Agentic AI Poised to Handle 68% of Customer Service and Support Interactions by 2028
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has released a global research report revealing the transformative impact of agentic AI on customer service. The study, surveying 7,950 decision-makers across 30 countries, predicts that 68% of customer service interactions with technology vendors will be handled by agentic AI by 2026. Key findings show that 92% of organizations consider vendor support increasingly critical, and 93% believe agentic AI will enable more personalized services.
The research indicates rapid adoption, with 56% of interactions expected to be AI-handled within 12 months. While 88% of respondents are confident in AI-led customer experience, 89% emphasize the importance of maintaining human connection. The study highlights that vendors must demonstrate robust governance for ethical AI use, with 99% of respondents considering this crucial.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) ha pubblicato un rapporto di ricerca globale che evidenzia l'impatto trasformativo dell'intelligenza artificiale agentica nel servizio clienti. Lo studio, che ha coinvolto 7.950 decisori in 30 paesi, prevede che entro il 2026 il 68% delle interazioni di assistenza clienti con i fornitori tecnologici sarà gestito dall'AI agentica. I risultati principali mostrano che il 92% delle organizzazioni considera sempre più cruciale il supporto dei fornitori e il 93% ritiene che l'AI agentica permetterà servizi più personalizzati.
La ricerca indica un'adozione rapida, con il 56% delle interazioni previsto essere gestito dall'AI entro 12 mesi. Sebbene l’88% degli intervistati sia fiducioso nell’esperienza cliente guidata dall’AI, il 89% sottolinea l’importanza di mantenere il contatto umano. Lo studio evidenzia che i fornitori devono garantire una solida governance per un uso etico dell’AI, considerata cruciale dal 99% degli intervistati.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) ha publicado un informe global de investigación que revela el impacto transformador de la IA agentiva en el servicio al cliente. El estudio, que encuestó a 7.950 tomadores de decisiones en 30 países, predice que para 2026 el 68% de las interacciones de servicio al cliente con proveedores tecnológicos serán gestionadas por IA agentiva. Los hallazgos clave muestran que el 92% de las organizaciones considera cada vez más crítico el soporte del proveedor, y el 93% cree que la IA agentiva permitirá servicios más personalizados.
La investigación indica una adopción rápida, con un 56% de las interacciones que se espera sean manejadas por IA en los próximos 12 meses. Aunque el 88% de los encuestados confía en la experiencia del cliente liderada por IA, el 89% enfatiza la importancia de mantener la conexión humana. El estudio destaca que los proveedores deben demostrar una gobernanza sólida para el uso ético de la IA, aspecto que considera crucial el 99% de los encuestados.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO)는 에이전트 AI가 고객 서비스에 미치는 혁신적 영향을 밝히는 글로벌 연구 보고서를 발표했습니다. 30개국에서 7,950명의 의사결정자를 대상으로 한 이 연구는 2026년까지 기술 공급업체와의 고객 서비스 상호작용 중 68%가 에이전트 AI에 의해 처리될 것으로 예측합니다. 주요 결과에 따르면 92%의 조직이 공급업체 지원을 점점 더 중요하게 여기며, 93%는 에이전트 AI가 보다 개인화된 서비스를 가능하게 할 것이라고 믿고 있습니다.
연구는 빠른 도입을 시사하며, 56%의 상호작용이 12개월 이내에 AI로 처리될 것으로 예상됩니다. 응답자의 88%는 AI 주도 고객 경험에 자신감을 보이는 반면, 89%는 인간과의 연결 유지가 중요하다고 강조합니다. 연구는 공급업체가 윤리적 AI 사용을 위한 강력한 거버넌스를 입증해야 한다고 강조하며, 99%의 응답자가 이를 필수로 간주합니다.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) a publié un rapport de recherche mondial révélant l’impact transformateur de l’IA agentique sur le service client. L’étude, qui a sondé 7 950 décideurs dans 30 pays, prévoit que 68% des interactions de service client avec les fournisseurs technologiques seront traitées par l’IA agentique d’ici 2026. Les résultats clés montrent que 92% des organisations considèrent le support fournisseur comme de plus en plus crucial, et 93% pensent que l’IA agentique permettra des services plus personnalisés.
La recherche indique une adoption rapide, avec 56% des interactions attendues d’être gérées par l’IA dans les 12 mois. Bien que 88% des répondants aient confiance dans l’expérience client dirigée par l’IA, 89% soulignent l’importance de maintenir la connexion humaine. L’étude souligne que les fournisseurs doivent démontrer une gouvernance solide pour un usage éthique de l’IA, ce que 99% des répondants jugent crucial.
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) hat einen globalen Forschungsbericht veröffentlicht, der die transformative Wirkung von agentischer KI im Kundenservice aufzeigt. Die Studie, die 7.950 Entscheidungsträger in 30 Ländern befragte, prognostiziert, dass bis 2026 68% der Kundenservice-Interaktionen mit Technologieanbietern von agentischer KI abgewickelt werden. Wichtige Erkenntnisse zeigen, dass 92% der Organisationen den Support durch Anbieter als zunehmend kritisch ansehen und 93% glauben, dass agentische KI personalisiertere Dienstleistungen ermöglicht.
Die Forschung deutet auf eine schnelle Einführung hin, wobei 56% der Interaktionen innerhalb von 12 Monaten von KI bearbeitet werden sollen. Während 88% der Befragten Vertrauen in KI-gesteuerte Kundenerfahrungen haben, betonen 89% die Bedeutung der Aufrechterhaltung menschlicher Verbindungen. Die Studie hebt hervor, dass Anbieter eine robuste Governance für den ethischen Einsatz von KI nachweisen müssen, was 99% der Befragten für entscheidend halten.
- 68% of customer service interactions expected to be handled by agentic AI by 2026, improving efficiency
- 88% of respondents confident that AI-led customer experience will help achieve organizational goals
- 92% of organizations recognize increased importance of vendor support, indicating strong market demand
- 81% predict competitive advantage for vendors successfully implementing agentic AI solutions
- Vendors still in early stages of agentic AI deployment may face customer churn and reputational damage
- Risk of deteriorating customer relationships for companies failing to deploy AI effectively and ethically
- Significant pressure on vendors to accelerate AI strategies due to rapid adoption expectations
Insights
Cisco's research shows major customer service AI shift underway, positioning the company strategically in the rapidly evolving enterprise AI market.
Cisco's new global research reveals a significant acceleration in the adoption of agentic AI for customer service, with respondents expecting 68% of customer interactions to be AI-handled within just three years. What's particularly notable is the 56% adoption rate predicted within the next 12 months—a pace that surpasses industry expectations and creates competitive pressure on technology vendors.
The research surveyed an impressive 7,950 decision-makers across 30 countries, providing robust statistical support for these projections. With 92% of organizations reporting that vendor support is becoming more critical amid growing IT complexity, Cisco is smartly positioning itself at the intersection of two critical market trends: increasing dependence on technology partners and the maturation of AI capabilities.
Looking at the technical differentiation, Cisco defines agentic AI as systems with memory and task awareness that can independently take actions with minimal human oversight—moving beyond simple automation to true agency. This represents the next evolution in enterprise AI applications, particularly for solving persistent problems like network misconfiguration issues.
From a competitive standpoint, the research indicates 81% of respondents believe vendors successfully deploying agentic AI will gain market advantage. Cisco appears to be leveraging its decades of accumulated data and customer relationships to transform its Customer Experience function, potentially creating barriers to entry for competitors without similar historical data advantages.
The research also highlights an important balance: despite automation enthusiasm, 96% of respondents still value human relationships in B2B technology partnerships. This suggests the optimal strategy isn't wholesale replacement of human support but rather strategic deployment of AI for appropriate use cases while enhancing human interaction where it adds value—precisely the approach Cisco outlines.
New Cisco Research Reveals Overwhelming Demand for Agentic AI
to Transform the Way Technology Vendors Deliver Customer Experience
News Summary:
- The rise of agentic AI: By 2026,
68% of all customer service and support interactions with technology vendors are expected to be handled by agentic AI. - Customer experience becomes mission-critical: With growing IT complexity,
92% of organizations say the support and services they receive are more important than ever. - Transformational benefits of AI: A striking
93% of respondents predict that agentic AI will enable more personalized, proactive, and predictive services. - The power of human connection: Despite AI's rise,
89% of customers emphasize the need to combine human connection with AI efficiency to optimize experiences.
In the survey of 7,950 global business and technical decision-makers across 30 countries, respondents predict that agentic AI will play an increasingly prominent role in their interactions with technology vendors over the coming years and are positive about the benefits it will bring.
Respondents also expect the pivot to agentic AI-led customer experience (including technical support, customer success and professional services) to advance at a far greater velocity than the industry anticipated. They predict that
Liz Centoni, EVP & Chief Customer Experience Officer, Cisco, commented: "With agentic AI reaching a new level of maturity, we're closer than ever to solving some of the most persistent customer pain points in enterprise environments. For instance, a significant share of network issues stem from misconfiguration, something agentic systems are poised to eliminate. That shift will lead to smarter networks, stronger security, and more productive teams. As an industry, we've been talking about these concepts for decades, and while we've made incremental progress, AI - and especially agentic AI - is making that vision a reality.
"We are drawing on four decades of data, our deep industry knowledge, and the trust of our customers to re-imagine Cisco Customer Experience as an agentic-led function. Our vision is to make every customer interaction with Cisco personalized, proactive, and predictive, and to make every customer feel like they are our only customer. And while we're making meaningful progress, this new research makes one thing clear: we have to move faster."
In recent years, in response to growing IT complexity, technology businesses have introduced automation into their workflows and layered in AI to streamline support and services. This approach has still required human intervention to stitch processes together – to monitor, decide, act and adapt. Agentic AI negates the need for this level of human intervention. Agentic AI is a category of artificial intelligence that leverages AI Agents and a contextualized interconnection among them. Agentic AI requires agency, meaning the AI Agents are capable of having memory, are task aware and possess the ability to independently take actions – or choose what actions to take or recommend – to achieve a particular outcome through the ability to learn from their environment and reason, with minimal human oversight.
This frees up customer experience professionals to focus on complex problem-solving, humans-on-the-loop feedback process for specific use-cases (where humans, for example, provide feedback to an AI system to improve its performance and focus on accurate and safe results), and building deeper, trusted relationships with customers.
The research highlights the urgent need for technology vendors, many of whom are still only exploring the potential for agentic AI deployment within customer experience, to accelerate their strategies.
Respondents are clear that they believe vendors who are left behind or fail to deploy agentic AI in an effective, secure and ethical manner, will suffer a deterioration in customer relationships, reputational damage and higher levels of customer churn.
Meanwhile, the research highlights that respondents feel that vendors who embrace this transformation head-on, seamlessly and ethically deploying agentic AI across the technology lifecycle, will benefit from data-driven insights, improved scalability within their support and services, and loyalty at scale. Customer experience will become a strategic differentiator, with
Key Findings
- Accelerated demand for customer experience: As levels of IT complexity increase, organizations are leaning on technology vendors more than ever before.
92% of respondents state that the support and services provided by vendors are becoming more critical in the AI era. - Use cases across the technology lifecycle: more than
80% of respondents point to potential benefits of agentic AI-led customer experience at every stage of the technology lifecycle, with customer and technical support, technology strategy and planning, and operations viewed as the greatest opportunities. - Game-changing benefits: customers expect agentic AI to drive improvements in IT productivity, time savings, and cost savings, as well as opportunities to improve data analytics, troubleshooting, and alignment of technology investment with digital transformation goals.
- Human connection is irreplaceable: customers want to retain human interaction when engaging with support and services, with
96% stating that human relationships are very important when interacting with B2B technology partners. - Robust governance is non-negotiable:
99% of respondents state that it's important for technology partners to demonstrate robust governance arrangements to deliver ethical use of agentic AI, and81% feel that vendors need to share their vision for AI-led customer experience to bring customers along on the journey.
You can read the full report here: The Race to an Agentic Future: How Agentic AI Will Transform Customer Experience.
Additional Resources
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that is revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI era. For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services, Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience. With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to creating a more connected and inclusive future for all. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/agentic-ai-poised-to-handle-68-of-customer-service-and-support-interactions-by-2028-302465212.html
SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.
FAQ
What percentage of customer service interactions will Cisco's agentic AI handle by 2026?
How many organizations participated in Cisco's agentic AI research study?
What are the main benefits of agentic AI for CSCO customer service?
How important is human interaction in Cisco's AI-driven customer service?
What percentage of organizations consider vendor support critical in the AI era?
