Is AI Replacing Customer Service and Call Center Agents?

‍Why the Future Is Hybrid…And That’s a Good Thing

95% of Customer Service Leaders Plan to Retain Human Agents

According to a Gartner poll of 163 support leaders in March 2025, 95% plan to keep their human agents, not as a fallback, but to strategically define how AI fits into their workflows. This “digital-first, but not digital-only” strategy is becoming the new gold standard. Companies are realizing that while AI brings scale and efficiency, only humans can handle emotional intelligence, complex judgment calls, and outlier scenarios.

We strongly agree with Gartner’s recent projection: by 2027, 50% of companies that initially planned to cut their customer service workforce using AI will abandon those plans. The dream of an “agentless” support model is quickly being tempered by reality. The truth? AI isn’t replacing human agents; it’s working with them.

Key Takeaway:
AI won’t fully replace call center agents, but will handle repetitive tasks like FAQs and ticket tagging. Support reps will shift to complex issues, emotional intelligence, and guiding AI. While entry-level roles may decline, human agents remain essential for deeper customer connections.

At Crescendo.ai, our AI can resolve up to 90% of customer queries autonomously. But what about the remaining 10%? That’s why we decided to be the first organization in the world that offer expert human-backed outsourcing services along with AI technology, ensuring every customer gets the help they need.

Our take on this: Will AI replace call center agents and customer support Reps? 

As AI experts involved in building and implementing large-scale customer service automation systems, our perspective is clear: AI is not here to replace human agents; it’s here to elevate them. The assumption that organizations could simply “swap out” agents with bots has always been an oversimplification. 

In fact, AI is empowering agents by augmenting their workflows with real-time suggestions, conversation summaries, and sentiment analysis. 

For example, 

Entry-Level QA Roles vs. CX Leader Responsibilities

Crescendo.ai’s Voice of Customer (VoC) tool automatically calculates CSAT scores for every customer conversation using AI. It evaluates tone, conversation flow, keyword usage, resolution speed, and how the interaction ends. The platform also generates a smart summary of the conversation and highlights reasons behind high or low CSAT. 

This eliminates the need for entry-level QA staff to manually review entire transcripts/call recordings or manage CSAT collection and calculations through spreadsheets and other complex tools.

That said, the role of CX leaders and support managers remains essential. They’re responsible for interpreting this data, identifying trends behind low satisfaction scores, spotting recurring issues, and creating targeted training programs to enhance team performance and overall customer experience.

Type of tickets: AI support assistants vs. human agents

At Crescendo.ai, we’ve built advanced real-time sentiment detection using LLMs and NLP. Whenever the system detects a complex issue triggering negative emotions, whether during a chat, phone call, or even in email, it instantly hands off the conversation to a human agent. It also provides an AI-generated summary of the interaction, so the customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves.

For example:

A customer reports an issue with returning a product. Although it's technically non-refundable, they explain it arrived after its expiry date, making it unusable. The AI asks them to upload a photo showing the expiry date, scans the image, cross-checks the order details from the CRM, and processes the return, completely without human involvement.

Now, imagine a similar case, but this time the customer complains about the product’s taste after using it. Since taste is subjective and the product isn’t defective, the AI detects frustration in the customer’s tone and escalates the issue to a human agent. The human then uses judgment and empathy to assess whether the complaint is genuine and decide whether an exception should be made for the return.

Here are some more statistics that we found out in our survey. 

Only 12% of Support Leaders See Full Automation as the End Goal

A recent Crescendo.ai report (study conducted by PartnerHero, powered by Crescendo.ai) found that just 12% of customer service executives see complete automation as the future. That’s a powerful indicator: most companies are not aiming to remove humans from the equation. Instead, they're building smart workflows where AI handles routine tasks, and humans tackle nuance, empathy, and escalation. The future isn’t AI versus humans—it’s AI with humans.

78% of Leaders Say AI Helps Agents Be More Productive, Not Replace Them

In the same Crescendo.ai study, 78% of leaders said AI makes their agents more productive by handling repetitive tasks, summarizing conversations, and suggesting next actions. This elevates agents to more strategic roles, requiring skills in emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and tech fluency. As we move forward, we’ll see increasing demand for “AI-augmented” agents who use real-time AI tools to deliver faster, smarter support.

65% of Customers Still Prefer a Human When Things Go Wrong

Despite the rise of automation, 65% of customers still prefer talking to a human, especially when facing a complex or emotionally charged issue. AI might be great at handling order statuses or password resets, but it can't fully replicate human understanding in sensitive situations. Organizations that strike the right balance between AI efficiency and human empathy will deliver better outcomes and customer loyalty.

Conclusion: Is AI Replacing Customer Service Agents? 

AI is reshaping jobs in the customer support industry. 

This isn't a story about job loss; it’s a story about job evolution. AI will reduce the demand for low-skill, repetitive roles but simultaneously create a need for high-skill, strategic positions. 

Organizations that recognize this shift and invest in reskilling their teams will maximize the returns on their AI investments. And from the customer’s perspective, a hybrid support model, where AI provides instant speed and humans deliver meaningful depth, will always lead to better experiences. The future of customer service belongs to those who embrace AI as a partner, not a replacement.

While generative AI has significantly expanded what’s possible in automation, the most effective implementations we’ve seen are hybrid models that combine machine efficiency with human empathy.

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