How AI is unlocking ROI in customer service: 58 stats and key insights for 2025
AI in customer service is no longer just a buzzword or a distant promise. It’s now a real, results-driven partner that supports teams, enhances productivity, and drives real impact and tangible outcomes for businesses. Here’s what the latest AI customer service statistics tell us:
32% of customer service practitioners already use AI for support. (Freshworks)
Nearly half, 47% of companies that don’t use AI currently plan to implement it in 2025. (Freshworks)
Two out of three business leaders say AI adoption has boosted their revenue growth rate by over 25% (IBM)
Top companies using AI in conversational support respond (FRT) in just 10 seconds. That’s real-time engagement at scale. (Freshworks)
AI-enabled trendsetting companies resolve tickets in 32 minutes on average, while aspirational companies can take up to 36 hours. (Freshworks)
The AI for customer service market is projected to grow from USD 12.06 billion in 2024 to USD 47.82 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.8% during the forecast period. (Globe Newswire)
Still skeptical about AI? In this article, we will dive into top AI customer service statistics and insights from Freshworks' CX 2025 Benchmark Report and other industry-leading publications, illustrating how AI is unlocking significant value.
AI Agents are the new frontline, lightening the load for human agents
Support teams today are under pressure. Ticket volumes are rising fast, but hiring isn’t keeping pace. The result? Overwhelmed agents, longer wait times, and frustrated customers. This is where AI Agents step in. Not to replace humans, but to handle the repetitive, deflect the routine, and triage the rest, so agents can focus on high-value, complex conversations that truly need a human touch. Let’s look at the ROI of AI powered customer service:
7. 47% of enterprise companies using AI are automating self-service answers and actions. (IBM)
8. 90% of practitioners in the business services sector report that repetitive tasks prevent agents from focusing on high-value issues. (Freshworks)
9. In 2025, 53% of customer service practitioners say managing ticket volumes without growing headcount is their top challenge. (Freshworks)
10. 64% of executives believe they are actively making trade-offs between cost efficiency and customer satisfaction. (Accenture)
11. 73% of Freshworks’ customers say that they aim to tackle high volumes of customer interactions with Freddy AI Agent. (Freshworks)
12. In retail companies that have adopted Freddy AI Agent, 53% of all incoming queries are resolved by the AI agents, giving human agents time to focus on critical customer issues. (Freshworks)
Increased customer demand for 24/7 help
Today’s customers expect support on their terms - anytime, across any channel, and without the wait. While the demand for 24/7 customer service is evident, staffing human agents around the clock isn’t always practical or cost-effective. Businesses need smarter, scalable solutions to stay responsive without compromising quality.
13. 95% of consumers say customer service impacts their brand loyalty, citing easy access to digital channels, online self-service, and professional agents as important factors. (NICE)
14. 68% of customers agree that quick responses are the most positive aspect of chatbots. (Userlike)
15. Nearly 50% of customers expect a response in under four hours, and 12% want help within 15 minutes. (SuperOffice)
16. Customers are 2.4 times more likely to remain loyal to a brandwhen their problems are resolved quickly. (Forrester)
Rising customer expectations
Customers today have higher expectations and less patience. They want support that’s fast, seamless, and intelligent. While they welcome AI, it needs to feel human: context-aware, helpful, and consistent. Anything less quickly becomes a deal-breaker.
17. 87% of the customers who have had even a single negative service experience said they would likely avoid the offending company in the future. (Accenture)
18. 27% of customers’ number one frustration is that support teams lack knowledge, and for 31% of them, it’s needing to continually explain their issues. (Surveymonkey)
19. 75% of customers said the inability to connect with someone from customer support would cause them to leave. (Shep Hyken)
20. For 64% of customers, service quality is the single most important factor that sets companies apart. (Accenture)
21. Almost 50% expect special treatment in return for their loyalty. (Accenture)
22. Among US companies using ticketing systems, Trendsetters achieve near-perfect CSAT, while Aspirants lag by over 25%, proving that speed and consistency directly impact customer satisfaction. (Freshworks)
AI agents are bridging the support gap, autonomously
The frontline of customer service is getting smarter and faster. AI agents are stepping in to resolve routine queries without human intervention, offering autonomous support at scale. From password resets to order status checks, Freddy AI handles Level 0 queries efficiently, resolving a large volume of tickets and reducing pressure on human agents. Freddy AI is also easy to train using up-to-date FAQs and solution articles to deliver fast, consistent responses across every interaction.
And, the results speak for themselves. Businesses across various industries are seeing a real impact, proven below with AI customer service statistics 2025:
23. First response time for tickets has dropped from over 6 hours to less than 4 minutes with AI-powered support. (Freshworks)
24. AI has helped slash resolution times in some cases from nearly 32 hours to just 32 minutes. (Freshworks)
25. Customer satisfaction has climbed from 89% to 99% thanks to people-first AI. (Freshworks)
26. AI-powered tools have driven a 55% reduction in the average first response time for CX teams. (Freshworks)
27. AI agents now deflect over 45% of incoming customer queries, with retail and travel companies seeing deflection rates above 50%. (Freshworks)
28. Fairmoney, a Freshworks customer, reported a 20% faster response time and a 15% improvement in customer satisfaction, thanks to Freddy AI. (Freshworks)
AI agent adoption is moving fast
What began as experimentation in 2023 has quickly become the standard. Early adopters are already seeing tangible results, while the others are now racing to catch up. The top performers are already reaping the benefits: instantaneous first assign time, blazing-fast response times, near-perfect CSAT and SLA adherence, and faster resolutions with higher first-contact resolution rates. Not to mention, improved agent productivity!
29. AI enables support agents to handle 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour. (Nielsen Norman Group) 30. Trendsetting teams that use AI agents maintain response times under 20 seconds across messaging channels and resolve most queries in under 2 minutes. (Freshworks)
31. Almost 100% resolution rate for ticketing is reported by trendsetting teams using AI, highlighting its strength in handling complex cases. (Freshworks)
AI Copilot as your agents’ digital assistant
While an AI agent is like an autopilot that handles routine tasks independently, an AI Copilot is like a digital assistant that supports the human agent with real-time insights and tools to make them more productive and efficient.
Agents often lose valuable time scrolling through long conversations and manually piecing together key details before they can begin resolving an issue. This not only delays responses but also contributes to fatigue and inefficiency.
32. 60% of customer service teams using Freddy AI Copilot have significantly improved agent productivity. (Freshworks)
33. Software and Internet companies have seen a 42.7% improvement in First Response Time using Freddy AI Copilot, reducing wait times and boosting customer satisfaction. (Freshworks)
34. 62% of customer service channel shifts are “high-effort”, costing both customer satisfaction and agent bandwidth. (Gartner)
As businesses and teams scale, maintaining consistent, high-quality replies becomes harder, as each agent has their own writing style, and drafting responses takes up valuable time. On top of that, agents frequently need to dig through past tickets or knowledge base articles just to find the right solution. This slows down the resolution time even more.
Enter Freddy AI Copilot. Acting like a digital twin, it scans lengthy ticket threads and creates a concise summary in seconds. Within the same interface, Freddy AI Copilot’s Writing and Resolution Assistants deliver clear, on-brand replies, enabling agents to reply faster and more consistently.
35. 56% of agents save time using the Freddy AI Copilot Summarizer. (Freshworks)
36. 67% of agents report improvement in both the speed and consistency of their responses when using Freddy AI Copilot’s Writing Assistant. (Freshworks)
37. Small businesses using Freddy AI Copilot report 41.56% improvement in First Response Time, and 36.39% in Resolution Time. (Freshworks)
Adoption of AI Copilot is rising fast. By taking over the repetitive tasks and the tedious ones, Freddy AI Copilot empowers every agent to work faster and smarter, transforming them into focused, customer-first problem solvers.
38. 28% of surveyed agents use Freddy AI Copilot daily. (Freshworks)
39. Freddy AI Copilot is proving especially valuable in Software & Internet, where 44% of teams use it in over 50 tickets a month. In Business Services, that number is 41%. (Freshworks)
As usage scales across industries, so does impact – bringing AI-driven productivity into daily workflows, not just edge cases.
The Role Of AI Across Industries
AI isn’t a one-size-fits-all play—its biggest wins come when it’s tailored to the unique demands of each sector. Let's look at AI customer service statistics 2025 based on industry:
1. Retail & eCommerce
AI agents are non-negotiable in the retail industry, with customers expecting instant, accurate answers around the clock. AI agents not only help reduce operational costs and improve customer experience, but also allow retail businesses to scale their support teams without increasing headcount.
40. 94% of retail companies say implementing AI has helped decrease costs. (NVidia)
41. Freddy AI Agents deflected 53% of retail queries, slashing first response time from 12 minutes to 12 seconds and resolution time from over an hour to just 2 minutes. (Freshworks)
42. Trendsetter retail customer service teams reported average CSAT scores of 99.05%, a good 9% higher than Aspirants. (Freshworks)
43. The retail AI market is projected to quadruple from $9.85B to $40.49B by 2029. (Mordor Intelligence)
44. 31% of retail and e-commerce customers think chatbots are the most effective channel for customer service support. (Uberall)
2. Travel & Hospitality
In travel and hospitality, speed isn’t luxury – it’s expected. Customers often face last-minute changes or booking issues and demand instant, round-the-clock support across web, mobile, and messaging channels. In fact, our data show that customers are relying on messaging platforms for quicker resolutions. AI agents make it easy to scale across these touchpoints—WhatsApp Business, Web, Facebook, Instagram—without adding headcount. The performance gap between Trendsetters and Aspirants is striking.
45. In 2024, Freddy deflected 52% of travel queries, easing peak-season pressure and resolving common issues in seconds. (Freshworks)
46. In conversational support, Trendsetters achieved 10-second first responses and 2-minute resolutions, compared to 6 minutes and 33 minutes for Aspirants. (Freshworks)
47. In ticketing, the contrast is even sharper - 5-minute first responses and 29-minute resolutions for Trendsetters vs over 7 hours and 29 hours, respectively, for the Aspirants. (Freshworks)
c. Manufacturing
Customer service in manufacturing is inherently complex. Support teams serve a wide network of partners, customers, and suppliers who demand instant, reliable information. Manufacturers' biggest advantage is a smarter knowledge base powered by AI that can help scale support, reduce ticket volume, and deliver real-time value across the ecosystem.
48. 87% of manufacturing companies have already implemented a Knowledge Base, but many fall short on quality. (Freshworks)
49. 83.3% of the respondents said that outdated content was the top challenge followed by lack of automation (50%) (Freshworks)
50. In conversational support, the AI Trendsetters achieved a 16-second first response time and 2 minutes resolution time compared to 10 minutes and 2 hours, respectively, taken by Aspirants. (Freshworks)
51. In ticketing, the AI Trendsetters reported 11-minute first responses and 47-minute resolution time for Trendsetters vs over 6 hours and 46 hours respectively for the Aspirants. (Freshworks)
d. IT and Software
Technical queries demand precision and expertise. For agents fielding customer queries in IT and Software, AI Copilots are stepping up as “digital twins”, providing access to historical customer data and technical knowledge bases at their fingertips. The result? Fewer escalations, faster response times, and more efficient troubleshooting.
52. IT and Software customer service teams using Freddy AI Agents deflect 45% of all incoming customer queries away from human agents. (Freshworks)
53. Freddy AI Copilot has improved First Response Time by 42.68% and Resolution Time by 35.18% enabling faster, more accurate support. (Freshworks)
54. 44% of Software and Internet companies use AI Copilot in at least 50 tickets per month, showing consistent adoption across technical teams. (Freshworks)
e. Business Services
From legal support to HR inquiries, service teams face ever-growing ticket volumes, and AI workflows are their secret weapon. For Business Services CX teams, embedding AI into routine processes ensures smooth operations. Let’s see how AI helps these teams:
55. The top-performing Business Services companies witness Instantaneous First Assign Time and Response Times less than 10 seconds with Freddy AI Copilot. (Freshworks)
56. 72% business leaders believe AI outperforms humans in customer service. (Hubspot)
57. Conversational AI is projected to save $80 billion in contact-center labor costs by 2026. (Gartner)
58. CSAT scores for Trendsetting Business Service organizations that employ Conversational AI are almost at 100%. (Freshworks)
Conclusion: Embracing AI–Powered Support for Tomorrow’s Challenges
Across demand surges, complex tickets, and ever-higher customer expectations, AI is taking centre-stage in customer service. Whether it’s 24/7 availability, faster resolutions, innovative self-service, or empowered agents, the AI investments will translate quickly into cost savings, happier customers, and more energised teams.
Looking ahead, AI will only become more integral. Expect generative models that anticipate customer needs, AI agents that converse as naturally as a human, and cross-channel orchestration that keeps every interaction seamless.
For CX leaders, the path forward is clear: start small, measure impact, and scale with confidence. Use AI agents on a single channel. Introduce Copilots for your busiest teams, And track your progress against the Freshworks 2025 Benchmark Report’s KPI – built from real-world performance data across thousands of teams.
Ready to unlock ROI in your own support operation? Connect with Freshworks today to see how Freddy AI can power your next leap forward—and transform your customer service division from a cost centre into a growth engine.