GenAI Will Resolve 40 Percent of Customer Service Issues by 2027

By 2027, 40 percent of all customer service issues will be fully resolved by unofficial third-party tools powered by generative artificial intelligence, according to Gartner.

Consumers are increasingly adopting unofficial third-party genAI tools, such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Apple Intelligence, to resolve their customer service issues, the research firm found. Customers prefer these platforms for their convenience and availability, and, as a result, customer service teams should expect a decline in official first-party service volume, it says.

“There is a transformation in customer behavior and a reset in their expectations with genAI continuing to reshape the customer service landscape,” says Daniel O’Sullivan, senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support Practice. “As customers increasingly self-solve issues through genAI-enabled tools, there will be diminished demand for official first-party service. When customers do have to engage with first-party service, their expectations will be higher.

“Service and support leaders must evolve their customer experience and channel strategies to reflect these profound shifts and meet customer needs in this AI-driven world,” O’Sullivan adds.

Among the benefits of genAI-enabled third-party platforms is a significantly lower-effort experience than even the best first-party options, Gartner found. While first-party service channels require customers to navigate unfamiliar user interfaces or wait for solutions, consumer genAI tools offer immediate answers with minimal effort and are integrated into the devices, apps, and websites consumers already use daily. Leaders must therefore continue to assess the value of first-party service investments, the report notes.

“Leaders should create differentiated self-service experiences for customers and focus investments on more sophisticated queries that third-party options cannot easily handle,” O’Sullivan says. “They must keep a close eye on the fast-changing third-party space, monitoring quality and availability of third-party genAI responses and concentrating their investments on self-service capabilities that supplement, rather than replace, third-party options.”

Customer expectations for service will evolve as they become accustomed to the low-effort, familiar, and conversational capabilities of genAI tools, Gartner says.

“While unofficial third-party options will continue to grow in popularity, there remains a subset of issues for which customers still require first-party support. To meet customer expectations for natural, conversational, and low-effort service, leaders will need to update their strategies accordingly to safeguard customer relationships and strengthen loyalty,” O’Sullivan says.

Gartner’s research also found that 84 percent of service and support leaders agreed that customers have higher expectations for service now than in the past.

Now they must focus on minimizing customer effort and breaking down sources of friction that lead to a disconnected customer journey, and genAI can do that, the firm says. GenAI, it adds, can improve self-service success by implementing a conversational experience across channels and capturing customer intent through natural language inputs.

“It’s also important for leaders to harness customer data, which is a tremendous advantage of first-party service,” O’Sullivan says. “By leveraging this data, they can design truly personalized experiences that deliver customers value.”