AI is Changing Customer Support – The Turning Point for Next-Generation CRM Balancing Empathy and Speed, ServiceNow Japan Releases Global CX Research Report

ServiceNow Japan LLC (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Masatoshi Suzuki; hereinafter referred to as ServiceNow) today released "The CX Shift," a research report investigating the reality of customer experience (CX) in the age of AI.

ServiceNow, in collaboration with US research firm ThoughtLab, conducted a large-scale global survey to understand the reality of customer experience (CX) in the age of AI. This survey collected responses from over 34,000 individuals across 18 countries and 8 industries, including Japan. It analyzed the fundamental reasons why customer satisfaction is not improving despite expanding AI investments, from the perspectives of customers, service representatives, and executives. The survey revealed "Three Structural Gaps in CX": 1) The gap between what customers want and their actual experience, 2) The gap between service representatives' needs and their environment, and 3) The mismatch between executives' investment direction and customer values. These three gaps are presented as barriers to organizational growth, loyalty, and competitiveness.

Three Structural Gaps in CX Gap 1: What Customers Want – Balancing Speed and Empathy Customers seek efficient resolution and genuine understanding simultaneously. However, many organizations can only provide one or the other. While expectations for speed are increasing with the spread of AI, the fundamental dissatisfaction stemming from a lack of empathy remains unresolved.

Key Insights ・40% of customers feel that AI has improved speed and efficiency, but 50% cite "lack of empathy" as their biggest dissatisfaction.

・75% of customers try self-service before contacting a service representative. However, 46% are dissatisfied because current chatbots cannot understand their questions.

・Serious channel strategy mismatch: Despite 87% of customers preferring phone calls, only 7% of executives plan to prioritize this channel in the next three years.

・Customers are beginning to recognize that "AI makes things faster," but they still strongly prefer human support for complex issues or emotional situations.

Gap 2: What Service Representatives Need – An Environment Focused on Building Customer Relationships Service representatives want to take responsibility for building customer relationships, but their efforts are often hindered by their company's technology and work environment. Representatives actually spend only 45% of their time on customer interactions, with the remainder spent on unproductive administrative tasks, summarizing call notes, and gathering information.

Key Insights ・High call volume and fragmented systems are the biggest barriers preventing representatives from building human connections with customers.

・43% of service representatives desire generative AI tools, but only 33% of organizations actually provide them. This gap is creating competitive differences.

・The top tasks where AI contributes to reducing service representatives' time are call note summarization (59% reduction), administrative tasks (48% reduction), and data reporting (44% reduction). The benefits AI brings to representatives' work are clear, creating more time to focus on customer interactions.

・The role of service representatives needs to shift from "passive information processors" to "advocates for customer needs," requiring a redefinition of skills, appropriate tool development, and training. Meanwhile, only 39% reported that tools and training are adequately in place.

Gap 3: What Executives Overlook – Mismatch Between Investment in Efficiency and Customer Values Executives are investing in AI for efficiency, yet investment in "emotional connection," which customers value most, is minimal. There is a significant disconnect between customer dissatisfaction and executive perception, posing a risk of misguided solutions. Revisiting investment strategies presents a significant opportunity to improve loyalty and competitiveness.

Key Insights ・Customers' biggest complaint is "lack of empathy and understanding," cited by 50%. In contrast, only 23% of executives recognize this.

・Among customers' top four values (responsiveness, reliability, security, and emotional connection), organizations that have made meaningful progress with AI are less than 40% in all categories. "Emotional connection" in particular shows only 16%, presenting an opportunity to build a first-mover advantage.

・Only 34% of executives have established AI utilization workflows on a unified platform. Organizations that have integrated data silos into a single source are also only 43%.

・Only 28% of organizations are able to measure the impact of AI on CX. Visualizing ROI is an urgent issue.

・Only 52% of executives have implemented an end-to-end CRM platform that supports the entire customer lifecycle.

Six Strategies for the Human+AI Era "The CX Shift" report presents six specific strategies to resolve the three gaps and establish an advantage in the AI era of CX. These involve a comprehensive approach that transforms not only technology adoption but also organizational culture and data infrastructure.

Strategy 1: Rethink CX Success Measurement Methods Build a measurement framework for AI utilization that goes beyond traditional metrics like NPS and CSAT. Introduce empathy scores, sentiment indices, and effort scores to visualize AI's effects along four axes: "Empathy and Trust / Operational Efficiency / CX Outcomes / Financial Impact."

Strategy 2: Utilize AI Beyond Mere Efficiency Tools Leverage AI not just as an efficiency tool, but as an enabler that allows representatives to provide empathy, personalization, and emotional connection at scale. Combine generative AI, sentiment analysis, predictive analytics, and Agentic AI.

Strategy 3: Utilize Autonomous AI for Self-Service Automate complex processes with Agentic AI to reduce the burden on representatives. 68% of executives report improved first-contact resolution times after AI implementation. 75% of customers prefer to use self-service before calling a service representative.

Strategy 4: Prepare CX Teams for the Agentic AI Era As AI reshapes the future of work, executives must redefine the role of service representatives and focus on integrating digital and interpersonal skills. Priority skills include collaboration (53%), continuous learning (51%), and AI knowledge (50%).

Strategy 5: Deploy CRM as an Experience Platform Evolve CRM from a customer database to a real-time action platform connecting front, middle, and back offices. In conjunction with Agentic AI, representatives will transition from "operators" to "supervisors."

Strategy 6: Integrate Data to Drive AI Utilization Experience Integrate ERP, billing systems, data lakes, and traditional CRMs into a single source of truth. Capture each customer individually and automatically trigger personalized workflows for each interaction.

Summary This survey reveals that while AI is being used as a means for operational efficiency, it has not yet sufficiently translated into delivering value to customers. AI demonstrates its greatest value when it functions for people. As routine tasks are automated, service representatives gain the time, context, and confidence to focus on uniquely human capabilities such as listening to customer needs, adapting, and building lasting relationships. Customers notice this change, leading to improved loyalty. Leaders optimizing solely for efficiency will struggle to keep pace with rising customer expectations. Leaders who rebuild CX around connected workflows, empowered teams, and human-centric AI will define the next generation of CX.

About the Survey This survey was jointly conducted by ServiceNow and US research firm ThoughtLab. Responses were collected from 34,665 individuals across 18 countries and 8 industries (retail, telecommunications, banking/financial services, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, non-profit, government). The breakdown of respondents is as follows: ・Customers: 27,250 (2,000 from Japan)

・Service Representatives: 3,515 (300 from Japan)

・Executives: 3,900 (295 from Japan)

The survey report (English version) can be downloaded from here: https://www.servicenow.com/workflow/crm/cx-shift-study-expectations-ai-era.html

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