Customer service has become a vital way for enterprises to differentiate themselves, as consumers increasingly demand seamless experiences and fast resolutions.
Those who understand this are seeing big rewards. Gartner research suggests that over 80% of organisations expect to compete mainly based on customer experience (CX), but achieving this is becoming harder as the technological pace of change sends customer expectations ever upward.
As Qualtrics’ 2025 Consumer Trends Report shows, consumers are now more likely to reduce spending after a negative interaction despite experiencing fewer bad experiences overall.
Similarly, McKinsey research predicts consumers will continue to become ever less tolerant of inconvenience, with fast service becoming table stakes. The speed and convenience of customer experience that companies like Uber and Amazon offer has set a high bar that companies across sectors are under pressure to match.
What do modern customers want?
Often, legacy customer relationship management (CRM) systems are the reason why companies can’t keep up with these demanding expectations. As Mark Ashton, VP of solution consulting at ServiceNow, explains in a recent CIO webcast, “the IT legacy that sits around CRM is really one of a system of record, not a system of action,” meaning customer problems aren’t resolved proactively. “And then that’s compounded by the legacy IT debt there around data entry, data integrity, and privacy compliance,” he says.
To provide the kind of customer experience that really stands out, companies need an ‘autonomous CRM’ where the ability to sell, fulfil, and service exists on a single platform, with artificial intelligence (AI) used every step of the way. This approach enables action on problems before customers even notice, as ServiceNow’s Pure Storage case study shows.
Ashton adds: “72% of their customer contacts are managed proactively. So, they’re actually solving that customer ticket or that customer case before the customer even knows it is happening.”
AI agents, with their increasing ability to carry out workflows with minimal human intervention, show particular promise for proactively resolving customer issues.
“One of our customers… said it’s a tailwind for humans in customer service on CRM,” Ashton says. “It’s like having that perfect helper everywhere you go in the organisation.”
Tailored for sectors
Autonomous CRM has perhaps the biggest impact for complex, industry-specific workflows, as shown by ServiceNow’s partnership with Visa to streamline payments dispute processes. By embedding their dispute resolution workflows directly into the ServiceNow platform, Ashton says problem resolution times have gone down from weeks to days.
However, AI-powered CRM requires careful data governance as a foundation. Companies must understand which data to use at each workflow stage, while ensuring it’s secure and compliant with privacy regulations. Without this discipline, “all you’re going to do is have the same problems but faster,” Ashton says.
Yet if companies get their data governance right, they can leverage technology and deliver change in far faster timescales. It is vital that IT leaders can rely on a CRM system that is optimised for a digitising economy that rewards those able to move quickly and adapt.
Watch the full CIO webcast with ServiceNow’s Mark Ashton for strategies on delivering proactive customer service with AI-powered CRM.
