Artificial intelligence (AI) is making waves in many areas of business, but one of the most significant is in customer service. Agent assist, virtual agents, and sophisticated analytics are catalysts for significant changes in the role of contact center agents—both virtual and human.
CX leaders are focusing on a few key goals as they fine-tune their AI strategy for human and virtual agents: making processes more efficient, boosting customer satisfaction, and ultimately, helping companies grow. Virtual agents can more efficiently address more simple issues, offloading some of the agent workload. But AI also plays a profound role for interactions that require human attention. Not only does agent assist help customer service reps resolve issues, it’s also helping them sell products and services to customers—elevating the contact center to a revenue generator vs. a cost center.
One of the biggest changes AI has brought to customer service is the introduction of virtual agents, also known as chatbots or voicebots. These aren’t the robotic-sounding, rules-based bots of the past. In the past, virtual agents were fairly limited. They could only follow set scripts, handling basic, linear queries with clear termination points like checking a bank balance or providing store hours.
The latest generative AI-powered virtual agents can do much more, including holding real conversations, answering questions in detail, and even solving problems or making sales on their own. Powered by generative and/or conversational AI, virtual agents are capable of more sophisticated conversations, making them much more effective in handling a broader range of issues or multiple queries in one call.
CX leaders are embracing virtual agents. Already, 34% of supervisors include virtual agents as part of their team when they work on scheduling and capacity planning, according to Metrigy’s Customer Experience Optimization 2024-25 global study of 544 companies. By the end of 2025, the research participants said 31% of their contact center workforce will be virtual agents vs. human agents.
Even though virtual agents are taking on more responsibilities, there’s still a big need for human agents, especially for complicated or sensitive issues. This is where AI’s other role comes in—helping human agents work smarter and faster. Agent assist (also referred to as “copilot”) provides real-time support to agents during customer interactions.
Imagine a service agent on a call with a customer who needs help with a complex billing issue. Agent assist can pull up relevant information, suggest responses, and even give permission to offer a contingency or discount to make up for the customer’s trouble. Today, nearly half of companies are using some form of agent assist, and it’s proving to be a game-changer in customer service efficiency—but not just for its ability to shorten problem-resolution.
Initially, companies used agent assist to simply reduce the time agents spent on each call. This led to impressive results—many companies saw call times drop by almost 30%, according to Metrigy’s research. But on the flipside, this efficiency boost led to more idle time.
Anyone in the CX world knows that too much idle time results in layoffs, and layoffs are exactly what 37% of companies did in 2023. However, that practice that became unsustainable because as companies grow, they need to find, hire, and train more agents, even after just laying off some. To stop the revolving door, savvy CX leaders embraced a new opportunity. Instead of using agent assist only to shorten problem-resolution, they used it to help upsell or cross-sell, ultimately making better use of agents by eliminating the idle time that led to layoffs.
For years, customer service was seen as a necessary cost of doing business. But with AI’s ability to assist human agents in real-time, CX and business leaders are truly transforming their contact centers into revenue generators. Instead of just solving problems and moving on to the next call, agents can now use the insights provided by AI to introduce customers to new products or upgrades that could benefit them.
For instance, say a customer calls to ask about a billing issue. While the agent is addressing the issue, AI-powered agent assist is analyzing multiple factors (demographics, buying history, satisfaction on the current call, etc.) to prepare a revenue-generating offer that the customer is more likely to accept. Once the issue is resolved, the agent can spend a few extra minutes explaining the benefits of this offer (say, a new product, warranty, or service plan), potentially turning a simple customer inquiry into a sales opportunity. Not only does this help boost company revenue, but it potentially creates more value for the customer—and commissions for agents. For example, customers may find value in certain types of sales pitches, including discounted pricing for a newly released product, three additional months of a subscription or warranty for free, or buy-one-get-one-free offers.
This shift is significant because it marks a new role for AI in customer service. Instead of focusing solely on efficiency, companies are now using AI to enhance the quality of each interaction, creating a win-win scenario. Companies that use agent assist for sales efforts are seeing at 36% growth in revenue generated from the contact center.
Another major way AI is transforming customer service is through data analytics. AI-powered analytics tools allow companies to analyze every interaction, identifying patterns and opportunities to improve performance. This data is incredibly valuable for supervisors, who can use it to make smarter decisions about training, agent incentives, and even how to handle certain types of calls.
Today, half of all companies are using analytics to study customer interactions in detail. This means companies aren’t just relying on gut feelings or anecdotal evidence—they have real data to back up their decisions. In fact, nearly 66% of companies are now hiring data analysts to support their customer service teams, according to Metrigy’s study.
These insights also can provide ongoing coaching based on customer feedback, helping agents refine their skills and meet key performance indicators (KPIs) like customer satisfaction and sales targets. This type of continuous improvement makes agents feel more supported and better equipped to succeed, which can boost morale and reduce turnover.
With virtual agents handling routine tasks and AI-assist tools helping agents solve problems and generate revenue, companies that fully embrace AI will have a competitive advantage for the foreseeable future.
