Agentic AI Poised to Handle 68% of Customer Service and Support Interactions by 2028

Rhea-AI Summary

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.

Positive

• 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

Negative

• 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

 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.

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the findings of its latest global research report, "The Race to an Agentic Future: How Agentic AI Will Transform Customer Experience," highlighting the potential of agentic AI to revolutionize the way technology vendors deliver services and support to customers.

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. 88% report they feel confident that the agentic AI-led customer experience provided by technology partners will help their organization achieve its goals – for example, making their IT environments and operations more efficient, resilient and secure, accelerating their most important strategic IT projects, and maximizing value from their IT investments.

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 68% of their customer experience interactions with technology partners will be handled using agentic AI within the next three years. And, surprisingly, they expect more than half (56%) of interactions to be through agentic AI within the next 12 months, representing a significant increase and heaping pressure onto those vendors who are still only in the early stages of thinking about agentic.

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 81% of respondents predicting that vendors that successfully deliver agentic AI-led customer experience will gain a competitive edge. 

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, and 81% 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

• Research Report
• Executive Blog
• Digital Newsroom

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 U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word 'partner' does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.

FAQ

What percentage of customer service interactions will Cisco's agentic AI handle by 2026?

According to Cisco's research, 68% of all customer service and support interactions with technology vendors are expected to be handled by agentic AI by 2026.

How many organizations participated in Cisco's agentic AI research study?

Cisco surveyed 7,950 global business and technical decision-makers across 30 countries for this research.

What are the main benefits of agentic AI for CSCO customer service?

The main benefits include more personalized, proactive, and predictive services, with 93% of respondents predicting these improvements. It also helps make IT environments more efficient, resilient, and secure.

How important is human interaction in Cisco's AI-driven customer service?

Very important - 89% of customers emphasize the need to combine human connection with AI efficiency, and 96% state human relationships are very important when interacting with B2B technology partners.

What percentage of organizations consider vendor support critical in the AI era?

92% of organizations state that vendor support and services are becoming more critical in the AI era.