Gartner Customer Service & Support Conference: Day 2 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the final day of the Gartner Customer Service and Support Conference in Denver, CO. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. 

On Day 2 from the conference, we are highlighting how human roles will evolve with automation, the rise of the AI-first customer and how to use AI to improve CX.

Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

• Gartner Survey Reveals Just 4% of Customer Service Leaders Have Achieved The Expected ROI of Their AI Initiatives
• Gartner Survey Finds 21% of Service and Support Leaders Have Reduced Human Agent Headcount Because of AI

Presented by Andy West, Director Analyst, Gartner  

As AI automates an increasing share of routine customer service interactions, organizations face a new challenge of how to build a workforce capable of handling the complex, emotionally charged and high-value work that remains. In this session, Andy West, Director Analyst in Gartner's Customer Service Practice, explained how service leaders can redesign hiring strategies, expand talent pipelines and build complementary teams that maximize the unique strengths of humans in an AI-first environment. 

• The question is no longer whether AI will automate Tier 1 work. The question is: what happens when it does?” 

• “Organizations that wait to rethink their workforce strategy will find themselves competing for the same scarce talent as everyone else. The window to secure a human advantage is closing.”  

• “By 2029, AI will automate 70% of current customer service tasks, but total task volumes will increase as AI creates new opportunities for value-added services. Human work isn't disappearing. It's evolving.” 

• “The AI-first service organization requires adaptability, resilience, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and AI literacy, not just experience handling repetitive customer transactions.”  

• “The goal isn't to find unicorn employees who excel at everything. The goal is to build complementary teams where different strengths come together to solve problems that neither AI nor any one individual could solve alone.” 

   

  Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Andy West by contacting Jordan Brackenbury-Cox at jordan.brackenbury@gartner.com.

Presented by Daniel O’Sullivan, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner

Organizations have long used technology to automate their interactions with customers, but now customers are increasingly using AI to automate their side of the relationship. In this session, Daniel O’Sullivan, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner, explained how the rise of the AI customer will reduce the effort required to interact with companies, potentially increasing demand while weakening organizations’ direct relationships with customers. 

• “Customers are already performing unpaid work for organizations by navigating fragmented journeys, interpreting confusing policies, repeating information and chasing promised outcomes. AI agents give them a way to automate that work.” 

• “AI changes the economics of customer demand. As the effort required to pursue an answer or resolution falls, millions of decisions that previously ended with ‘it’s not worth the hassle’ become a simple ‘why not?’” 

• "Customers delegating tasks to AI is the latest trend: Personal AI agents extend AI’s role from assisting customers with tasks to carrying out the tasks on their behalf.

• “Sixty percent of B2B customers and 47% of consumers have consulted generative AI before making a purchase.” 

• “Customers are already three times more likely to consult a third-party generative AI tool than a company-provided chatbot when they need help.” 

   

  Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Daniel O’Sullivan by contacting Jordan Brackenbury-Cox at jordan.brackenbury@gartner.com.