Contact center trends may not be the first thing that comes to mind when investors evaluate a company — but there is no denying the importance of customer service on a business’s underlying fundamentals.
Recent research indicates that contact center trends may be a bigger indicator of a company’s financial outlook than most investors realize. The way a company approaches customer service can significantly impact its long-term outlook. This is especially relevant as more and more companies roll out generative AI-focused customer support initiatives.
AI’s Growing Impact On Customer Service
Customer service hasn’t been immune to the hype surrounding AI tools, especially among organizations looking to cut costs or streamline and improve efficiency. Unfortunately, in the customer service industry, the benefits aren’t necessarily so clear-cut.
As a February study from YouGov highlights, while 46% of consumers say they “rarely” or “never” get successful customer service results when interacting with an AI agent, 77% say they “always” or “often” get better results when they only need to communicate with a human agent. Other research has found that 53% of customers would consider switching brands if their current company began using AI to handle customer service.
These data points paint a troubling picture at a time when most companies are actively seeking investor support by emphasizing their use of AI across the business. While product or service quality often gets the blame for customer churn, PwC’s 2025 Customer Experience Survey noted that 29% of consumers stopped buying from a brand because of a poor customer service experience.
These negative experiences reduce customer spending, especially regarding repeat purchases. At the opposite end of the spectrum, quality customer service is known to drive repeat purchases, word-of-mouth recommendations, and even a willingness to pay a premium for a brand’s products or services.
AI’s Potential for Positive Contact Center Results
Of course, it’s not all bad news regarding AI and customer service. As Han Butler, president and co-founder of ROI CX Solutions notes, “AI’s use cases in customer service don’t need to be focused on replacing human agents. When implemented properly, AI can support human agents and enable them to better serve customers by helping them follow company guidelines, supplying customer support history, and even providing suggestions on how to help resolve an issue or make sure they treat a customer with empathy. When AI is an assistant, rather than a replacement, it can deliver a positive impact on the service experience.”
AI applications can specifically help address common issues that limit contact center capabilities. For example, outdated tech or a lack of analytics tech can make it harder for contact centers to track key insights, especially regarding customer relationships. If contact center staff don’t have self-service knowledge bases to draw from, they will have a harder time resolving complaints in a timely manner — and the longer a call takes, the more unsatisfied customers will become.
Strategic implementation of AI resources can make it easier to find answers in a knowledge base, immediately provide a customer’s call history, or provide personalized training based on observed conversations. Even as human support staff continue to lead out in actual interactions, AI works behind the scenes to help those conversations flow better.
Trends to Watch
With an ever-growing number of businesses implementing AI in some capacity for customer service needs, it’s important that investors consider how AI is being used and how it is impacting service results as a whole. This contact center trend isn’t necessarily good or bad in and of itself. It largely comes down to how an organization utilizes it as part of its overall service strategy.
In an article for Benzinga, Helen Dewdney, founder of The Complaining Cow, advises that investors should focus on repeat purchase behavior, complaint resolution, and escalation quality when analyzing how contact center trends are impacting a business’s long-term viability.
For example, contact center systems that make it harder for customers to submit a complaint may not have as high of a complaint volume, but the business will see a decline in repeat purchases from those customers who don’t get a chance to explain why they left. An over-reliance on chatbot systems or tightened complaint routes can reduce service accessibility, which makes it harder for customers to resolve complaints.
While an investor may not have direct access to complaint resolution or escalation quality statistics, commonly reported elements in investor filings, such as retention rates, sentiment, and review trends or language about service redesign could hint at these underlying issues that erode earnings over time.
Don’t Overlook Contact Center Trends
With AI bringing customer service to the forefront, it’s important that investors evaluate how the companies they’re interested in treat customer service as a whole. The organizations that treat it as an expense and are always looking for ways to reduce those costs (whether through AI or otherwise), aren’t necessarily poised for the best long-term results. Short-term savings can easily be undercut by long-term missed opportunities.
Instead, the businesses that treat customer support as a valuable investment for improving retention will position themselves for better long-term growth.