AI is powering change in every industry. From generative AI and speech recognition to medical imaging and improved supply chain management, AI is providing enterprises the compute power, tools, and algorithms their teams need to do their life’s work.
AI agents can help organizations meet this need. And they can grow in scope and scale as businesses grow, helping keep customers from taking their business elsewhere.
AI agents can be used as virtual assistants, which use artificial intelligence and natural language processing to handle high volumes of customer service requests. By automating routine tasks, AI agents ease the workload on human agents, allowing them to focus on tasks requiring a more personal touch.
AI-powered customer service tools like chatbots have become table stakes across every industry looking to increase efficiency and keep buyers happy. According to a recent IDC study on conversational AI, 41% of organizations use AI-powered copilots for customer service and 60% have implemented them for IT help desks.
Now, many of those same industries are looking to adopt agentic AI, semi-autonomous tools that have the ability to perceive, reason and act on more complex problems.
How AI Agents Enhance Customer Service
A primary value of AI-powered systems is the time they free up by automating routine tasks. AI agents can perform specific tasks, or agentic operations, essentially becoming part of an organization’s workforce — working alongside humans who can focus on more complex customer issues.
AI agents can handle predictive tasks and problem-solve, can be trained to understand industry-specific terms and can pull relevant information from an organization’s knowledge bases, wherever that data resides.
With AI agents, companies can:
- Boost efficiency: AI agents handle common questions and repetitive tasks, allowing support teams to prioritize more complicated cases. This is especially useful during high-demand periods.
- Increase customer satisfaction: Faster, more personalized interactions result in happier and more loyal customers. Consistent and accurate support improves customer sentiment and experience.
- Scale Easily: Equipped to handle high volumes of customer support requests, AI agents scale effortlessly with growing businesses, reducing customer wait times and resolving issues faster.
AI Agents for Customer Service Across Industries
AI agents are transforming customer service across sectors, helping companies enhance customer conversations, achieve high-resolution rates and improve human representative productivity.
For instance, ServiceNow recently introduced IT and customer service management AI agents to boost productivity by autonomously solving many employee and customer issues. Its agents can understand context, create step-by-step resolutions and get live agent approvals when needed.
To improve patient care and reduce preprocedure anxiety, The Ottawa Hospital is using AI agents that have consistent, accurate and continuous access to information. The agent has the potential to improve patient care and reduce administrative tasks for doctors and nurses.
Getting Started With AI Agents for Customer Service
NVIDIA AI Blueprints make it easy to start building and setting up virtual assistants by offering ready-made workflows and tools to accelerate deployment. Whether for a simple AI-powered chatbot or a fully animated digital human interface, the blueprints offer resources to create AI assistants that are scalable, aligned with an organization’s brand and deliver a responsive, efficient customer support experience.
