Just 4% of customer service organizations have achieved the ROI they expected from AI initiatives, according to a survey by Gartner.
A Gartner survey of 275 service and support leaders conducted in July through August 2026 revealed that many customer service and support leaders are struggling to realise the value of their investments.
Christopher Sladdin, senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice, says: “While customer service leaders are eager to accelerate their use of AI, many are failing to unlock its value.
“To become truly AI-forward, leaders must apply AI more strategically to optimize value creation, rethink how they invest in and deploy AI, and redesign their teams and processes so they are positioned for the value delivery AI makes possible.”
The most successful AI-forward customer service organisations are:
Channeling AI toward value creation
Organisations can realize greater returns from AI by directing investments toward customer value creation, not just cost reduction. AI-forward service and support organizations treat customer interactions as strategic assets, using AI to analyse conversations and feedback at scale to identify customer needs, uncover recurring friction and understand what drives successful outcomes.
“To create value, customer service leaders need to better understand their customers and their own operations. AI’s superpower is that it enables leadership to learn from customer interactions at scale,” says Sladdin. “Leveraging AI, they can identify and eliminate recurring issues and find ways to build value creation opportunities that help customers to succeed.”
Building AI portfolios
AI-forward service and support organizations are moving beyond isolated AI use cases and building connected AI portfolios aligned to strategic business objectives.
By focusing investments on a coordinated set of use cases, organisations can compound value across the portfolio rather than pursue incremental gains from individual process improvements.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, organisations that build AI portfolios will achieve twice the business value of those pursuing standalone AI use cases.
“Service and support leaders should be more selective about the AI use cases they deploy and focus investment on portfolios tied to clear strategic objectives,” says Sladdin. “That means deploying fewer, higher-value and interconnected use cases while strengthening the data and knowledge management foundations that enable them to work together.
“AI-forward organisations invest nearly 1,8-times more in these foundations than in the AI use cases themselves, helping maximise the value of their overall portfolio.”
Designing AI-accelerated teams
AI-forward service and support organisations aren’t just expecting AI to deliver value. They’re also designing a value-centered workforce that delivers new value to customers in ways that are amplified by AI.
This requires elevating workforce transformation as a strategic priority and aligning strategy, enablement and delivery capabilities across the organization.
“AI-accelerated teams are not traditional teams with new technology layered on top,” says Sladdin. “Humans and AI are not fit for the same job. Each can deliver value, but in different ways. Leaders must stop asking how they remove humans from interactions and instead ask where their involvement creates disproportionate value for customers.”