Forget everything you thought you knew about customer service. AI has changed the game entirely, and the strategies that worked yesterday may already be outdated.
At Intercom, we've been documenting gradual trends in customer service for years. But AI has changed everything, permanently altering the trajectory of customer service. The new AI-powered solutions — including AI agents, copilots, and analytics tools — are better, faster, and more cost-effective than anything before.
This becomes even more obvious when we compare traditional chatbots with today’s more advanced AI agents.
Traditionally, chatbots relied on rigid, rules-based systems and required extensive manual configuration to deliver relevant curated responses. AI agents, on the other hand, are powered by large language models (LLM) and can understand natural language, interpret and remember context, and generate human-like responses.
This stark contrast represents a quantum leap forward in capability and impact. We can no longer predict what’s going to happen by looking at the past. Instead, we must embrace the opportunity to reimagine the future.
That's why we've evolved our annual Customer Service Trends Report into The Customer Service Transformation Report. Based on insights from over 2,000 support professionals, this report examines how AI has fundamentally changed the landscape and offers guidance on how to navigate this new environment.
Here, I’ll share some of the key findings from our research, highlighting five insights into how AI is transforming customer service along with practical tips for teams to thrive in this AI-driven era.
For a while, many organizations played a “wait and see” game when it came to AI. Not entirely convinced of its potential, they opted to see how it played out for others before investing in it themselves.
But now, AI is an absolute must-have. Our research shows that while 54% of support teams planned to invest in AI for customer service in 2024, 76% actually did. Why? It’s likely that teams raced to adopt the technology when they realized just how big this transformation would be and how much they risked falling behind if they didn’t start using it.
Heading into 2025, that trajectory is set to continue, with 79% of support teams now planning to invest in AI in the year ahead. With such an accelerated uptake of the technology and so many teams planning to place big bets on AI, the window for gaining a competitive advantage is closing rapidly.
Source: Intercom's Customer Service Transformation Report 2025
If your team isn't using AI yet, you don’t have to go all in at once. But you can easily hit the ground running. Start with a strategic, phased implementation focused on high-impact areas. For example, an AI agent can save your team hours by:
Once you start seeing measurable results in these quick-win areas, you can gradually roll out AI to help address more complex challenges.
For teams already using AI, uplevel your strategy by exploring its capabilities. AI is always advancing, and every step forward is an opportunity to delight your customers and enhance your efficiency. Here are some potential use cases to look into:
Traditionally, scaling customer service meant adding headcount to meet demand. This was time-consuming, expensive, and unsustainable.
AI changed that by breaking the traditional linear growth model. Our survey shows that 81% of teams agree that AI is changing the economics of customer service. By unlocking the potential to do more with less, support teams can manage rising volume quickly and cost-efficiently while providing an excellent customer experience. Basically, it’s now possible to provide better, faster, and cheaper customer service.
“The Transformation Report reveals that AI has broken the faster-better-cheaper-pick-two iron triangle. Companies can now scale up customers without facing crushing headcount requirements. Expect Agentic AI to enhance this over the next few years.”
Tim Sanders
VP of Research Insights at G2
To win buy-in and demonstrate the strategic value of customer service, consider quantifying and sharing the impact AI has on your team, KPIs, and business’s bottom line.
Take Firsty, for example. An Intercom customer, Firsty is a startup in the telecom space. It uses AI to scale support to meet the needs of the thousands of new customers signing up daily without sacrificing quality or increasing headcount and costs.
“Intercom's platform has saved us around €50,000 ($55,000) in salary costs over the past five months, which is crucial at this point for our startup,” says Gauthier Thierens, co-founder of Firsty. “And we know that the headcount costs we’ll save with Intercom’s automation will scale exponentially the more we grow.”
While there’s no one-size-fits-all way to quantify the impact of AI, here are some key metrics you can look at to understand where it’s moving the needle:
Capture these insights in an “AI impact dashboard” that you can share regularly with your leadership team. This will help give them a quick, clear idea of just how transformative AI is on your operations.
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Earlier, teams picked a support tool and stuck with it. Even if it didn't perform optimally, teams just adjusted to it. Changing tools was rarely considered beneficial enough for the effort to be worthwhile.
Where teams once settled for adequate tools, today's support landscape demands more. Our research shows that 81% of teams say their current tools can't always fully support their needs, and 50% are on the lookout for new platforms, tools, and technologies, either most or all of the time.
This search for new solutions isn’t just about getting flashy new tech for the sake of it; instead, it’s driven by real challenges like cost, data security concerns, and platform reliability.
Source: Intercom's Customer Service Transformation Report 2025
When evaluating AI solutions, like AI agents, don’t just think about the short term. Sure, getting up and running fast at a good price point is important. But ultimately, you want to invest in something that will be a long-term asset to your team.
Take your time when assessing your options. Remember, it’s easy for an AI agent to look good in a demo environment. What you want to determine is how well it’ll perform in your specific real-world context.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself to determine your best option:
You can also take a look at The Customer Service Transformation Toolkit to discover everything you need to make the best decision for your business.
Many people were skeptical of AI in its early days. But now that customers have experienced increasingly sophisticated AI interactions in their daily lives and seen what it can deliver, how are they feeling about it?
Our research shows that 89% of support teams believe that customer attitudes towards AI have changed in the past 12 months — 80% believe that customers feel positive, or at least impartial, about the technology. It’s now becoming more normal and expected, and has already had a major influence on what customers expect from customer service.
Source: Intercom's Customer Service Transformation Report 2025
To meet, and exceed, the continuously rising customer expectations, support teams must be prepared to radically overhaul their approach to how they deliver customer service.
To enhance the customer experience, focus on leveraging AI’s unique strengths. As a starting point, this could include:
There was a period when many support professionals worried that AI would replace them.
Things have changed. Our survey shows that 82% of teams feel positive about working alongside AI, and 60% are seeing roles on their team evolve. With specialized positions like knowledge managers and conversation analysts emerging, we’re witnessing the birth of entirely new career paths.
Source: Intercom's Customer Service Transformation Report 2025
AI is creating opportunities for human agents to deliver higher-impact work. The positivity that comes with this is a strong signal that support teams are seeing and feeling the benefits of incorporating AI and AI agents into their workflows.
The future of customer service requires a completely new approach to team development. Leaders can be proactive about this by:
This was just a snapshot of AI's fundamental impact on customer service. We’re living through a unique moment in time, and the opportunities we have right now won’t always be there. The competitive advantage innovators gain will only grow wider as time passes, making this moment crucial for transformation. The window of opportunity is open now. But, it won't stay open forever.
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Edited by Supanna Das.
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