Customer service trends 2025: Brands balance on digital beam of AI hype versus customer trust

Customer service is one part of business where it’s impossible not to walk in the customer’s shoes. Everyone needs help at some point, whether its a broken household appliance, rebooking a flight, or a problem with a hotel room. There’s that initial dread when asking for help, followed by massive relief with the problem is resolved—or teeth-gritting frustration when it’s not.

But even when brands empathize with customers by making service a priority, it doesn’t get around the fact that supporting customers—and doing it well—is hard.

How do you meet customer expectations for fast, reliable service—and do it efficiently and cost effectively? Today, companies are turning to AI for help with this, but that presents its own set of challenges—namely, how do you retain the personal touch that makes service shine? The top customer service trends for 2025 reflect this tension.

5 customer service trends for 2025

As they look ahead, customer service organizations are under so much pressure: growing demand for service, rising customer expectations, and employee turnover are ongoing pain points. And there’s a lot riding on their ability to overcome the challenges.

Customers are more likely to call it quits with a company after a bad experience with poor service the top cause, a global consumer survey found.

But get service right and the benefits are immense: 96% of consumers trust a brand more when companies make it easy to do business with them.

This has real impact to the bottom line. A one-point increase in customer satisfaction can increase shareholder value by 1%.

In 2025, customer service organizations will focus on several trends and priorities:

1. Automation everywhere: To adapt to a growing population of younger, digital-native customers and employees, there will be more automation and AI in service in 2025.
2. The expanding role of gen AI: New AI algorithms and increased computing power will help customer care applications provide faster answers and become more human-like.
3. Focus on trust + privacy: As the first wave of AI hype fades, we’ll see increased focus on trust and privacy as organizations look to balance personalized service with customer privacy in 2025.
4. Keeping the human touch: AI will get better at understanding customer sentiment and emotion, but nothing can replace the true emotional intelligence of another human being.
5. Proactive, enterprise-wide service: Bringing data together from different systems like ERP and CRM will help teams get ahead of service issues in 2025.

1. The automation trend in customer service

Customer service is traditionally a high-touch, labor-intensive process, but organizations have been working to automate it, a trend that will continue in 2025.

Companies are using AI and generative AI to automate the manual and repetitive tasks that can be a drag on employees, allowing them to streamline workflows to boost productivity and reduce costs instead.

In 2025, 80% of customer service and support organizations will use generative AI to improve agent productivity and overall customer experience, according to Gartner.

Automation and AI are transforming every aspect of service, from customer-facing AI chatbots and the agent workspace to backend processes. This is a top priority for service organizations as they adapt to a growing population of younger, digital-native customers and employees.

For example, Moen did away with its paper-based workflows by implementing cloud-based customer service software that’s integrated with its marketing and commerce solutions. Service agents for the faucet brand have quick, complete access to customer information. The result: Improved service with higher “first-call” resolution rates and shorter waiting times.

Nisource, a US gas and electricity provider, uses digital self-service and AI-enabled chatbots to improve customer service and boost efficiency. Customers now have digital options, which reduces calls to the contact center and enables agents to focus on more complex issues to speed resolutions.

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2. More robots: Generative AI in service grows

Look for generative AI’s role in automating customer service to expand in 2025 as organizations look to take advantage of this hot trend.

Gen AI innovations are already helping boost agent efficiency with case summaries or email text generation. According to BCG, early adopters are getting results, reporting 80% savings of the time it takes to create a case summary, and agents spending 80% less time typing when resolving a support request. They’re also seeing 10% to 20% in productivity increases.

Expect more innovation over the next year as the technology supercharges service agents. New AI algorithms and increased computing power will help customer care applications provide faster answers and become more human-like, BCG predicts. The firm envisions a future of fully AI-enabled customer care centers where bots are indistinguishable from humans.

Gartner predicts organizations will replace 20% to 30% of their service agents with generative AI by 2026, but will also create new jobs to put the tech to work.

While organizations expect a big return from their gen AI investment in customer service, it’s going to take time and a lot of work. A McKinsey & Company study found that service leaders cited scaling from pilot to production as their biggest challenge with gen AI, closely followed by lack of AI maturity and governance.

3. 2025 customer service: A matter of trust

In this era of AI and rapid innovation, protecting customers’ privacy needs to be a priority. Customers need to know that the organizations they choose to do business with—and entrust with their sensitive information—will do right by them.

Companies must be mindful of the impact of AI has on people, businesses, and society at large. As the first wave of AI hype fades, we’ll see increased focus on trust and privacy as organizations look to balance personalized service with customer privacy.

This is a key trend as research shows that distrust in AI is widespread. A Prosper Insights & Analytics survey found that 34% of Gen X, half of Baby Boomers, and nearly a quarter of Gen Z and millennials don’t trust AI to protect their interests.

In fact, 64% of consumers surveyed by Gartner said they would rather organizations didn’t use AI for customer service. Sixty-percent worry that AI will make it harder to reach a live person for help.

“Service organizations must build customers’ trust in AI by ensuring their gen AI capabilities follow the best practices of service journey design,” advised Keith McIntosh, senior principal at Gartner. “Customers must know the AI-infused journey will deliver better solutions and seamless guidance, including connecting them to a person when necessary.”

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4. The human touch remains essential

Given how essential trust is, businesses can’t lose sight of the human factor in customer service as they work to automate so much of it.

While experts predict AI will get better at understanding customer sentiment and emotion, nothing can replace the true emotional intelligence of another human being.

All generations value the personal touch of phone support, according to McKinsey & Co., which found that 71% percent of Gen Zers surveyed are likely to reach out via phone for service.

An IDC survey revealed interesting reasons why customers use agent-assisted channels like phone, online chat, and SMS: Comfort in talking to a human was first, followed by convenience.

“While use of AI and automation can address aspects of ‘convenience’ and ‘complexity of interaction’ with channel availability and generative AI for specific content, replacing ‘comfort with talking to a human’ is more difficult,” wrote Mary Wardley, program VP of customer care and CRM at IDC.

Service organizations can strike a balance by using AI to streamline agents’ work and provide quick access and summaries of customer interactions. That way, agents can focus on what they do best: empathizing with customers, understanding their needs, and ensuring the best possible experience.

5. Proactive customer service: 2025 trend

Customer service is inherently a reactive operation, but organizations will be focused on turning this around by getting better at anticipating customer needs.

AI can play a big role here by analyzing data to discover patterns that predict potential issues before they become problems. For example, if there’s a product with a known flaw, AI can reach out to customers who might be impacted and offer solutions before there’s a problem.

Getting ahead of potential problems not only reduces calls for service, but can improve customer satisfaction and trust.

Organizations also can become more proactive by connecting their systems to give employees a complete view of the customer. Bringing data together from different systems such as ERP and CRM can help teams get ahead of possible issues.

“The most successful companies direct relevant insights to customer service staff, and also back to product or innovation teams, who can then proactively work to improve upon existing systems and processes,” according to an Economist Impact report sponsored by SAP.

Many companies have a long way to go, though. Only 27% of those surveyed provide service agents with profiles containing a single view of the customer, the study found.

The future of customer service

With generative AI and automation, customer service is going through a profound transformation that promises so many rewards.

BCG estimates that when generative AI is implemented at scale, organizations could increase productivity by 30% to 50%—or more. But companies also need to be mindful of the risks, including inaccuracies, biases, and exposure of sensitive data.

Implemented strategically and thoughtfully by keeping the customers front and center, AI can help organizations turn customer service into a lever for customer loyalty and business growth.