Bullish on bots: How Agentic AI is changing customer support services

This summer, while calling the air conditioning service centre, Delhi-based Anna Mittal braced herself for another frustrating encounter with a chatbot. In the past, she had been trapped in an endless loop of scripted replies, her requests met with robotic indifference. No matter how she phrased her issue, the bot simply didn’t get her.

But this time, something had changed. The AI understood her concern, caught on to her frustration, and responded with solutions that actually made sense. No longer a roadblock, it felt like a true assistant — one that listened.

Now, Anna is bullish on bots! Once dominated by call centres and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, the engagement between companies and customers is undergoing a rapid upgrade, adapting to technological advancements and evolving customer expectations.

The future of customer support is now being shaped by agentic AI, a breakthrough technology that goes beyond scripted responses to anticipate needs, personalise interactions, and solve complex problems with minimal human intervention. Agentic AI is redefining what it means to provide support — creating a future where machines don’t just respond, but truly understand.

What started with IVR, and then evolved into clunky chatbots, is now being reimagined by intelligent AI agents that think, speak, and act almost like humans. As a result, a quiet revolution is under way across industries, redefining how businesses engage with their customers.

Hundreds of companies, from quick commerce to hardware, pharma, banks, and others such as Zepto, Lenovo, Panasonic, Tata Play, Cipla, Sony and HDFC Bank, are turning to AI-powered agents that don’t just respond — but resolve. These virtual assistants are no longer mere gatekeepers to answer calls and escalate to human agents. They are trained to understand nuance, manage complex queries, and trigger actions that once required human judgement.

“Traditional systems like IVRs and early chatbots were essentially tools to buy time until a human agent got free to resolve queries, ” says Rashid Khan, co-founder and San Mateo, USA-headquartered Yellow.ai automates customer and employee service for enterprises — on multiple channels like voice, chat, email and more. Backed by Lightspeed, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures & WestBridge Capital, it claims over 1,300 customers in several countries, with 700-plus in India, including Sony, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Domino’s, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, ITC Ltd, Asian Paints and Birla Corporation. The company has offices in India, Singapore, UAE, Indonesia and Malaysia as well.

Exit chatbots, enter AI agents

The shift is both technical and cultural. Unlike rule-based chatbots that fumbled when customers strayed off-script, AI agents powered by generative and agentic AI handle dynamic conversations with ease. They tap into historical data, anticipate needs, and act autonomously across enterprise systems.

Lenovo’s virtual assistant, Lena, for instance, now handles 19 per cent more queries than it did three years ago. Nitin Garg, director and head of service support, Lenovo India, says, “We foresee an additional 25 per cent automation by FY26- ” 27.

At Panasonic India, 40 per cent of service interactions are handled via bots, up from 20 per cent in 2020. Cipla’s AI agents resolve 95 per cent of customer queries without human intervention, supporting over 500,000 users every month.

Earlier chatbots were stuck at answering FAQs. Now, “modern (AI-led) agents have access to extensive knowledge bases and learn from interactions to improve responses, ” says Jai Ganesh, chief product officer, digital transformation solutions, Harman, which makes a range of audio, video and connected experiences products.

One of AI’s biggest selling points is its scalability. AI agents can engage thousands of customers simultaneously — across WhatsApp, web chat, voice, or email —without ever needing a coffee break.

“Consumers today expect instant resolution. They don’t care if it’s a human or a machine, as long as it’s accurate, ” says Ganesh Gopalan, CEO of Gnani.ai, a Bengaluru-based, Samsung-backed voice AI platform started in 2016 by engineers who earlier worked at chipmaker Texas Instruments. “For many tasks — like checking delivery status, processing refunds, or sending reminders — it no longer makes sense to use humans, ” Gopalan adds.

Exotel, also Bengaluru based, which powers customer support functions for those like the Bajaj Group, Future Generali, Piramal Group, ICICI Bank, has seen AI handle 30-40per cent of voice and digital interactions. “In one case, a food aggregator was spending $0.5 million a month answering customer calls, ” says Sachin Bhatia, co-founder and chief growth officer at Exotel. Deploying voice AI to answer queries brought its support costs down by 40 per cent, he adds.

Agentic AI: The next frontier

While generative AI mimics human language, agentic AI takes things further by reasoning and taking autonomous action.

Zepto, the fast-growing quick commerce company, is betting big on this. “Our agentic AI handles 60 per cent of all support tickets (user queries and feedback), ” says Zepto’s Chief Technology Officer Nikhil Mittal. “From order details and cancellations to refunds, our bots act like human agents — but they do it faster, more accurately and at scale. ”

Agentic AI is also transforming internal operations. At banks and financial institutions, it’s being used to screen leads, qualify prospects, and even assist in reconciliation tasks — areas traditionally manned by large teams.

“The new norm is not just automation — it’s intelligent delegation, ” says Preeti Anand, partner at EY India. “AI is becoming a business enabler, not just a cost- cutter. ”

The return on investment (RoI) from AI agents isn’t just anecdotal. Businesses report a fall in cost per interaction, higher customer satisfaction scores, and significant operational savings.

Tata Play reduced resolution time by 40 per cent using Nextiva’s Unified Customer Experience Management platform. Nextiva, an Arizona, US-based company has its largest R&D centre outside the US in Bengaluru. It has 1,600 employees and 100,000 clients, including small, medium and large companies.

“AI elevates human intelligence, ” says Tomas Gorny, co-founder and CEO, Nextiva. “It remembers, reasons, and helps agents be more effective. ” Users of Nextiva’s platforms in India include Tata Play, ITC, Cred, Upgrad, PhonePe, Meesho, Kotak Securities and others. “Companies no longer compete on price or product alone — it’s the experience that differentiates, ” adds Gorny.

Besides cost savings, there’s considerable reduction in the time customers spend on calls. Nextiva estimates that about half-a-minute is saved in a three-minute conversation due to automated systems.

“Most of our clients see a 30-40 per cent drop in overall operational costs within months of deployment, ” says Khan of Yellow.ai. “But the bigger win is customer retention. Faster, better service leads to stickier users. ”

Despite the AI surge, experts agree that human agents aren’t going extinct — they’re evolving. Their roles are shifting from first responders to last-mile specialists — handling escalations, sensitive cases, and emotionally complex interactions.

“Think of AI as a co-pilot, ” says Gopalan of Gnani.ai. stuff so humans can focus on higher-value work. ” “It takes care of the repetitive.

Lenovo, which has doubled its support headcount since 2020, confirms this dual trend. While automated systems now resolve more issues, the company has also ramped up hiring to match rising product categories, including tablets, notebooks, smartphones and customer expectations.

Panasonic’s AI platform, called Miraie, offers another example of synergy. The app not only guides users but integrates warranty, spare parts, and voice support — escalating to human agents only when necessary.

India: Contact centre of the future

India, long the global hub for contact centres, is at the epicentre of this agentic AI- led transformation. With over 1.5 million call centre agents today — up from around 800,000 five years ago — the country is racing to upgrade its service workforce. The increase in employee headcount is mostly due to business expansion across categories, including mobile, air cons, computers, TVs etc, in the last decade.

Many of the human agents are transitioning to new roles. “Prompt engineering specialists” and “conversational designers” are becoming buzzwords as companies hire those who understand customer psychology to train AI. “The market is shifting,” says Gopalan. “In three to five years, we won’t see a massive drop in headcount, but roles will definitely evolve. ”

What lies ahead is a blended reality — where machines handle routine tasks, co- pilot human agents during conversations, and step aside when emotional intelligence is needed.

“Soon, you won’t even realise whether you’re talking to a bot or a human, ” says Arun Chandrasekaran, vice president, Analyst at Gartner. “That’s when we’ll know AI has truly arrived. ”

Industry players agree the future of customer interaction won’t be about humans versus machines. It’ll be about humans with machines — working together to create faster, more empathetic, and context-aware service.

“The contact centre will shift towards a hybrid mode, with humans collaborating with AI, ” says Ganesh of Harman.

AI is indeed becoming the face of brand experience.

Contact centres to AI centres

> By 2029, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention, leading to a 30% reduction in operational costs

> While previous AI models were limited to generating text or summarising interactions, agentic AI systems can act autonomously to complete tasks

> Both customers and organisations will leverage this technology to automate interactions through the use of AI agents and bots
> The future is a blended reality — machines handle routine tasks and co-pilot human agents during conversations, and step aside when emotional intelligence is needed.