Organisations rushed to pilot generative AI chatbots and case summarisation tools to support customer service. Small and medium-sized businesses felt the efficiency gains the most – they could finally offer scaled customer support with relative ease – but today, there’s a new paradigm for AI in customer service.
In 2026, the focus is agentic service, powered by teams of AI agents independently taking action alongside human service representatives.
Customer experience (CX) chiefs are on board. According to our latest State of Service Report, nearly eight in 10 service leaders (79%) believe investing in AI agents is fundamental to meeting today’s business demands.
It’s all a part of the dawn of the Agentic Enterprise, where autonomous agents are embedded in service teams to reason, plan, and solve customer challenges.
Our research found that organisations are pulling ahead by building a seamless ecosystem of human and AI service agents, backed by a single, unified data strategy. Here’s what you need to know about AI’s evolving role in customer service.
The autonomous agent is the new service MVP
Generative text tools captured the early headlines, and for a brief window, were the only AI-powered customer service solution that organisations were willing to invest in. But the technology has evolved, and so has AI maturity within the business.
Currently, 69% of service professionals report that their organisation uses at least one form of AI, and 39% say they’re deploying autonomous agents.
Unlike generative chatbots, autonomous agents use advanced reasoning to execute tasks independently, such as processing a return or offering hyper-personalised product recommendations based on a customer’s purchase history.
Our State of Service: AI Agents Edition research revealed that service teams using AI agents are largely deploying them in both customer-facing and internal capacities. Popular use cases on the customer side include proactive outreach, personalised product recommendations, and multichannel case resolution.
From an operational perspective, teams are using agents to handle case routing and knowledge retrieval.
The commercial potential is profound. Service leaders expect agents to deliver an average 20% reduction in service costs, 20% reduction in case resolution times, and a 20% reduction in customer wait times.
Leaders who fail to integrate autonomous agents risk being outpaced by competitors operating at greater speed for a fraction of the cost.
Strong data foundations power successful service agents
One large blocker is preventing organisations from rushing to agentic AI. AI agents for customer service are only as smart as the data that powers them, and at many firms, that data lacks clarity and quality.
Nearly half of service leaders (44%) admit that fragmented systems and tech silos within their organisations have delayed or limited their AI projects.
Our findings prove that a strong foundation breeds success. Organisations that integrate their service channel data into a single, unified platform are 1.4x more likely to rate their AI implementations as “very successful” compared to those stuck with disparate systems.
Another part of the challenge is the multimodal nature of modern customer service, spread between voice, text, chat, and visual inputs. To turn these touchpoints into natural conversations, true multimodal AI must be able to handle all kinds of output within a singular architecture.
Currently, 88% of service leaders are prioritising tech integration to support AI initiatives. A unified data foundation is key to stopping AI systems from hallucinating or losing sight of the full customer context.
For instance, if a customer has exchanged a faulty device at a retail store, only for a siloed email agent to send a “return overdue” notification an hour later, the customer’s experience suffers.
Gaps in data integration can turn a smoothly executed resolution into a friction point that alienates the buyer – and needlessly extends their service interaction. Good data is a prerequisite for good agentic service.
Eliminate silos and build a future-proof data foundation for your agents with Data 360.
The service rep’s new value proposition
Agents equipped with full customer context can hugely accelerate service workflows. Unfortunately, their potential is leading some CX professionals to pull back from agentic service out of fear they’ll be replaced.
Autonomous agents aren’t a threat to human service departments. In fact, our data shows they can help frontline workers avoid burnout.
Most service professionals (82%) agree that customer expectations are higher than ever. Yet, the average representative spends less than half of their week (46%) actually working with customers. The rest of their time is consumed by low-value tasks, including:
- Carrying out administrative duties (18%)
- Manually typing case notes (14%)
- Attending internal meetings (14%)
When AI agents absorb everyday activities – like tracking orders or answering FAQs – they transform the service caseload.
Organisations deploying AI agents see routine cases drop from 48% to 43% of overall ticket volume, freeing human agents to apply their skills to complex customer issues that require a human touch. This is the human worker’s value proposition in the Agentic Enterprise.
It’s changing work and creating opportunities. Today, 83% of service reps within organisations using AI report better career prospects. A similar number (82%) say they’ve developed new skills. Humans and AI agents achieve more together – improving outcomes for both service representatives and users.
What customer service agents mean for UKI organisations
The report’s findings are especially pertinent for organisations in the UK and Ireland (UKI). The customer service sector in UKI has historically battled tight labour markets and a consumer base that values speed above all else. AI agents make it easier to meet their demands.
In the UKI market, where consumer patience for repeating information to multiple agents is thin, a seamless handoff could be the difference between customer loyalty and churn.
Globally, 85% of service professionals using voice AI report that handover from AI to human representatives is completely seamless, preserving the conversational context.
UKI businesses also face stringent standards around data privacy and trust, enforced by the UK Data (Use and Access) Act and principles of the EU’s GDPR and EU AI Act regulations. While 51% of global leaders note that security concerns have delayed their AI initiatives, 86% say they’re willing to pay a premium for tech that secures data.
Organisations investing in secure AI architecture enjoy the best of both worlds. To stay competitive, CX leaders can’t allow fear to stall AI deployment – they must build their strategy with a trusted AI partner that can guarantee compliance without compromising speed.
Unlocking the future of service
The benchmark for customer service has changed. To set the new standard for best-in-class CX, leaders are building hybrid workforces of empowered human representatives and autonomous AI agents, informed by unified data.
Ready to make the leap to agentic service operations? Learn more in the full State of Service Report.
State of Service Report
