3 Field Service Trends Today's Leaders Need to Know

Beyond the headwinds of labor scarcity and rising customer expectations, field service organizations are dealing with broken systems that prevent workers from doing their jobs. Our research found nearly half of all appointments don't go as scheduled, and that technicians waste over 7 hours every week on administrative tasks.

While these struggles can erode a team’s confidence, we discovered a solution in plain sight: AI agents. Eighty-one percent of technicians believe AI agents could help them work more efficiently, and they estimate these systems could handle 35% of their administrative tasks. It’s the equivalent to giving technicians more than two hours back every day.

To better understand these faultlines in field service — and offer insights on the promise of field service automation — Salesforce surveyed 6,500 service professionals across 40 countries, along with another 350 mobile workers in the U.S. We found three critical trends shaping field service this year, and how field service AI built with Agentforce can restore the operational confidence teams need to succeed.

Field service operations face a scheduling crisis. We found 47% of appointments don’t go as planned. This creates a spillover effect — adding to the already-growing workload of dispatchers, muddying the forecast of executives, and eating away at more precious work hours from technicians.

This breakdown starts with scheduling. According to our recent mobile worker guide, making an appointment takes 17 minutes. Changing one takes 15 minutes. Even cancellations consume 12 minutes. For dispatchers, this isn't just inefficiency. It's constant firefighting. Scheduling conflicts rank as the #1 productivity blocker, and 38% of technicians say scheduling is "often mishandled."

The problem cascades. Technicians waste 18% of their working hours — more than 7 hours per week — on administrative tasks like filling out forms and hunting for information. That's nearly a full workday every week spent on paperwork instead of solving customer problems.

The impact? Sixty-six percent of technicians experience burnout monthly, and 81% work overtime at least once a month just to handle administrative tasks. When your skilled workforce is buried under busywork, confident service becomes impossible.

AI agents built with Agentforce address these systemic failures. Agentforce optimizes scheduling and resource allocation, reducing the coordination burden on dispatchers. It provides instant knowledge retrieval so technicians spend less time searching and more time solving. Most importantly, it restores the operational reliability that makes confident work possible.

Here's the breakthrough: technicians aren't afraid of AI. They're asking for it.

Eighty-one percent of technicians believe AI agents could help them do their jobs more efficiently. Eighty-seven percent believe AI would improve job satisfaction. And technicians estimate AI agents could handle 35% of their administrative tasks — giving them more than two hours back every single day.

Field service leaders see the potential. And the ones investing are seeing progress, too. Eighty-five percent of field service leaders expect their AI investments to increase over the next year. Organizations using AI report at least moderate improvement in technician utilization (88%) and dispatcher productivity (85%).

Where these organizations focus their investments offers insight into promising use cases. Ninety-six percent of field service teams plan to use AI for knowledge retrieval, ensuring instant access to information. Forty-five percent currently use AI for visual diagnosis and AR-guided repairs.

The technology exists. The mobile workforce wants it. The question isn't whether to implement AI agents — it's where to implement, and how soon.

AI agents don't work in silos — and neither should your field service operations. Organizations with unified platforms are 1.9x more likely to rate their AI implementation as "very successful" compared to those with disconnected systems.

The challenge is real: 44% of organizations say tech silos have delayed or limited their AI initiatives. Fragmented data across multiple systems obscures the big picture and keeps AI agents from working effectively. When scheduling systems don't talk to inventory systems and work order management lives in one place while customer data lives in another, AI agents can't deliver on their promise.

That's why 88% of service leaders are prioritizing tech integration to support their AI initiatives. Connected data isn't just about efficiency. It's about giving AI agents the unified view they need to act with intelligence.

With the right field service software, technicians can access everything — customer histories, service records, parts information — all in one place. AI agents handle route optimization based on real-time traffic, technician skills, and parts availability. Dispatchers can coordinate resources across the entire operation without juggling multiple systems.

Integrated data leads to intelligent solutions and future efficiency. Route optimization reduces fuel consumption and emissions. Predictive maintenance prevents equipment failures before they happen. When a technician arrives prepared with the right parts, unnecessary trips are eliminated and the technician's time is maximized.

Field service operations are undergoing massive transformation. The teams pulling ahead aren't just working harder — they're using better tools like Field Service to build confidence that scales across their team and service.

The momentum of AI in field service is accelerating. For example, 96% of organizations plan to use AI for knowledge retrieval in the future. And the workforce has clear expectations for where AI agents will deliver the most value: filling out forms, summarizing appointments, creating work orders, and troubleshooting with AI-powered text and image recognition.

The question isn't whether AI agents will reshape field service — it's whether your organization will be part of it.

To learn more about these field service trends and how to use AI agents to restore operational confidence, eliminate administrative burden, and help your teams work with certainty, download Your Guide to Agentic Field Service Operations.