The future of customer service: Press “0” if this sounds familiar

Consumers don’t love contacting customer service. It’s rarely a great experience.

Too often, interactive voice response systems (IVRs) take them down a rabbit-hole of menus. Chatbots can answer questions, but not their question. Digital self-service apps make them enter too much information or lead them to a dead end.

Only 18% of consumers say technology has significantly improved their service experiences.¹

Eighteen percent.

Given that, why would any business consider adding more technology to their customer service model?

The short answer: Because of that 18%. Because, done right, technology has proved it can transform customer service and differentiate the brands that deliver the experiences consumers want.

It’s also a way to drive growth

Consumers want exceptional service and will reward the brands that provide it. In more than 7,000 surveys, consumers worldwide identified three important aspects of a great service interaction: 

• Effective service that solves their problem, respects their time and doesn’t create additional work for them.

• Empathetic service that recognizes a service issue may be affecting their home, finances, health or working life—and responds to the situation, not just the transaction.

• Empowering service that’s easy, straightforward and gives them confidence for next time.

Consumers will accept any form of service—tech-led, human-led or a combination of the two—provided it solves their problem, understands their situation and is easy to use.

And there’s the opportunity.

Brands that get this right—the ones that close the gap between what customers want and the underwhelming experiences they’re getting today—are able to build loyalty, strengthen relationships and build a nearly insurmountable edge that translates directly into growth.

New mindset: Act versus react

Consumers have grown to accept, not love, a pattern for customer service: Something goes wrong, the customer notices and contacts the company, the company responds. That model is quickly becoming outdated.

Agentic architectures create the ability to anticipate needs rather than simply respond to them. By combining customer history, behavioral signals and real-time context, organizations can now use technologies like agentic AI to identify issues earlier and resolve many problems before the customer is aware they exist. Here’s how that might look in real life:

A broadband provider detects a developing connectivity issue, reroutes traffic and pushes a firmware update without customers even knowing there’s a problem. A financial institution spots unusual account activity, contacts the customer via a pre-authorized trusted channel and recommends whether to freeze the account, reverse a charge or reissue credentials. A health provider draws a connection between a symptom the patient has reported and a new medication they’re on, alerts the care team and presents appointment options to the patient.

This is the near future of service, and the bar is rising as fast as consumer expectations. Here’s how brands are responding.

The rise of the category concierge

The clearest expression of where service is heading is the emergence of category-specific concierges. These AI-enabled services help consumers manage whole areas of their lives.

Take vacation travel as an example. A travel concierge would act like an advisor who knows the travel details of a family. It knows the ages of the children, that the youngest is still in a car seat and that last year’s beach house was a hit while the trip to the city wasn’t. If the customer tells the concierge they have an open week in March and $5,000 to spend, the concierge comes back with three viable options informed by past preferences—say, a pet-friendly beachfront property with nearby activities the kids might love. Once a location is picked, the concierge does the rest: it finds flights and accommodations, secures a rental car with a booster seat, and makes dinner reservations for the first night so no one has to cook after a day of travel. As the trip approaches, it watches for fare drops or potential flight disruptions, rebooks connections or transportation as needed, even arranges for grocery delivery—making sure to get the right brand of French roast and orange juice.

These types of concierge services are consultative, not just transactional: A health concierge that coordinates care across many providers, a financial concierge that provides guidance across life stages—kids, college, home purchase, retirement. In all cases, these concierges know and remember the customers they’re serving so they manage real human needs from end to end.

Importantly, they don’t act alone. Behind every concierge is a human who can take over in high-stakes decisions or sensitive conversations. When that handover is smooth and the customer does not have to start from scratch, it feels like continuity rather than failure. That’s where trust is built and where the happy 18% of customers live.

When customers bring their own AI

While concierges focus on a specific category, general-purpose AI assistants work across all categories. It’s yet more evidence of how dramatically things have changed with the current wave of technology.

Every consumer can now have a tireless advocate in their corner. An AI agent can read warranty and return policies, compare prices and features, look at reviews, find favorite styles, colors or sizes. If a product has to be returned, it knows whether the return window is still open and can help guide a fair resolution. If a product needs to be serviced, it knows the details of the warranty and can set an appointment with an authorized provider.

Customers are already using AI when contacting service. They have AI write exceptionally thorough complaints, checking contract terms and service-level agreements (SLAs) to argue their point. That means customers are sometimes better informed than the agents when a service request is initiated. And while general-purpose shopping agents are common in retail, there are still significant barriers for these agents in service. Companies can’t yet reliably confirm that an agent is working on behalf of a specific customer—there are currently no established protocols that allow AI to interface directly with systems and processes that sit behind the corporate firewall.

For brands, general-purpose AI can help forge a new level of trust. Brands whose promises are clear, whose policies are understandable by AI and whose resolution paths are easy to navigate will be rewarded—both by customers and the AI agents acting on their behalf. The flip side is also true: Brands that have complex online experiences, unclear terms and policies or broken check-out processes will be avoided. AI agents will remember a bad experience and look elsewhere for the next transaction.

Turning memory into loyalty

Today, far too many customer interactions begin from zero as customers are handed off from rep to rep, forced to repeat information and explain the same problem.

The near future looks very different. Until now, companies could optimize individual channels and interactions while offering only the illusion of continuity. Agentic systems provide actual continuity. They build an understanding of each customer’s preferences, history and circumstances over time. Context for each customer travels from one interaction to the next. Decisions retain their rationale. Commitments are remembered.

It’s the power of shared memory, the foundation of every long-lasting relationship.

Agentic service might be the strongest form of differentiation yet. Brands that know and remember each customer and evolve that understanding can forge bonds that are hard to break. It’s about more than convenience. When customers feel known, when they trust that a brand is genuinely acting on their behalf, loyalty grows. In some cases, switching becomes unthinkable.

There’s no shortcut. Customer relationships take time, but those that are built on authenticity, honesty, transparency, consent and secure data handling are the ones that last.

A more important role for people

As conversational AI handles more routine interactions with customers, the support role for human representatives becomes more complex and emotionally significant. Multi-issue cases, vulnerable customers, high-stakes decisions, sensitive conversations—these are moments that people handle best.

Moving forward, service representatives are less likely to follow scripts and more likely to act as case owners who manage agents, have decision-making authority and conduct conversations with a complete view of the customer. Emotional intelligence is vital. Rather than diminishing the role of people, AI elevates the importance of human judgment. Humans and AI do what each does best.

Where to start

The future of service demands a shift in how organizations think about the complex and evolving relationship between AI, customers and service representatives. Developing relationships that are based on shared memory is the key to driving growth and value with agentic service. Here are some places to start.

Get ready to watch that 18% grow

A few businesses have nailed their customer service model, many more are moving quickly in that direction, putting solutions in place to anticipate needs, preserve context, follow through on commitments and create experiences that feel highly personal for each and every customer.

The bar is high and rising. Customers expect flawless technology-led service from organizations that understand them, remember them and genuinely act in their best interests. And they reward the brands that get it right.

_{¹ Accenture, Customer service on the brink, March 2025.}