Retaining customers and first-time selling go hand in hand. Both are equally difficult.
Cheat Code?
Provide exceptional experience to customers.
But how to enhance CX?
There are multiple ways to enhance CX, but we will talk about the most important matrix, i.e., Customer Support.
Let’s be blunt: If you’re still relying solely on human agents to manage your customer support, you’re already behind.
Today’s customers expect instant, accurate, and always-available service.
Fact Check: 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its
products or services.
In this blog, we’ll break down exactly how agent bots are effectively helping customer support.
Why Forward-Looking CX Leaders Are Rethinking Agent Bots: Strategic Gains Beyond Instant Replies
| Modern AI chatbots features | Strategic value |
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How is AI used in customer support?
In this fast-paced world, customers demand prompt support and resolution to their queries.
But have you ever checked your average response time and average handling time?
Average response time = Total amount of time to respond to tickets divided by the total number of tickets
Average handling time = Time taken by the support agent to spend on a call or support ticket.
Use AI to increase the ART and AHT
AI is the engine behind modern customer service. When integrated strategically, AI technologies automate, personalize, and accelerate the support experience across every touchpoint.
Businesses that use AI chatbot platforms report up to a 30% reduction in operational costs. In fact, AI bots resolve issues 3x faster than human agents on average.
Here’s how:
Automating routine interactions
AI-powered chatbots handle repetitive tasks like answering FAQs, checking order statuses, resetting passwords, and scheduling appointments instantly. Human agents can thus focus on high-value, complex issues that require empathy and critical thinking.
Providing 24/7 availability
Customers demand immediate support round the clock, and building a team of agents that operates 24*7*365 is complex and costly. AI ensures customers receive real-time responses at any hour, across any time zone, without adding to your labor costs.
Enhancing response accuracy
Responding on time and accurately makes your customer support stand out from the crowd. AI systems understand user intent and context using natural language processing and machine learning. This enables bots to deliver relevant, accurate answers, reducing errors, improving first-contact resolution, and driving customer satisfaction.
Powering multi-agent support systems
Many customer queries need to be routed to different departments or a particular expert agent. AI acts as a virtual team member in multi-agent support solutions, routing tickets, and prioritizing queries based on urgency or sentiment. AI also supports live agents with recommended responses and knowledge base articles in real-time.
Delivering actionable insights
“More than 50% of the businesses are already using AI in customer support, and others are planning to implement it soon,” – Glenn King, SVP Technology at Exela Technologies.
Glenn King is an accomplished technologist and dynamic leader renowned for uniting technology and people to craft innovative solutions to complex, real-world challenges. With extensive experience in product development, software architecture, and global IT operations, he excels in driving organizational growth through technology consolidation, platform rejuvenation, and superior client delivery. Glenn is passionate about building cross-functional teams that not only achieve personal career goals but also contribute collaboratively to company success.
Why do companies use AI?
AI analyzes customer interactions across channels, chat, email, voice, and social. It uncovers patterns, pain points, and opportunities for service improvement. These insights are gold for optimizing workflows and decision-making.
Do you want to know average response time benchmarks by channel?
Click Here to Download the AVG Response Time By Channel Sheet
ART (Average Response Time) Benchmarks Guide
Use this quick-reference chart to evaluate and optimize your customer service performance across all key communication channels.
Email Response Time Benchmarks
- Unacceptable: More than 1 day
- Below Average: 1 full day
- Average: 12–24 hours
- Above Average: Under 4 hours
- Stellar: Under 1 hour
Social Media Response Time Benchmarks
- Unacceptable: More than 1 day
- Below Average: 1 full day
- Average: 12–24 hours
- Above Average: Under 4 hours
- Stellar: Under 15 minutes
SMS Response Time Benchmarks
- Unacceptable: Over 1 hour
- Below Average: 1 hour
- Average: 10 minutes
- Above Average: Under 5 minutes
- Stellar: Under 1 minute
Live Chat Response Time Benchmarks
- Unacceptable: Over 1 hour
- Below Average: 1 hour
- Average: 10 minutes
- Above Average: Under 5 minutes
- Stellar: Under 1 minute
How can agent bots help in customer service?
Customer support moved from long wait times and call center scripts to real-time, intelligent, AI-powered conversations. This shift is the best example of strategic technological development.
From traditional to AI-driven support
In the past, customer service relied heavily on large human teams, fixed working hours, and manual processes. Support was reactive, ticket-driven, and often frustrating for both agents and customers.
Enter AI in customer support—a game-changer.
Think of a chatbot not as a simple script-runner, but as a smart digital frontliner that brings speed, consistency, and control to your support operation.
Here’s how agent bots directly elevate your customer service game:
24/7 Service = global market readiness
Today’s customers expect service anytime, anywhere. AI chatbots ensure your brand is “always on” without adding to labor costs. This operational continuity is especially critical for enterprises scaling across time zones and geographies.
From call center costs to cost predictability
AI agents are not just cost savers; they bring predictable and linear operating models. Instead of scaling human capital with customer volume, you scale with code.
Data-driven CX transformation
Every chatbot interaction feeds into a real-time data loop. That’s not just support, it’s market intelligence at scale. C-level leaders can harness this data to uncover product issues, regional friction points, and unmet customer needs.
AI as a catalyst for workforce evolution
By offloading repetitive tasks to chatbots, companies can reskill support agents into higher-impact roles like customer success, upselling, or community building.
Future-proofing the support function
With AI advancing rapidly, investing in a chatbot layer today lays the foundation for future integrations with LLMs, voice AI, and autonomous agents.
Think: AI that doesn’t just respond, but reasons, predicts, and acts.
Compliance, consistency & risk control
Unlike humans, AI doesn’t deviate. Every chatbot response is auditable, consistent, and compliant, essential for regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or insurance.
Customer expectations are changing fast. They want instant, accurate, and personalized support at any time, on any channel. OmniConnect Chatbot checks all these boxes and more. Designed for enterprise-grade scalability and precision, OmniConnect integrates effortlessly into existing systems, leverages industry-leading NLP models, and supports multi-agent workflows with zero friction. Whether you’re a growing startup or a global enterprise, OmniConnect empowers you to deliver AI-powered customer support at scale without compromising control, quality, or brand voice.
FAQs:
Can AI replace customer support?
AI won’t replace human support; it enhances it. While AI-powered bots can handle high volumes of predictable requests with speed and accuracy, human agents remain essential for nuanced, emotionally sensitive, or high-stakes conversations. The future is hybrid: AI handles the routine, humans hold the relationship.
How do you make a support chatbot?
To build a support chatbot, start by defining the use cases it should handle, like FAQs, order tracking, or password resets. Then choose an AI chatbot platform that offers strong NLP, easy integration with your existing customer service solutions, and tools for training the bot on your data. Platforms like OmniConnect Chatbot streamline this process with intuitive interfaces and enterprise-grade features for fast deployment and scalability.
