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Companies reporting the highest value from artificial intelligence (AI) recorded improvements of more than 50% across at least three to four core performance measures, according to its latest report. These included measures of customer experience, revenue growth, average handling time, and agent productivity. The findings come from EY India’s report, Demystifying AI in customer service: Navigating AI-led transformation to value realisation, which draws on more than 100 in-depth survey responses and executive interviews across industries and geographies. However, the strongest results came from a group representing 23% of surveyed organisations. Challengers typically reported gains of 10%–25%, while Aspirants reported improvements below 10% or had not measured outcomes. Preeti Anand, Partner, Business Consulting, EY India, said, “While AI adoption in customer service has become widespread, value realization remains uneven, with many still struggling to move beyond fragmented use cases. The next competitive advantage will come from how effectively firms connect intelligence across the customer journey and turn it into sustained business value. ” Among Achievers, 91% reported deploying voice AI at scale. Meanwhile, more than 80% of Challengers and Aspirants relied on human agents or basic automated telephone menus to identify the reason for customer calls. The report also found that 45% of Achievers used conversational AI to help agents diagnose and resolve issues, while 36% used agentic AI copilots that can carry out tasks within a workflow. 73% of Achievers used AI-powered systems that update and surface relevant knowledge, compared with 20% of Challengers and 8% of Aspirants. Customer experience was the primary objective for 45% of Achievers, ahead of revenue growth and cost reduction. On average, this group had scaled AI across approximately 60% of core customer service technology areas. More than 40% of Challengers and Aspirants identified governance, compliance and change management as key barriers. Among Achievers, 38% cited data quality and availability as their primary challenge, while 31% identified insufficient financial investment as a constraint. EY said companies reporting stronger outcomes were more likely to connect AI across customer acquisition, service delivery and operational management. Other organisations remained focused on individual applications, including chatbots and conversation analysis. The survey data was collected between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, supplemented by secondary research and EY insights.
AI gains in customer service remain uneven, EY India says. Other companies reported smaller improvements or hadn’t measured their outcomes, highlighting the gap between adopting AI and achieving measurable business benefits. EY divided organisations into three groups based on the value they reported from AI in customer service. “Achievers”, accounting for 23%, reported high or very high value. “Challengers”, representing 33%, reported moderate value, while “Aspirants”, making up 44%, reported low or very low value. Achievers reported improvements of 25%–50% or higher across multiple key performance indicators, or measures used to track business results.
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