CS Transformation Report by Intercom

Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI Learn how they really feel about AI

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89% believe that customer attitudes towards AI in customer service have changed in the past 12 months

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Impartial

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Negative

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CHAPTER 5: SUPPORT TEAMS ARE ENTHUSIASTIC

For customer service teams, the benefits of using AI are clear: faster response times, increased efficiency, lower costs – the list goes on. But for customers, some big questions remain: do they actually like dealing with AI? And are they getting better experiences as a result of it?

Well, the majority of this year’s respondents (89%) believe that customer attitudes towards AI in customer service have changed in the past 12 months.

[ CUSTOMER SENTIMENT TOWARDS AI ]

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What’s more, only 20% now believe that customers’ attitudes towards AI are negative. That means the majority of support teams believe that customers feel positive – or at least impartial – about it.

Positive

What does this mean for support teams?

It’s clear that AI is now normalized, expected, and appreciated by the majority of end-users – and it continues to influence their expectations when they interact with customer service. 

Customer expectations of support continue to grow

91% of respondents say customer expectations of support have increased in the past year, with 85% saying they think AI customer service tools – like AI agents or copilots – are responsible for this shift.

[ Percentage of respondents who say customer expectations of support have increased year-over-year ]

2022

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85%

85%

Customer expectations are changing rapidly due to AI

Our survey reveals that 85% of support teams believe AI customer service tools have influenced customer expectations.

Top benefits teams see from using AI for customer service*

Fortunately, support teams are already seeing major business benefits thanks to AI-first customer service, including always-on coverage, faster response times and conversation turnarounds, the ability to handle greater volumes without adding headcount, and multilingual support – enabling them to confidently tackle rising expectations.

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Handling more support volume without needing to increase team headcount 

Faster response times and quicker turnaround of conversations

Providing 24/7 support coverage

Offering multilingual support

*Participants in this survey could choose more than one response

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AI’s impact on support volume

According to our research, AI is most commonly handling between 21–40% of teams’ conversation volume. But some elite teams (3%) are using it to handle upwards of 80%. This signifies that there’s a huge opportunity for more teams to increase this percentage to free up even more time, energy, and resources for their agents.

The percentage of support volume being resolved by AI

AI resolution rate reported by survey respondents

0-10%

11-20%

21-30%

31-40%

41-50%

51-60%

61-70%

71-80%

>80%

i don't know

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[ testimonial ]

In a recent poll of new customers, we found that 61% preferred to opt for the faster responses of AI vs waiting to speak with a customer support agent.”

Pierre-Camille Hamana
CEO and Founder of Hospitable