How 5 top industries are redefining customer support
From retail to travel, AI is taking on many tasks, improving productivity and efficiency
In 2025, customers’ expectations have soared. They want instant resolutions, personalized experiences, and support that's available anywhere, anytime. But support teams are feeling the squeeze. Behind the scenes, complexity is mounting, workloads are growing, and disconnected systems are making it harder to keep up. What once passed as "good enough" no longer cuts it. Without rethinking how support is delivered, businesses risk falling behind fast.
That's why support leaders in 2025 are shifting from firefighting to future-proofing. At the heart of this transformation is AI.
“Complexity is the enemy of efficiency and growth,” notes Mika Yamamoto, chief customer and marketing officer at Freshworks. “With the rise of AI, what once took hours now takes seconds."
Freshworks' 2025 Customer Service Benchmark Report, built on insights from 32,000 companies, 1.2 billion tickets, and 138 million conversations, reveals that AI is no longer just an efficiency play—it's a competitive advantage. Top-performing teams are redesigning their entire support strategy around it to reduce ticket volumes, improve speed-to-resolution, and enable agents to focus on complex customer needs.
“We're seeing tangible results,” says Venki Subramanian, SVP of product management at Freshworks. “AI agents are cutting down ticket volume by up to 53%, freeing up agents and improving resolution times dramatically."
And while each industry is leveraging AI differently, all are seeing powerful gains.
Retail is improving metrics as AI agents take on more routine tasks and queries; in software businesses, AI agents are recommending solutions, helping IT teams cut down on support time. Business services, with an eye on higher-touch support, are looking to AI agents to anticipate their customers’ needs, while manufacturing is leaning on AI agents to autonomously gather knowledge from support interactions and update the knowledge base accordingly. Travel companies, which must be ready to deal with the urgent needs of stranded travelers, have recruited AI agents to help manage across multiple channels.
To provide the best support in 2025 and beyond, leaders should consider the myriad ways AI agents are helping companies improve support across industries.
Retail & e-commerce: Giving more queries to AI
In retail, every ‘Where's my order?’ and ‘How do I return this?’ represent a choice: tie up an agent or let AI handle it instantly. The retail industry has this dialed in, leading in deflection rates. More customer queries are resolved without agent involvement, delivering both efficiency and scale.
AI agents are cutting down ticket volume by up to 53%, freeing up agents and improving resolution times dramatically.
Venki Subramanian
SVP, Product Management
The numbers tell the story. By handling high volumes of routine inquiries, AI agents are helping retail businesses reduce operational costs while scaling support without expanding headcount. Smart retailers are taking this further, designing AI interactions that maintain brand voice and emotional connection while reducing waiting times. Across key performance metrics, AI is proving to be a game-changer for customer service in retail.
Read also: Retail customer experience is getting an agentic upgrade
Use case: A customer can simply ask, "Where's my order?" Freddy AI agent understands, retrieves the live shipping status from backend systems, and responds instantly; no handoff needed.
Key takeaways
AI resolves high volumes of simple queries
Lower operational cost & faster support at scale
Software & internet: Accelerating productivity
With the industry moving rapidly toward AI-assisted support, software and internet companies are emerging as early leaders in AI adoption. Tools like Freddy AI Copilot are enabling agents to respond faster and more accurately, reducing cognitive load and improving overall efficiency.
By delivering contextual, real-time assistance, AI Copilot is transforming agent productivity. As adoption grows, companies in this space gain a clear competitive edge, offering faster, smarter, and more scalable customer service. When agents have AI suggesting solutions and next steps in real-time, complex technical issues become manageable conversations.
Use case: When a customer says, "I can't access premium features after upgrading," Freddy AI Copilot instantly suggests answers, recommends next steps, and assists with a resolution—so the agent can respond faster, with full context.
Key takeaways
Real-time assistance improves accuracy, response times
Strongest gains in agent productivity
Business services: Understanding context better
In business services, one frustrated client can mean losing a long-term relationship worth thousands. By offloading repetitive tasks, agents can focus on complex issues, guided by AI that delivers context and recommends next steps.
In 2025, top-performing business services organizations aren't just adopting AI, they're architecting their support operations around it. With Freddy AI Agent and Freddy AI Copilot, teams are resolving queries faster, effortlessly meeting SLAs, and seeing results. What makes the difference is AI that doesn't just automate tasks but anticipates needs, detects urgency, and helps agents respond with both speed and empathy.
AI has moved beyond being a helpful add-on; it's now the backbone of modern customer service in business services.
Use case: A client says, "I need to update my billing details." Freddy AI Agent verifies the request and guides the client through a secure, self-service workflow with no wait time. Meanwhile, if the query escalates, Freddy AI Copilot detects urgency, frustration, or confusion in a message and flags sentiment instantly, helping agents prioritize, personalize their response with empathy, and recommend next steps for a resolution—all within the same workspace.
Key takeaways
Complex queries are now routed smartly
AI gives agents the context and confidence to move fast
Manufacturing: Automating knowledge
Customer service in manufacturing is uniquely complex. Support teams must cater to a vast ecosystem of partners, customers, and suppliers, all of whom expect quick, reliable answers.
The challenge isn't just having information, it's keeping it fresh and accessible. Imagine the difference: One manufacturer empowers customers with instant access to FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and self-service help, while another requires a ticket even for the simplest queries. Bottom line: One delivers faster resolutions and lower ticket volumes, while the other battles backlogs, rising frustration, and agent burnout.
But a static knowledge base won't cut it in today's landscape. Manufacturers need dynamic, AI-powered knowledge systems that evolve with customer needs, scale support, reduce effort, and deliver real-time value to customers and agents.
The smartest manufacturers are using AI not just to serve up existing knowledge, but to create new articles automatically as patterns emerge from support interactions.
Use case: An engineer reports a recurring issue with a machine. Instead of documenting it manually, the Freddy AI Copilot analyzes similar past tickets, drafts a solution article, and auto-fills key technical details, helping teams build and maintain a robust knowledge base with minimal effort.
Key takeaways
Dynamic knowledge bases reduce ticket inflow
AI enables faster resolutions for partners and customers alike
Travel & hospitality: Multichannel support 24/7
When a traveler's flight gets canceled at midnight, they're not thinking about business hours or preferred channels. They need help now, wherever they can get it. Speed, convenience, and personalization aren't just perks in travel and hospitality—they're expectations. Whether it's a last-minute itinerary change or a booking hiccup, travelers need instant support, and the nature of these requests leaves no room for delay.
And they expect to be able to connect through any channel at any time. In this industry, customers reach out through the web, mobile, messaging apps, and social platforms, and even over the phone. A multichannel support strategy isn't just a nice-to-have. It's a survival tactic and a competitive edge. Leading travel businesses don't just offer multiple channels; they unify the experience so a conversation started on social can seamlessly continue via chat without missing a beat.
AI agents make that scale possible. They can instantly respond and resolve queries across all channels, without expanding your team. The broader your AI footprint, the faster and more consistent your support becomes.
Travel and hospitality brands that unify service across web and social touchpoints don't just resolve issues faster; they deliver smoother, more engaging, and unforgettable customer experiences.
Use case: A traveler says, "I need to change my flight." Freddy AI Agent accesses the booking details, checks fare rules, and offers change options in real time—no waiting on hold.
Key takeaways
AI agents ensure speed across web, mobile, and social
Unified support experience = Better satisfaction and loyalty
The bottom line
The data from this year's report is clear: Support excellence starts with uncomplicating service delivery.
From eliminating repetitive tasks with AI to responding in under 10 seconds, the best teams are focusing less on volume and more on velocity and value. Teams that invest in intuitive tech, fast automation, and people-first AI delight customers, reduce costs, boost productivity, and unlock ROI that legacy systems simply cannot match.
Download the Customer Service Benchmark Report for 2025 to learn more, or talk to us about how Freshdesk can transform your customer experience!
