Customer-Facing Conversational GenAI to Hit Critical Mass in 2025

Eighty-five percent of customer service leaders will explore or pilot customer-facing conversational generative artificial intelligence solutions this year, according to a survey by Gartner.

The research found that 44 percent of leaders are exploring customer-facing genAI voicebots, while 11 percent are already piloting this technology, and 5 percent have already deployed it.

“More than seventy-five percent of customer service and support leaders said they feel pressure from executive leadership to implement genAI,” says Kim Hedlin, senior research principal in the Gartner Customer Service and 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, with primary responsibility for identifying new AI opportunities, road-mapping the evolution of AI activities, and driving adoption.

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61 percent say they have a backlog of articles to edit, and more than one-third have no formal process for revising outdated articles.

“To overcome these challenges, service and support leaders need to dedicate resources to building an AI-optimized knowledge base,” Hedlin says.

Customer service and support leaders are also gaining responsibility for supporting enterprise growth by cross-selling/upselling and providing insights to other business functions. Though cross-selling/upselling is hardly a new concept, the recent focus on it has grown significantly, Hedlin says.

“There are a number of factors contributing to increased interest in this topic,” Hedlin says. “Twenty-one percent of business leaders said that increasing revenue or generating revenue through sales was their top priority.”

Companies can increase focus on cross-selling/upselling because generative AI is handling more mundane, time-consuming duties, such as call summaries, according to Hedlin.

In addition to offloading some work, agent assist tools provide agents with quick product information and a better understanding of customer context and can suggest next best actions during customer interactions.

“The risk of someone making a sales pitch at the wrong time or to the wrong customer isn’t as high,” Hedlin says.

AI/generative AI has also improved self-service capabilities and customer satisfaction with self-service, leaving opportunities for agents to cross-sell/upsell, the report found.

Self-preservation is another factor in the increased focus in cross-selling/upselling, according to Hedlin. With executives looking to reduce headcount in contact centers, improved cross-selling/upselling helps contact center leaders and top agents keep their jobs.

Along with helping agents have more time and better insight for cross-selling/upselling, there will be an increased focus on AI for customer service professionals because the C-suite wants it implemented, according to Hedlin. To strengthen their understanding of what’s possible with AI, customer service leaders will dedicate time to their own technology literacy.

A common problem is that leaders try to implement some technologies without understanding the complexity or risks, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with genAI.

“They are aware of what the risks are,” Hedlin says. “There aren’t any executives thinking that they are going to replace their entire customer service organizations with a team of bots. The majority of people that we interviewed had realistic expectations.”

Customer service leaders want to increase their AI acumen so they know what they can actually do with the technology and do it safely, Hedlin adds.