Artificial Intelligence Expected to Manage Approximately 68% of Customer Service and Assistance Tasks by 2028
According to a recent report titled "The Race to an Agentic Future: How Agentic AI Will Transform Customer Experience," more than 80% of respondents see potential benefits of agentic AI-led customer experience at every stage of the technology lifecycle. The report can be found here.
The report underscores the significant role that agentic AI will play in transforming customer experience (CX) for technology vendors by 2028. Agentic AI, which autonomously manages and optimizes customer interactions through proactive, personalized, and predictive engagement at scale, will enable vendors to deliver instant, anticipatory service with minimal human intervention, leading to improved customer loyalty, satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
Key aspects of agentic AI's role and impact include:
- Autonomy and Proactivity: Unlike traditional AI, agentic AI anticipates customer needs, independently resolves issues, suggests personalized products, and orchestrates complex interactions such as checking inventory and scheduling deliveries without human input.
- Personalization and Empathy: Agentic AI adapts to context and customer preferences using multimodal data (voice, text, visual), creating more meaningful and empathetic experiences, especially vital in sectors like finance and retail. It can detect behavioral patterns to provide timely fraud alerts or financial advice.
- Scaling Customer Support: By 2028, agentic AI is projected to handle up to 68% of customer service and support interactions autonomously, freeing human agents to focus on complex issues and strategic customer relationship management. This reduces response times and enhances customer trust.
- Competitive Advantage for Vendors: Organizations that integrate agentic AI effectively will gain a sustainable competitive edge through improved loyalty, increased efficiency, data-driven insights, and scalable, consistent customer engagement. Vendors failing to adopt this technology risk deteriorating customer relationships and higher churn.
- Strategic Imperative: Senior management must invest now to future-proof CX capabilities by adopting agentic AI across the technology lifecycle, ensuring ethical deployment and robust security to maximize benefits and maintain customer trust.
In summary, by 2028, agentic AI will be the backbone of customer-centric technology vendors, driving the shift from reactive to predictive, personalized CX and fundamentally reshaping how businesses engage, support, and grow their customer base in a highly competitive landscape.
Additional resources include a research report, executive blog, and digital newsroom. Other key findings from the report include:
- 92% of respondents find support and services provided by vendors critical in the AI era.
- Customers expect agentic AI to drive improvements in IT productivity, time savings, and cost savings.
- 81% of respondents feel that vendors need to share their vision for AI-led customer experience to bring customers along on the journey.
- 96% of respondents consider human relationships very important when interacting with B2B technology partners.
- Customers want to retain human interaction when engaging with support and services.
- 99% of respondents believe it's important for technology partners to demonstrate robust governance arrangements for ethical use of agentic AI.
Cisco, the worldwide technology leader revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI era, remains committed to creating a more connected and inclusive future for all. The company is dedicated to ensuring that agentic AI is deployed ethically and securely to deliver the best possible customer experience while maintaining customer trust.
- The potential benefits of agentic AI in transforming customer experience are significant and wide-ranging, with the technology expected to handle up to 68% of customer interactions autonomously by 2028, as outlined in a recent report on "The Race to an Agentic Future: How Agentic AI Will Transform Customer Experience."
- Agentic AI, which provides proactive, personalized, and predictive engagement at scale, is set to revolutionize customer experience for technology vendors, according to the report, enabling them to deliver instant, anticipatory service with minimal human intervention, leading to improved performance, customer loyalty, satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
- The report emphasizes the importance of human relationships in the AI era, with 99% of respondents believing it's crucial for technology partners to demonstrate robust governance arrangements for ethical use of agentic AI to maintain customer trust.
- In light of the digital transformation driven by agentic AI, senior management must invest in ethical deployment and robust security measures to future-proof customer experience capabilities, as highlighted in the report, ensuring a sustainable competitive edge for vendors and minimizing the risk of deteriorating customer relationships and higher churn.
