80% of Organizations Plan to Move “Some” Customer Service Agents Into New Roles, Finds Gartner

Four in every five organizations are planning to transition “at least some” customer service agents into new roles, according to a new Gartner report.

The prediction comes as organizations prepare for increasingly sophisticated self-service applications that don’t just surface information but automate actions. 

In recent weeks, the prominent contact center technology vendors Genesys and Zoom have upgraded their virtual agents to accelerate this transition. 

Meanwhile, the broader conversational AI platform market is exploding, with 650 vendors selling AI to service and sales teams, per CaCube Consulting. More and more of these will go agentic, with the promise of lowering contact volumes.   

Then, there’s the adoption of agent-assist solutions, which is likely to gain steam, automating information gathering, mid-call tasks, and post-call processing to reduce agent work further. 

Anticipating this trend, contact centers are reconsidering what the future agent role looks like. 

“Leaders are not just deploying AI, they are redesigning service models to ensure that technology enhances the customer experience while humans provide context, empathy, and judgment.”

Kim Hedlin

Director of Research at the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice

On this point, Gartner found that 84% of leaders plan to expand the agent role by adding new skills and adapting hiring profiles.

Shaping the Contact Center Agent of the Future

Gartner’s statistics underscore how customer service leaders understand that to achieve meaningful gains with AI, they must experiment, redefine agent roles, and change workflows in significant ways, not just minor tweaks.

Ultimately, that starts with understanding the contact center’s demand profile. From there, leaders must consider: which conversations shouldn’t be happening in the first instance? Which are best-suited for human agents? And which are best left for AI? 

Additionally, there’s value in thinking about: which types of conversations aren’t we having that we should be? That’s where human support teams can unlock additional value.  

In running through this exercise, contact centers can consider how AI may transform their contact mix, skills requirements, and - of course - overall demand. 

From there, they can make a plan for reskilling and possibly rehiring in different roles, whether those are positions as sales people, store associates, or something completely different. 

All this is easier said than done. However, a blanket approach to applying AI everywhere will paper over cracks and limit the value human service teams give back to the business.  

91% of Service Leaders Feel the Pressure to Adopt AI

Customer experience design approaches like the above take time. Yet, that’s a luxury that fewer service leaders feel they have. 

Indeed, Gartner found that 91% of customer service leaders feel under pressure to implement AI, up from 77% in 2025.

The risk here is that they’ll rush into taking older approaches, guided by larger service providers and less contemporary BPO firms, which fixate on cutting costs and containment. 

Even with the best AI solution in the world, that’s a recipe for disappointment. 

An approach of understanding contact center demand, optimizing for experience, and designing more efficient journeys will allow cost savings to follow. That’s the long-term play. 

These more efficient journeys may also include agent-assist. But, be careful here, as AI prompts must target specific pain points in service journeys, as isolated via a quality assurance (QA) initiative. Pointless pop-ups can be a significant source of frustration. 

Also, be transparent about goals and expectations, remembering the people using the tools. Sustainable organizational change comes from closely considering human impacts, not just technology implementation.