Airlines, banks, telecom providers, and retailers have all deployed conversational AI systems that handle everything from flight rebooking to loan applications without any human involvement. Customer service departments that once employed hundreds of agents now run on skeleton crews, with AI handling upwards of 80 percent of incoming contacts.
Customer satisfaction scores tell a more complicated story. While resolution times have improved for simple queries, complex problems requiring empathy or nuanced judgment continue to frustrate users who cannot find a path to a human agent. Several consumer advocacy groups have filed regulatory complaints arguing that companies are using AI to deliberately obstruct customer rights.
