Supercharging CX with AI Agents

AI Agents are revolutionising how businesses engage with customers, raising expectations and reshaping customer experience (CX) strategies across the APAC region. Powered by generative AI, these intelligent agents go beyond simply responding to queries–they solve problems and take autonomous actions, creating seamless, human-like interactions.

The impact is clear: AI agents are improving problem-solving, data analysis, and customer satisfaction, according to a report on CX trends. In fact, 76% of CX Leaders in the APAC region anticipate that within the next few years, 80% of customer interactions will be resolved without human intervention.  

Unlike earlier customer service tools that followed scripted workflows, today’s AI agents understand nuanced conversations and adapt dynamically, delivering context-aware support that meets evolving customer needs. Customers increasingly expect AI to follow the conversation naturally, offer relevant solutions, and resolve issues efficiently.

Furthermore, the CX Trends research found that 76% of APAC consumers would trust AI that exhibits human-like qualities. With recent advancements in agentic capabilities, it is now possible for a network of service-smart AI agents to operate seamlessly, enhancing human capabilities and autonomously answering customer queries. To fully realise these benefits, businesses must thoughtfully prepare their people, processes, and technology. Here’s how they can get started.

Let your knowledge base do the talking

Introducing AI agents into customer service is much like onboarding a new team member.  It is best to start with high-volume, straightforward queries–those that often overwhelm support teams. This approach yields quick returns and valuable insights to refine one’s AI strategy before expanding into more complex use cases.

A practical first step is preparing a knowledge base with concise, AI-friendly content to maximise effectiveness. Connecting AI Agents to the company’s knowledge base then provides the AI with direct access to clear, well-structured information to handle queries swiftly, reducing resolution times and freeing human agents for more nuanced conversations.

AI that reflects the brand identity 

Consistency in brand voice is vital for building trust and delivering a seamless customer journey. AI agents can be trained to mirror the company’s tone and style using brand guidelines. Giving your AI agent a name and personality–like Lush’s “Marvin”, which successfully handles queries about sales, donations, and orders–makes interactions more engaging and relatable.  

In fact, 81% of Indian consumers say they’d engage more with AI agents if their interactions felt more human-like. However, transparency is essential for this to work. Brands should always let customers know when they are interacting with AI. Simple introductions such as, “Hello, I’m Libby, your virtual assistant,” foster trust and set clear expectations.

Scaling AI agents for complex interactions

Once businesses have AI Agents efficiently manage common questions, they can equip these agents with key data to handle more complex and nuanced interactions independently. This is done by connecting the AI to core business systems to automate a large chunk of customer interactions, allowing human agents to focus on more important aspects of their jobs like building meaningful relationships with customers.

AI is only as powerful as the data it is built on. With deeper insights, it can process refunds and handle the mundane, but also send personalised reminders, and recommend products based on past behaviour. AI agents can add a personal touch to conversations, like warmly welcoming customers back or acknowledging loyalty status. This makes AI agents feel more human, providing a better customer experience.

Continuous improvement and measurable ROI

AI’s value and effectiveness grow as it learns from every interaction. To harness this, businesses need tools that measure performance, monitor quality, and identify new automation opportunities in real time. Adopting AI solutions that offer outcome-based and flexible pricing models provides transparency to optimise investments by aligning costs directly with successful AI resolutions.

Brands should also refine AI capabilities with quality assurance tools that offer real-time insights into gaps, improvement areas and new automation opportunities. This helps identify opportunities where AI agents can better serve customers, and explore new use cases, languages and markets to maximise the impact. With continuous improvements, businesses can automate over 80% of interactions.

Building trust and ensuring responsible AI use

As AI agents become central to customer interactions, businesses must balance innovation with responsibility. Ethical AI use not only protects customers but also strengthens brand reputation and fosters long-term loyalty.

A practical way to achieve this is by establishing clear guidelines for AI behaviour–defining how agents handle sensitive information, escalate complex issues, and respect customer preferences. Providing clear visibility into how and why AI agents make decisions helps build confidence and deeper understanding among both customers and internal teams. Regular audits and feedback loops can help identify and address potential biases or errors early, enabling continuous improvement.

Bringing together diverse teams from compliance, legal, and CX ensures a well-rounded approach to responsible AI deployment. Ultimately, building trust through reliable, fair, and respectful AI experiences is key to unlocking the full potential of AI agents in customer service.

Focusing on real impact, not just innovation

While implementing AI, it is also important to ask: Are we solving genuine customer problems or adopting technology for its own sake? When might automation create friction rather than reduce it? What truly differentiates us when AI tools become widely accessible?

Answering these questions helps prioritise automation projects that deliver measurable business value and customer satisfaction. It offers clarity on what to automate first as a pilot to gain the necessary buy-in for deploying AI agents. For example, retail NEXT began modernising its CX operations with a proof of concept, equipping human agents with AI tools for email support. This pilot led to a 4-point increase in service quality and an 11% reduction in average handle time, earning the CX team credibility and support across the business for broader AI deployment.

CX leaders embracing AI agents today gain a competitive advantage. Customers are already noticing the difference in service: 80% recognise a clear distinction between companies effectively leveraging AI in customer service and those that don’t, according to our research. Early adopters are 128% more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX.

As AI becomes central to consumer conversations, success hinges on preparation and thoughtful implementation. Businesses that lay the groundwork now will lead the future of CX. The time to act is now.

-By Maureen Chong, RVP Asia and India, Zendesk