From Generative to Agentic: The Evolution of AI in CX in 2025
By Sam Nelson, VP of CX, Telarus
In the last three years, customer experience (CX) suppliers have raced to add generative AI to their solutions—introducing groundbreaking developments like auto-summarization, suggested customer responses, and intent analysis. These advancements have certainly made a difference, but they’ve also made it harder for any one vendor to stand out.
Now, we are on the verge of a new era in CX, driven by agentic AI. Let’s take a closer look at how the next wave of AI will shape customer service, and what to expect in the months ahead.
The Next Wave: Agentic AI
The real game-changer for CX is agentic AI—bots that can do tasks without needing human input. This technology can help vendors stand out by changing how businesses work. For example, a network provider could use AI to find outages, group affected customers, and send alerts—all without manual work. And that’s just the beginning.
“Intelligent agents in AI are goal-driven software entities that use AI techniques to complete tasks and achieve goals,” explains Gartner Sr. Director Analyst Tom Coshow. “They don’t require explicit inputs and don’t produce predetermined outputs. Instead, they can receive instructions, create a plan and use tooling to complete tasks, and produce dynamic outputs. Examples include AI agents, machine customers and multiagent systems.”
Recently at Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce introduced its Agentforce platform, featuring 100 pre-set bots made for different industries. These bots are expected to spread widely and become a key part of business platforms. Gartner predicts that 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1% in 2024. By this time, 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously.
What’s even more exciting is the potential for cross-platform use. For example, imagine a Salesforce AI Agent working with Workday to handle complicated tasks across different systems. This shift points to a future where businesses are more self-sufficient, with humans guiding AI agents to handle detailed workflows.
With the addition of agentic AI, popular services like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom could evolve from communications platforms into key hubs for business operations and open new revenue streams for technology advisors. While this level of automation might not fully happen until after 2025, the groundwork is being laid now. AI agents are ready to make tasks faster and less dependent on human effort.
Sector-Specific Innovation
Industries like healthcare, financial services, and retail are leading the way in agentic AI.
For example, in finance, bots will change back-office tasks by automating bill payments, handling invoices, and doing bookkeeping. These changes promise to improve efficiency and accuracy while letting human workers focus on bigger tasks. In the healthcare industry, intelligence provider IQVIA is now collaborating with NVIDIA to build agentic AI workflows and custom foundation models to streamline research and clinical development and improve patient outcomes. Talkdesk also recently unveiled AI Agents for Retail, a new service that brings autonomous, intelligent automation to CX and retail operations using agentic AI.
The latest research suggests that sectors like hospitality, travel, and education show fewer immediate chances for agentic AI. However, there is a great opportunity at hand for vendors that are willing to disrupt workflows and try new things. Companies that figure out how to succeed in these areas could gain a big edge.
Advancement of Voice AI
Voice AI is set to change CX in 2025 by making interactions between businesses and customers simpler and more natural. Improved voice bots and conversational AI can now understand and respond to customer questions with better accuracy and speed, providing smooth and personalized experiences.
The benefits of Voice AI are clear: shorter wait times, 24/7 availability, and the ability to handle different languages and accents. Additionally, real-time spoken language translation and transcription are becoming more advanced, breaking down language barriers and reaching more customers globally.
The growth of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) has been key to these improvements. By adding real-time data analysis, businesses can get useful insights from customer conversations. These insights can then help improve services and meet customer needs, creating a cycle of constant improvement.
The Road Ahead
In 2025, the future of CX will be more independent, team-based, and focused on industries. As we enter this new chapter, the vendors that can use agentic AI and build cross-platform partnerships will lead the way. Industries ready for fast adoption, like healthcare and finance, will act as testing grounds for new ideas, while less-developed markets offer untapped chances for bold companies.
The mix of agentic AI, voice AI, and industry-focused tools is creating a new era of CX. Businesses that adopt these technologies will not only work more efficiently but also provide better, more personalized customer service. The race is on, and the future of CX has never been more exciting. For technology advisors and larger CX suppliers, the key will be giving businesses easy-to-use examples of how to apply AI. These examples can help companies see the potential of AI and guide them toward the best solutions for their industries. Building trust will be important as businesses adjust to AI-powered systems.