AI is expected to handle half of all customer service cases by 2027 – up from 30% currently, according to Salesforce’s 7th State of Service report. The figures come from the CRM giant’s global survey of 6,500 service professionals, investigating key trends in the industry.
For service leaders, AI has leapt up to become the #2 priority – a sharp rise from #10 just one year before, but customer experience remains #1 in 2025, as it was in 2024. While this alone is certainly a revelatory finding, AI evangelists might want to temper their excitement for now. Let’s take a look at what exactly we can glean from this, as well as other insights from Salesforce’s report.
How is AI Changing Customer Service?
Service professionals project that agentic AI will boost upsell revenue by 15%. According to Salesforce’s data, service reps using AI spend 20% less time on routine cases, freeing up an estimated four hours per week for more complex work.
George Pokorny, SVP of Global Customer Success at OpenTable, said: “Saving just two minutes on a 10-minute call lets our service reps focus on strengthening customer relationships.”
According to the Salesforce report:
- 71% of service reps with AI say it’s creating growth opportunities.
- 86% of service reps have developed new skills.
- 81% say their role has gotten more specialized as a result of working with AI tools.
- Users of agentic AI are the “most optimistic” about their career prospects, which, Salesforce admits, might reflect a selection bias among future-focused early adopters.
Kishan Chetan, EVP and General Manager of Salesforce Service Cloud, said: “Elevating the customer experience remains the North Star for service teams, but how we deliver on it is evolving.
“AI agents go beyond predictions and automation; they can understand context, take action, make decisions, and adapt in real time. That shift gives human reps more space to focus on what they do best: solving high-stakes, complex problems and building trust with customers.”
Chetan added: “We’re seeing that AI isn’t just changing how service reps work; it’s expanding what they’re capable of. Reps using AI – especially AI agents – report building new skills and feeling more confident about their careers. That’s a powerful signal that AI, when applied thoughtfully, can unlock upward mobility.”
The AI Bubble Question Revisited
There’s arguably a case to be made that Salesforce’s own research should not be taken at face value every time. Salesforce offers an AI solution, and if its own report shows just how valuable, necessary, and helpful AI solutions are, then that’s all rather convenient for them, isn’t it?
Nonetheless, in this instance, it’s certainly worth taking seriously. Customer service incidents are perhaps use case number one when it comes to agentic AI – which is already handling order management, providing information, managing memberships, and scheduling appointments.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff often remarks on how many cases Agentforce is handling on help.salesforce.com, with reports earlier this year suggesting 85% of customer queries were resolved without any intervention from humans.
The great question of our time – at least for the tech industry – appears to be: are we in an AI boom or an AI bubble?
If Salesforce’s report is accurate, and half of all customer service cases really are going to be handled by AI in 2027, this is a point in favor of the bullish case.
But it’s also worth revisiting some classic sticking points, covered by Salesforce Ben throughout the life of Salesforce’s flagship AI product, Agentforce.
Benioff said in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year that AI is already doing “30 to 50% of the work” at Salesforce, and also admitted that Salesforce’s agents are currently operating at around 93% accuracy. We explained the implications of this figure here.
As our Journalist Thomas Morgan and Technical Content Director Peter Chittum wrote: “Imagine a 93% accurate agent telling you your current credit limit, or advising a pharmacist on drug interactions, or identifying your immigration status. For situations like these, there’s no real room for hallucinations, as they could cause serious consequences for a company’s brand and, more importantly, their customer or patient.”
So, while it seems very likely that businesses will be keen to utilize AI for their customer service departments, we may also see some reservations about how badly things could go wrong.
According to Salesforce’s own report, security remains a top concern, with 51% of service leaders saying security concerns have delayed or limited their AI initiatives.
But, the CRM giant claims that the sentiment is “shifting”, with the latest State of IT: Security report finding that “all surveyed security leaders” expressed optimism about AI agents, and each identified at least one area where these tools could strengthen their security posture. A number of them pointed to improvements in threat detection, anomaly monitoring, and breach prevention, Salesforce said.
Final Thoughts
AI is quickly becoming mainstream in the world of customer service, shifting from the #10 priority to #2 within just one year. As many as 86% of those surveyed said they have developed new skills thanks to AI, suggesting that AI is augmenting human capability, rather than just replacing it.
As mentioned above, Salesforce has a vested interest in projecting a positive picture of how efficient and non-threatening AI is, and these figures come from the CRM giant itself.
Nonetheless, AI is undoubtedly changing the workplace, and customer service might be considered the canary in the coal mine for this change. Business leaders would do well to keep a close eye on the industry, as it might teach us potential opportunities – and pitfalls – elsewhere.
