Customer Service Changes Worldwide: AI and Agentic Technology Take Over

This week brought important news about how companies are using artificial intelligence to make customer service better. From travel companies to financial businesses, organizations worldwide are learning that AI can help them work faster and save money.

The biggest company news this week came from Booking Holdings, which helps people book hotel rooms and flights online. On February 19, 2026, the company announced that customer service costs dropped by 10% even though they had 10% more customers. This is really impressive because usually costs go up when a company gets bigger. The company leader explained that AI finds information much quicker than people and customers do not have to wait in long lines.

What Is Agentic AI?

The most exciting AI news this week is about something called agentic AI. This is different from chatbots you may have used before. Regular AI chatbots answer your questions. Agentic AI can take action and solve problems by itself. For example, imagine you text a company about getting a refund. An agentic AI can look at your order, figure out you deserve a refund, make the refund happen, and tell you it is done—all without a person doing anything. Experts say that by 2029, agentic AI will be handling most customer service problems for many companies.

One expert from a big technology company explained that AI is changing from just giving information to actually solving problems. Another expert said that agentic AI is like having a super-smart worker that never gets tired and never makes mistakes.

Important Lessons Companies Are Learning

However, this week also brought warnings. Some companies learned the hard way that using only AI is not always smart. One famous company called Klarna cut most of its customer service workers and used only AI instead. But then the AI could not handle everything, so the company had to hire people back.

Experts made an important prediction this week: By 2027, half of all companies that fired workers to use AI will hire new workers again. This tells us that companies often overestimate what AI can do and underestimate how complicated customer problems can be.

The Right Way to Use AI

Experts agree on something important: AI should work with people, not replace people. The best companies are using AI to help their workers do better work, not to fire their workers. For example, when a customer calls, AI can instantly give the worker information about that customer, like what they bought before and what they like. This helps the worker give better help in less time.

Another important idea is AI-first, but not AI-only. This means companies should suggest customers use AI for easy things like checking on an order. But companies must always have a quick way for customers to talk to a real person.

How Much Money Companies Are Spending

This week we learned that companies are spending much more money on AI. Organizations around the world expect to spend 5% of their total budget on AI in 2026. This is almost double the 3% they spent in 2025. Also, 85% of customer service leaders say they plan to test AI with their real customers by the end of 2026.

What This Means for Customers

What does all this mean for people like you? In the coming months, you will probably see more AI helping with your customer service requests. But the good news is that experts are telling companies to make sure real people are still available. Companies are learning that customers want fast service, but they also want to be able to talk to a real person when they need to. The future of customer service will probably be a mix of AI handling simple problems and people handling hard ones.