AI agents are revolutionizing how businesses engage with their customers, raise expectations and restructure their customer experience (CX) strategies across the APAC region. Powered by generative AI, these intelligent agents not only respond to queries, but also solve problems, perform autonomous actions, and create seamless, human-like interactions.
According to a report on CX trends, AI agents improve problem solving, data analytics and customer satisfaction. In fact, 76% of CX leaders in the APAC region expect that within the next few years, 80% of customer interactions will be resolved without human intervention.
Unlike previous customer service tools following scripted workflows, today’s AI agents understand subtle conversations, adapt dynamically, and provide context-aware support tailored to evolving customer needs. Customers increasingly expect AI to follow the conversation naturally, providing relevant solutions and solving problems efficiently.
Furthermore, a survey of CX Trends found that 76% of APAC consumers trust AI that exhibits human-like qualities. Recent advances in agent functionality have enabled a network of service smart AI agents to work seamlessly, increasing human capabilities and autonomously answer customer queries. To fully realize these benefits, businesses must be thoughtfully prepared with people, processes and technology. Here’s how these get started:
Talk to your knowledge base
Referring AI agents to customer service is very similar to boarding a new team member. It’s best to start with a large amount of simple queries that often overwhelm the support team. This approach provides rapid returns and valuable insights to improve your AI strategy before expanding into more complex use cases.
The first practical step is to prepare your knowledge base with concise, AI-friendly content to maximize effectiveness. Connecting AI agents to your company’s knowledge base directly accesses clear and well-structured information to AI to quickly process queries, reduce resolution times and free up human agents for more subtle conversations.
AI that reflects brand identity
Consistency of brand voice is essential to building trust and delivering a seamless customer journey. AI agents can train them to reflect the tone and style of their company using brand guidelines. Give the AI agent a personality like “Lush’s ‘Marvin’ in name and personality. This has successfully made queries about sales, donations and orders more attractive and relevant.
In fact, 81% of Indian consumers say they will engage with AI agents more if the interaction feels more human. However, transparency is essential for this to work. Brands should always let their customers know when they are interacting with AI. A brief introduction such as “Hello, I’m Libby, your virtual assistant”, and foster parents, setting clear expectations.
Scaling AI Agents for Complex Interactions
When companies efficiently manage common questions, AI agents can equip these agents with critical data to handle more complex and nuanced interactions individually. This is done by connecting AI to core business systems to automate most of the interaction with customers, allowing human agents to focus on more important aspects of their work, such as building meaningful relationships with customers.
AI is as powerful as the data being built. Deeper insights allow you to process refunds and handle the mundane, but you can also send personalized reminders and recommend products based on past actions. AI agents can add a personal touch to your conversation, such as warmly welcoming customers or acknowledging loyalty status. This will make your AI agents feel more human and provide a better customer experience.
Continuous improvement and measurable ROI
The value and effectiveness of AI increases as we learn from any interaction. To take advantage of this, businesses need tools to measure performance, monitor quality and identify new automation opportunities in real time. Adopting an AI solution that offers a flexible, result-based pricing model will provide transparency to optimize your investment by aligning costs directly with AI solutions.
Brands should also improve AI capabilities with quality assurance tools that provide real-time insight into gaps, areas of improvement, and new automation opportunities. This helps AI agents identify opportunities to better serve their customers, and explore new use cases, languages and markets to maximize their impact. Continuous improvements allow businesses to automate more than 80% of their interactions.
Build trust and ensure responsible AI use
When AI agents become the center of customer interaction, businesses need to balance innovation and responsibility. Ethical AI use not only protects customers, but also strengthens the brand’s reputation and promotes long-term loyalty.
A practical way to achieve this is to establish clear guidelines for AI behavior. It’s about defining how agents process sensitive information, escalate complex issues, and respect customer preferences. Having clear visibility into how and why AI agents make decisions can help them build confidence and deeper understanding between both customers and internal teams. Regular audits and feedback loops help to identify and address potential biases or errors early, enabling continuous improvement.
Combining diverse teams from compliance, legal and CX ensures a balanced approach to responsible AI deployment. Ultimately, building trust through trustworthy, fair and respectful AI experiences is key to unlocking the full potential of AI agents in customer service.
It focuses not only on innovation, but on real impact
It’s also important to ask while implementing AI. Are you solving real customer problems or adopting technology for your own sake? When can automation draw out friction rather than reducing friction? What really distinguishes us when AI tools become widely accessible?
Answer these questions will help you prioritize automation projects that provide measurable business value and customer satisfaction. To get the buy-ins needed to deploy AI agents, make clear what to automate first as a pilot. For example, Retail then began modernizing the proof of concept for CX operations, equipping human agents with AI tools for email support. The pilot has increased the quality of service by 4 points, reduced average steering time by 11%, and has earned CX team reliability and support for a wider AI deployment.
Today, CX leaders employing AI agents have gained a competitive advantage. Customers have already noticed differences in service. 80% perceive a clear distinction between companies that use AI effectively in customer service and those that do not, according to our research. Early Adapters are 128% more likely to report high ROI from CX’s AI tools.
When AI becomes central to consumer conversations, success depends on preparation and thoughtful implementation. Currently, the foundational companies will lead the future of CX. The time to act is now.
– Maureen Chung, RVP Asia and India, Zendesk
