Customer service, long associated with endless call transfers and IVR loops, is being reshaped by Artificial Intelligence. From e-commerce and airlines to banks and D2C brands, companies are increasingly using chatbots, voice bots and AI-powered assistants to improve speed, accuracy and efficiency while also reducing costs.
Travel platform EaseMyTrip has developed an intelligent routing system that co-founder Rikant Pittie says resolves queries “70% faster than traditional support models”. Bank of Baroda has launched three Gen-AI tools, including a virtual relationship manager available 24×7. IndiGo’s AI assistant 6Eskai, introduced on WhatsApp in 2023, now resolves 93% of customer queries independently. Air India’s AI.g bot claims a 97% resolution rate, while Meesho’s multilingual voice bot manages 60,000 daily calls with 95% resolution, halving handle time.
Some firms are opting for a hybrid model. BigBasket’s head of product for customer service, Rohil Ahmed, said, “We are early adopters of AI technology and believe that AI enables humans to perform their jobs more effectively rather than replacing them.” The platform uses bots for simple issues and human agents for complex ones, with 80% of customers reporting satisfaction with instant bot responses.
E-commerce solutions provider Velocity has introduced its voice AI, Vani, to handle scalability. Kopal Gupta, who leads AI labs at the company, explained, “Manual call centres are expensive and complex to scale. Vani AI resolves up to 70% of objections without human involvement, scaling automatically with demand during peak seasons like Diwali or Rakhi.”
However, the shift has also caused frustration. A Delhi consumer, Pragya Kumar, shared that her delayed grocery order took 40 minutes of waiting without resolution. Similarly, Gurugram entrepreneur Satwinder Singh said he could not reach a human after entering a wrong delivery address.
Amazon, which has cut over 27,000 jobs since 2022, is leaning heavily on AI. CEO Andy Jassy told employees, “As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”
The trend is accelerating. A recent survey shows 93% of Indian business leaders plan to deploy AI agents within the next 18 months, while another report predicts nearly six in ten firms will treat AI as an “active team member” within a year. The World Economic Forum forecasts 170 million new jobs by 2030 even as 92 million roles disappear, with customer service among the most affected.
As Microsoft’s Puneet Chandok summed it up, “India is firmly in its AI-first era, with AI agility accelerating at an unprecedented pace.”
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