This article contains sponsored content from Evly.
AI isn’t just creeping into modern businesses—it’s already running the front desk. For quite some time now, chatbots have been handling customer queries and even predicts buyer behavior. Evidently, automation is reshaping how companies connect with people.
These days, many modern companies that need to handle customer service in large volumes use chatbots to communicate with customers. In fact, many businesses have already replaced majority of their human agents with chatbots.
But while this seems efficient and cheaper, how does it really benefit businesses in the long run? And do human agents still stand a chance? This article explores how humans in customer service are thriving as AI and automation continue to take over the workforce.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The automation takeover
Statistics confirm the growing interest of businesses in using chatbots: according to Grand View Research forecasts, the chatbot market will reach $27.29 billion by 2030. Although chatbots have been around since the 1960s, companies have only recently started using them more actively in the past decade.
Previously, with the limited functionality of computers, organizations could only rely on live agents to perform complex service tasks, while chatbots were mainly used for minor support at the backend. However, the emergence of AI-assisted technology has enabled the complete automation of customer interactions in the service business.
Al efficiency
The introduction of chatbots has primarily increased response speed. This is one of the great benefits of AI in customer service, since customers highly appreciate instant responses. Chatbots reduce waiting times from hours and days to seconds. It’s especially critical for frequent questions with straightforward answers, such as: “What is the status of my order?” or “What payment methods do you accept?”
More advanced AI customer service are now taking this a step further. Unlike traditional chatbots that rely on pre-set scripts, these intelligent systems can understand intent, detect emotion and even decide when to bring a human into the conversation. This hybrid approach allows companies to provide faster, more context-aware responses while ensuring empathy remains part of the process, something that purely automated tools still struggle to achieve.
In addition, bots can process hundreds of requests simultaneously without the need for additional staff. For companies with a high volume of incoming requests, such as online stores and delivery services, this means significant savings in resources.
AI has also made customer interactions more data-driven. Chatbots constantly collect and analyze user behavior, preferences, and feedback, enabling companies to understand and anticipate client needs faster so they can quickly offer the most suitable products.
Overautomation risks
It’s often been said that anything in excess is not good, and the same goes with AI and automation. While the use of automation benefits businesses as it speeds up work processes while also saving time and resources, there are considerable downsides when there’s too much reliance on automation.
Overautomation, as it becomes more evident, leads to lack of transparency and accountability, reduced creativity with fewer opportunities for innovation, and a lot of job loss or displacement. And the wider it is used, the bigger the risks are in terms of security vulnerabilities, not to mention ethical concerns around algorithm bias and potential discrimination, which typically happens with AI-powered systems trained on limited data.
In customer service, overautomation can aggravate frustrated customers if they can only speak to chatbots that lack empathy. When customers contact support, they have a problem. Most are in a hurry to get a resolution, and many are likely feeling worried, frustrated, or angry.
For businesses, this is one of the moments that could make or break their reputation, because the quality of service the customers get will heavily influence their opinion of whether they made the right or wrong decision to trust the company with their business. For the most part, showing empathy to a frustrated customer will matter.
So, when businesses rely on AI only and do not offer the option for customers to speak to live agents, it can be difficult and even impossible to resolve consumer issues or personalize product offers on a more meaningful level, which can lead to loss of customers eventually.
Human touch on the frontline
According to Hubspot and SurveyMonkey’s 2025 report on AI use in businesses, 82% of customers prefer human support. Considering that AI has been used in customer service for a few years now, this is a significant reflection of how consumers have grown to dislike speaking with chatbots when they need service. The same report also reveals that 28% of consumers stopped purchasing from brands that use AI.
Because chatbots lack empathy, they will naturally fail at answering emotionally charged questions, which often leaves customers feeling even more frustrated than when they started calling. Apparently, this is an area that only humans can handle with empathy and compassion, which is why customer service will only be satisfactory with humans at the forefront.
Chatbots are just not good at handling conversations and issues for companies with complex business processes. They're also ineffective if at least half of customer inquiries are non-standard tasks. This is also why it's pointless to use conversational AI in customer service when offering personalized products or services that require expert advice, like in the cases of businesses in finance, investment planning, etc. It’s also the same for medical or pharmaceutical consultations, where misinterpretation of symptoms and misleading suggestions can have serious consequences.
Fortunately for consumers, many companies have begun to realize how overautomation can be detrimental to their business. In fact, a growing number of businesses are now actively improving their process to combine AI and human service more effectively to benefit customers.
The workforce evolution
While many companies are starting to scale back, AI is not going anywhere. Instead, they need to figure out how machine intelligence can be leveraged with a human-centric approach. And many realize that chatbots aren’t as efficient on their own, in the same way that real employees may not effectively solve all problems by themselves. The ideal solution? Combining technology and human personalization so that they can complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Reskilling
Improving AI literacy among employees in the age of universal digitalization is the first step to an effective human-AI collaboration. With sufficient training, workers can understand that AI doesn’t have to be their competition if they can use it to improve their skills and productivity.
AI training programs for human support specialists should be developed for modern customer service to include the following components:
- A basic understanding of AI and machine learning, how it works, particularly what it can and cannot do.
- Development of technical skills to enable efficient but ethical use of AI tools
- Formation of a cultural and organizational approach where AI is seen as a supportive tool for employees rather than a threat.
The hybrid service revolution
AI tools can support teams by automating repetitive service tasks while allowing live agents to focus on more complex processes. For example, NoForm's AI chatbot for banks can automatically qualify banking leads, a standard process that can be automated, which in turn enables banking staff to focus on personalized client interactions.
Another case is the use of messenger aggregators, which allow businesses to combine the benefits of chatbots and live operators in a single interface. The integration of bots to handle routine tasks frees up specialists to solve more sophisticated issues, particularly those that are best resolved with human intervention.
Hybrid services like these will not only improve efficiency and save operational costs, they will also leave customers more satisfied. Companies that use hybrid services see enhanced decision-making, better technology adaptation, and reduced risk of errors.
Al-proof customer service jobs
The development of automation and the growth of artificial intelligence have resulted in the emergence of new roles and professions, as well as the inevitable transformation of old ones. Of both old and new roles, these are the main ones that are expected to continue to be in high demand:
- AI support trainer – a specialist who configures and adjusts chatbot behavior and analyzes exceptions when machines cannot cope, transferring complicated issues to real workers.
- Emotional interaction coordinator – a role that involves tracking the customer's mood while communicating with bots. If the coordinator notices dissatisfaction or irritation from the customer, they transfer the conversation to a live operator.
- AI literacy trainer – an expert who trains and adapts employees to new technologies and helps develop digital competency, as well as soft skills that AI cannot replace.
Final thoughts
AI can speed up routine service processes and significantly reduce overhead costs. However, overautomation comes with big risks that can cause companies to lose business. As more businesses are starting to discover, true efficiency lies in a thoughtfully structured hybrid AI service where humans are in command. The hybrid service revolution is all about human-backed bots that create support experiences that can even transform the customer service industry in the years to come.