April 2, 2026
BiancoBlue/Depositphotos.com
Can AI Customer Service Actually Replace Humans?
In a report for CNBC, journalist Kevin Williams outlined the current struggles that AI customer service bots and call centers are having in satisfying shopper demands, despite several industries adopting these solutions at scale.
Noting that while the promise of AI call centers and chatbots is enticing for many operations looking to slash costs, deflection — rather than resolution — is often a part of the game as it stands, with customer satisfaction often being the metric left behind.
“I hate AI customer service chatbots,” said Californian shopper Carmen Smith, as quoted by Williams.
“It seems that no matter what, they all will either point you to some type of FAQs list or repeat information you’ve already tried and found lacking,” Smith said. “I hate dealing with them, but a lot of companies use them nowadays, alas. I’d rather speak to a human being.”
Qualtrics data cited by the report indicated that ~20% of consumers who had engaged with AI customer service agents received zero benefit from the interaction, a failure rate four times higher than AI usage more broadly.
“Too many companies are deploying AI to cut costs, not solve problems, and customers can tell the difference,” said Isabelle Zdatny of Qualtrics, author of the 2026 Customer Experience Trends Report.
Other notable trends captured by Williams:
- AI systems often reflect leadership intent in terms of refunds, reduction of escalation, and call times. While human agents may exert some degree of perceived compassion or rapport with customers, ultimately an argument can be made that they, too, are simply scripted.
- A frequent complaint regarding AI customer service centers or solutions is that they make shoppers feel as if they trapped in a loop via automation. This presents a frustrating, annoying (or worse) barrier.
- AI customer service may become the de facto standard: Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier underscored his belief that within three years, half of all online customer service interactions will be handled by AI bots, with this number rising to 80% within the next five years.
If AI Customer Service Agents Are the Future, Proponents Say There Are Upsides (But Do Consumers Agree?)
On the other hand, some proponents argue that AI deflection can be valuable to protect high-burnout workers, mitigate turnover, and reduce mental health strains. Further, they may be able to simply deliver the necessary “no” that a human may struggle with or hedge against.
“If two people are arguing about a refund and the law says it is not available, a judge would adjudicate rather than argue continuously back and forth. That is often what happens in agent-to-unhappy-customer scenarios,” Terra Higginson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, said.
“This makes the process about enforcing rules and regulations rather than making refunds difficult… without the arguing and back-and-forth strain of being yelled at for following company rules,” she added, pivoting to also highlight that obstructing valid refunds was not the goal of an ethical or effective AI agent.
Another recent survey seems to indicate that consumers aren’t as in love with AI customer service as those deploying them. According to CX Dive, which pulled figures from a 2025 HubSpot and SurveyMonkey survey capturing the thoughts of 1,800 business leaders and 15,000 consumers worldwide, a majority (53%) of shoppers “actively dislike or hate AI’s use in service interactions.”
“This widespread aversion suggests that current AI applications often fail to meet customer expectations for empathy, nuance and genuine connection,” said Zoe Padgett, senior research scientist at SurveyMonkey.
“Rather than seeing AI as a helpful tool, many customers perceive it as a barrier, leading to frustration and a feeling that their unique concerns aren’t truly understood.”
BrainTrust
Nicholas Morine
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
If, and when, AI replaces human customer service, will it be deemed a success? Do you foresee this occurring over the course of the next five years?
Concerning retail customer service and the integration of AI chatbots, what are your broad feelings about its current deployment? What opportunities to improve exist?
Which customer service aspects are humans best suited for? What might AI excel in?
Poll
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The key to any AI chatbot adoption is ensuring you have the right exit points for the customer when the AI is not delivering what they need. They fail when customers get stuck in the non-answer loop.
The best chatbots offer full self service and give an exit ramp(s) to escalate to a human in the lead when they can no longer provide the next step.
This is by no means easy because it requires connected systems, thoughtful design and the right staffing levels to make it appear seamless to the consumer.
When online search results overwhelm or miss the mark, AI-driven chatbots can refine the parameters for faster, relevant results.
A chatbot can surface suitable products like spring dresses. However, when I updated a prompt to say, “Please exclude ugly ones,” the chatbot promptly ended the conversation.
Every one of us has been trapped in “voicemail jail” where the system is simply not capable of helping. The system I chatted with at Citibank the other evening had me yelping in frustration. Companies can begin calls with AI, but should give customers the option of upgrading to chatting with a human.
“Trapped in a loop due to automation” were words spoken to me from a CIO at the Dallas AI Convergence earlier this week when talking about AI replacing human customer service. And at the core of his statement was not “when and if” but rather “how and why” do I automate parts of the customer service offering – especially with what is evolving at a crazy pace with AI chatbots/agents. And what do we base that off of? Your last question – humans are better in empathy and problem solving. And that will always be the baseline measurement. Moving beyond the easy FAQs, and more into the ability for an agent to reason and decide when to bring in the human in the loop is what will define success for me in the future. I see this as iterative and those who will win here sooner that others, are those that will focus their investment of time and resources to continuously refine the models in a domain specific arena.
Why must it be an “either-or” condition? In most call centers there are levels of agents because it’s just not cost effective to have highly experienced, Level 4 agents answer every call. And let’s not forget that before we were stuck in technical loops we were stuck in “inexperienced Level 1 rep loops” and then in “outsourced, inexperienced level 1 loops” and then in “chatbot loops” and then “NLP Chatbot Loops.” The technology may have changed but the pain remained the same.
This is not necessarily a “how” problem; it’s a “what” problem and regardless of the “how” (AI or human or other), companies must own, monitor and control the customer experience if they wish to protect their brands.
Bradley Cooper’s answer is spot on. I believe AI is definitely capable of handling repetitive, easy to answer questions with great ease (Level 0 or 1). And that means greater efficiencies and customer service for 50-60% of all calls (maybe more). But let’s use Bradley’s exit ramps and staff them with humans.
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The key to any AI chatbot adoption is ensuring you have the right exit points for the customer when the AI is not delivering what they need. They fail when customers get stuck in the non-answer loop.
The best chatbots offer full self service and give an exit ramp(s) to escalate to a human in the lead when they can no longer provide the next step.
This is by no means easy because it requires connected systems, thoughtful design and the right staffing levels to make it appear seamless to the consumer.
When online search results overwhelm or miss the mark, AI-driven chatbots can refine the parameters for faster, relevant results.
A chatbot can surface suitable products like spring dresses. However, when I updated a prompt to say, “Please exclude ugly ones,” the chatbot promptly ended the conversation.
Every one of us has been trapped in “voicemail jail” where the system is simply not capable of helping. The system I chatted with at Citibank the other evening had me yelping in frustration. Companies can begin calls with AI, but should give customers the option of upgrading to chatting with a human.
“Trapped in a loop due to automation” were words spoken to me from a CIO at the Dallas AI Convergence earlier this week when talking about AI replacing human customer service. And at the core of his statement was not “when and if” but rather “how and why” do I automate parts of the customer service offering – especially with what is evolving at a crazy pace with AI chatbots/agents. And what do we base that off of? Your last question – humans are better in empathy and problem solving. And that will always be the baseline measurement. Moving beyond the easy FAQs, and more into the ability for an agent to reason and decide when to bring in the human in the loop is what will define success for me in the future. I see this as iterative and those who will win here sooner that others, are those that will focus their investment of time and resources to continuously refine the models in a domain specific arena.
Why must it be an “either-or” condition? In most call centers there are levels of agents because it’s just not cost effective to have highly experienced, Level 4 agents answer every call. And let’s not forget that before we were stuck in technical loops we were stuck in “inexperienced Level 1 rep loops” and then in “outsourced, inexperienced level 1 loops” and then in “chatbot loops” and then “NLP Chatbot Loops.” The technology may have changed but the pain remained the same.
This is not necessarily a “how” problem; it’s a “what” problem and regardless of the “how” (AI or human or other), companies must own, monitor and control the customer experience if they wish to protect their brands.
Bradley Cooper’s answer is spot on. I believe AI is definitely capable of handling repetitive, easy to answer questions with great ease (Level 0 or 1). And that means greater efficiencies and customer service for 50-60% of all calls (maybe more). But let’s use Bradley’s exit ramps and staff them with humans.