative AI (genAI) solution to a costumer facing role in 2025, according to Gartner, Inc.

A Gartner survey of 187 customer service and support leaders conducted in July and August 2024 found that nearly half (44%) of leaders report exploring a customer-facing GenAi voicebot, in addition to 11% who are already piloting this technology, and 5% who have this solution deployed.

“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, 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.”

The customer service and support function is playing a leading role when it comes to GenAI – for some responsibilities, more so than IT.

The survey found customer service leaders have primary responsibility for identifying new AI opportunities, roadmapping the evolution of AI activities, and driving adoption.

IT organisations have more responsibility when it comes to building, developing and sustaining AI solutions, as well as running, maintaining and supporting these solutions.

Under pressure from executive leadership to make GenAI 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.

Recommended reading

• Over Half of UK Businesses Don’t See AI Adoption as a Priority
• Report Reveals Top Trends Driving IT Purchasing
• Snappy Shopper | Scotland’s Blueprint For eCommerce Success?

Despite leaders’ eagerness to implement GenAI, many face barriers to effective adoption. Many customer service and support leaders will deploy conversational GenAI that relies on a well-maintained knowledge library.

However, 61% of leaders say they have a backlog of articles to edit, and more than one-third of leaders have no formal process for revising outdated articles.

“Service and support leaders are eager to deploy conversational GenAI, but they cannot ignore existing issues with knowledge management,” said Hedlin. “To overcome these challenges, service and support leaders need to dedicate resources to building an AI-optimized knowledge base in order to achieve their objectives.”