By 2028, 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies will offer service only through a single, artificial intelligence-enabled channel that allows communication through text, image, and sound, according to Gartner.
As multichannel service journeys have become increasingly complex and expensive, leading to a disjointed customer experience and reduced customer retention, service and support leaders will reexamine omnichannel strategies and leverage advancements in voice-enabled conversational AI to dramatically simplify the service experience, the firm said in a new report released today.
Instead of offering multiple, distinct channels, a single, AI-powered channel with uninterrupted transitions between modes of interacting, including voice, chat, and video, will exist even within the same interaction, it said further.
"As GenAI continues to mature and facilitate seamless voice interactions, voice-based customer service isn't going away. It will instead evolve to meet customers' needs for a more simple service experience," said Patrick Quinlan, a senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice, in a statement. "Service and support leaders must pivot from a long-held focus on which channels customers use to a focus on how customers want to communicate."
Gartner also predicted that 70 percent of customer service journeys will begin and be resolved in conversational, third-party assistants built into their mobile devices by 2028.
This comes as genAI has changed the way consumers search for and understand information, according to Gartner, which found recently that 45 percent of customers use genAI in their personal life, at work, or both. With conversational genAI so firmly integrated into the mobile device experience, customers will self-solve through third-party assistants such as Apple AI and Google Gemini rather than resolve issues through a service organization's official channel, it said.
"Official customer service channels are higher-effort and more complicated, and customers will be drawn to third-party AI platforms that offer quick fixes and more seamless navigation," Quinlan said. "If a customer can simply ask their phone for the answer, organizations will need to evaluate if their investments in self-service portals are paying off and consider possible customer-facing conversational AI solutions."
Gartner has also predicted that by 2027, service organizations will see a 300 percent increase in fraud attempts over 2023 levels.
Conversational AI tools will appeal to fraudsters to bypass automated systems and deceive live service agent, it said.
To combat this, Gartner expects service and support organizations will develop strategies to counter fraud and protect customers, implementing sophisticated identity verification and multi-layered security requirements for the simplest of interactions.
"It's important to note that though the intention was to reduce customer effort, a single, AI-enabled channel may actually increase efforts and lead to customer churn," Quinlan warns. "Leaders will need to balance strategies to reduce effort with those to protect customers from fraud."