A growing number of customer service leaders are prioritising generative AI (GenAI) technology, with 85% planning to explore or pilot customer-facing conversational GenAI solutions by 2025, according to research by Gartner.
The survey found that while 44% are currently exploring customer-facing GenAI voicebots, 11% are piloting the technology, and 5% have already deployed it. This surge in interest reflects mounting pressure from executive teams, with over 75% of leaders feeling a push to implement GenAI initiatives.
“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.”
Customer service leaders are taking on significant responsibility for AI adoption, often more than IT teams. They are spearheading efforts to identify AI opportunities, design roadmaps, and drive adoption across their organisations. As a result, 64% of leaders plan to invest more time in improving their technology literacy in 2025 to meet these demands. However, barriers remain.
Most (61%) of leaders report a backlog of articles needing updates in their knowledge libraries—a critical component for conversational GenAI to function effectively. Additionally, over one-third of respondents have no formal process to revise outdated information, creating obstacles to seamless implementation.
“Service and support leaders are eager to deploy conversational GenAI, but they cannot ignore existing issues with knowledge management. 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,” added Hedlin.
As the role of customer service evolves, leaders need to balance innovation with foundational improvements to ensure GenAI adoption delivers meaningful outcomes for both organisations and customers.