Most holiday shoppers met AI support - here's what that means for your team
AI didn't sit on the sidelines this season. According to a Liveops survey of 1,000 consumers run by Pollfish, 78% interacted with AI or automation during holiday shopping - from delivery notifications to return systems and virtual assistants.
Nearly three-quarters said more of their customer service interactions were handled by AI compared to last year. The biggest jumps showed up in online chat and website help, followed by customer service phone lines and email/text responses.
What worked: speed and availability
Shoppers noticed the upside. Eighty-five percent said AI made service faster. About one-third called out 24/7 availability, and 20% felt AI beat waiting for a human.
"We now see AI increasingly able to resolve issues without involving a human agent," said Terra Higginson, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group. "When an agent is needed, these systems are also able to better support agents in delivering a great customer experience."
Where AI still falls short
AI didn't win the popularity contest. Fifty-four percent said humans provided better support; only 11% picked AI. That gap matters - especially when issues are complex or emotional.
The upside: AI can make human handoffs smoother. "These technologies enable smoother escalations, where agents are more informed and better equipped to handle handoffs without forcing customers to repeat themselves," Higginson said.
Transparency is the trust gap
Less than one-quarter of respondents said companies always disclose AI use, while 69% believe brands should always reveal it. That's a clear trust problem - and an easy fix.
Best practice: label it plainly, e.g., "AI-based chat," "AI agent," or "voice AI agent." Don't hide it. Don't overhype it. Just state it and give an option to reach a person.
What customer support leaders should do now
- Pick the right use cases: Automate high-volume, low-risk intents (order status, returns, account updates). Leave edge cases and sensitive topics to agents.
- Set clear success metrics: CSAT (by channel), containment rate, first contact resolution, average handle time, cost per contact, transfer success rate (no-repeats), and time-to-agent.
- Design clean escalations: Pass full context and summaries to agents, allow warm transfers, offer call-back options, and set SLAs for handoffs.
- Be explicit about AI use: Sample copy you can ship today: "You're chatting with our AI assistant for faster help. Ask for 'agent' anytime." For voice: "This is our voice AI. Say 'agent' to speak with a person."
- Equip agents with AI assist: Use AI for summaries, suggested replies, and knowledge lookup. Make it easy to accept, edit, or reject suggestions.
- Guardrails and QA: Review transcripts weekly, monitor for tone, bias, and accuracy, and give customers a visible opt-out to a human.
- Mind the channel differences: Tune prompts and policies separately for chat, phone, and email/SMS. What works in chat can frustrate on voice.
- Privacy and compliance: Align disclosures and data handling with existing policies. Helpful references: FTC guidance on AI claims and NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Pilot, measure, iterate: A/B test flows, compare AI vs. human baselines, and publish results internally so the team sees progress.
Channel takeaways from the survey
- Chat/website help: Highest automation gains - keep investing here first. Focus on fast intent detection, clear exit paths, and visual guidance.
- Phone: Growing automation - keep IVR simple, announce AI upfront, and shorten the "agent" path. Summaries to agents should be automatic.
- Email/SMS: Use AI to triage, route, and draft responses. Final sends should respect brand tone and include human review for sensitive cases.
Bottom line
AI bought you speed. Humans still win on nuance. Your edge is a clear, honest hybrid: automate the obvious, label it plainly, and make escalations painless.
Upskill your team
If you're formalizing AI skills across support roles, these resources can help: AI courses by job and AI automation certification.
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