A New Kind of AI Is Helping Customers Around the World

This weekly update brings exciting news about how artificial intelligence is changing customer service. Instead of talking to basic chatbots that only know a few answers, customers are now meeting agentic AI—super-smart computer helpers that can think, learn, and solve real problems. These AI agents work 24 hours a day, help customers faster, and let human workers focus on harder tasks that need real understanding.

Big Numbers Show AI Is Growing Fast

The numbers tell a clear story. According to a study by Cisco, more than half of all customer support conversations—56 percent—will use agentic AI by mid-2026. That number is expected to jump to 68 percent by 2028. This means AI is moving from being an experiment to becoming normal in most companies. Even more impressive, research says that by 2029, AI could handle 80 percent of common customer problems all by itself. This kind of change shows how fast technology is improving.

Real Companies Prove It Works

Companies around the world are already using agentic AI successfully. KLM, a Dutch airline, lets AI handle more than 60 percent of customer questions about bookings and flight changes. Because the AI does the easy work, human workers can help with tricky situations, and customers stay happy. Airbnb used AI to study thousands of customer messages and found that many people were confused about how to cancel bookings. After they rewrote their rules in clearer language based on what AI discovered, they got 19 percent fewer help requests. In Germany, Telekom workers using AI suggestions finished their work 25 percent faster and felt less stressed by boring repetitive tasks. A bank called HSBC used AI to make sure their customer conversations always followed money rules correctly, and customer happiness went up by 12 percent.

How Agentic AI Is Different

Regular chatbots are like robots reading from a script—they answer the same questions the same way every time. But agentic AI is smarter. These AI agents can understand what's really happening, look up information from different places, make smart decisions about what to do next, and explain their choices to humans. They work kind of like a smart helper who learns from every conversation. This makes them perfect for solving messy, complicated real-world problems that don't fit into simple categories.

Making Customer Service Better in Many Ways

When companies use AI properly, customers get better service. AI can answer questions instantly, any time of day or night, so people don't have to wait for business hours. Workers don't waste time on easy repetitive questions, which means they feel happier and less burned out. Companies spend less money because AI handles so much work. And because customers get faster answers, they're more satisfied overall. Plus, AI can spot patterns that humans miss, finding hidden problems before they cause bigger issues.

Important Warning: AI Needs to Be Done Right

But experts are warning companies to be careful. About one-third of businesses will try to launch AI customer service too fast and fail, they predict. The reason is usually that companies feel pressure to save money and rush the process. The smartest companies take time to get their data clean, train the AI on their own customers and way of talking, and make sure there's always an easy way for people to talk to a real human if they need to.

The Future Looks Exciting

By 2029, most companies with strong AI systems might be able to solve most common problems without any human help. But the smartest companies aren't replacing their workers—they're making their workers more powerful. Humans will focus on solving hard problems, making customers feel cared for, and keeping the company's values alive. The real future isn't AI versus humans; it's AI and humans working as a team, each doing what they do best.