AI-powered service
More self-service options
Data quality and integration
Service as a revenue generator
Peak period preparedness

1. The pressure is on to accelerate AI in customer service. So far, it’s paying off.

Increasing AI adoption is on every business leader’s mind right now. A recent Thomson Reuters survey found that most C-suite execs feel that AI will transform their businesses over the next 5 years, and they’re even prioritizing digital transformation initiatives like adopting AI and improving efficiency over revenue growth and cost reduction. 

These executive pressures are coming right down to customer service leadership, affecting their team strategies, dynamics, skillsets, budgets, and tech stacks. 

When we asked customer service leaders about their company’s stage of AI adoption in each of the following parts of the customer service journey, here’s how they responded:

How is AI improving customer service and marketing?

Most commonly, customer service organizations are using AI customer agents, AI assistance for human agents, and AI-powered helpdesks that summarize tickets. These lower-lift, lower-risk use cases can show impact right away in the form of the following, which can help get buy-in for AI tools before going all-in on full implementation:

• Instant answers and personalized recommendations: AI customer agents and shopping assistants can quickly provide real-time answers on sizing, shipping, order status, and more, using data from product catalogs and help docs. They can also tailor recommendations based on customer activities and preferences.
• Faster response times: With help from AI, human agents can move faster. When an AI agent hands off a conversation to a human, an AI-powered helpdesk automatically routes it to the best agent, providing full customer context and conversation summaries. 
• Streamlined processes: An AI-powered helpdesk also makes support teams more efficient with macros (pre-written responses), auto-detecting tone and urgency, categorizing messages, and surfacing relevant replies.
• Growth opportunities: AI service platforms can turn support moments into signals that strengthen marketing, helping your marketing team understand which campaigns spark questions, where customers are getting stuck, and how to create a smoother path to purchase.

Home fragrance brand Happy Wax saw a “dramatic reduction in support tickets” after implementing an AI customer agent, says Rachel Fagan, VP of marketing: “In the last 90 days, over 50% of conversations were fully resolved without any service team involvement.”

How are customer service teams balancing speed with quality?

AI can handle many customer interactions efficiently, but human agents still play an integral role. Notice how none of these AI use cases are at 100% adoption. Customer service leaders are being very careful about how they’re adopting AI, and how it enhances their human teams.

Use AI customer agents to handle common inquiries (e.g., questions about delivery options) while routing more complicated or sensitive queries to human agents. Fagan, for example, summarizes the value of Happy Wax’s AI customer agent this way: “Customers get instant answers, and our team gains bandwidth for high-touch moments.”

As you roll out new AI tools, measure the impact on your internal teams and the customer experience to make sure your quality standards remain high, and your teams feel well-supported.

What are some AI adoption strategies for different business sizes?

Based on our research, AI impact on customer service grows along with company size, likely because larger orgs have more resources to invest in AI and prove its value. When we asked customer service leaders if AI and automation have improved the quality and efficiency of customer service interactions, here’s how they responded:

• At entrepreneur-sized companies (<$2.5 million in annual GMV), 48% of service professionals agreed.
• At SMBs ($2.5–$30 million in annual GMV), 67% of service professionals agreed.
• At mid-market companies ($30–$500 million in annual GMV), 71% of service professionals agreed.
• At enterprise companies (>$500 million in annual GMV), 72% of service professionals agreed.

This aligns with how much organizations have actually used AI in customer service: in general, we see that the larger the company, the more deeply they’ve implemented AI, and the more value they’ve seen from it.

By company size, here’s how many companies have either partially or fully brought on AI for customer service:

Follow the lead of the organizations we surveyed, which are slowly rolling out AI to see how it works for their organization and teams. Smaller businesses might want to take a gradual approach and scale up when it makes sense. Instead of rolling out AI across all customer service channels at once, start by testing it in one area.

Use your existing customer data to identify where AI could most benefit your business. For example, if you regularly receive high volumes of customer queries via email tickets, start with AI-powered FAQs or automated responses.

Larger businesses, meanwhile, have more room to play around and integrate AI across multiple touchpoints—such as chat, SMS, and email—to deliver highly personalized customer experiences.

2. Self-service is an expectation, and options are expanding

Gone are the days when customers tolerated waiting on hold for answers or solutions. Now, they want fast, intuitive self-service support options for finding answers on their own, on their own time.

These days, over 90% of consumers expect self-service support options, according to Microsoft. And customer service teams are responding: our research found that 84% of teams have or plan to implement a self-serve customer portal for their customers.

Overall, most companies currently handle less than half of their customer interactions through self-service, but there are high hopes for that number to grow in the next year. According to our research, here’s where customer service leaders stand today, and what they expect self-service to handle in the future:edeem loyalty points. In 2025, the customer hub drove over $200,000 in revenue for Thirdlove.

Current % of interactions handled entirely by self-service

Expectation for % of interactions expected to be handled by self-service in the next year

What are some essential self-service capabilities for 2026?

A customer experience hub is a logged-in, on-site destination that provides customers with uninterrupted, end-to-end customer journeys for browsing, buying, and getting support. These smooth, intuitive destinations help brands build stronger relationships and drive retention and repeat purchases, fueling long-term growth.

Customer service teams are expanding self-service into areas like customer portals with FAQs and order management, and AI customer agents that customers can chat with in real time.

Customers want self-service portals that actually serve them. A customer experience hub provides exactly that, with:

• Knowledge bases and dynamic FAQs: easily accessible resources that allow customers to resolve issues independently, without waiting for support
• Order tracking and management: the ability for customers to check their order status without entering lengthy numbers or visiting external sites
• Return initiation: tools that let customers initiate returns on their own schedule, without waiting for a human agent to process requests
• AI customer agents: smart shopping assistants that can quickly pull up customer information like order status or initiate a return, or escalate to a human agent if the issue is too complex

Self-service customer hubs reshape how brands engage with customers, and vice versa. When apparel brand Ministry of Supply created a more seamless, bespoke shopping experience with a self-serve customer portal, they saw 12,000+ self-serve support interactions, like customers accessing details from previous purchases and getting recommendations for their next purchase.

How do you implement self-service and calculate ROI?

Customer hubs should feel like standalone systems to the customer, but behind the scenes, they need integration and clear metrics to be impactful. Here’s what to focus on:

• Integrations with your existing CRM and ecommerce platforms: Pull in and facilitate a flow of the right data to deliver frictionless and personalized services.
• Measuring success: Track key metrics such as self-service adoption rates, ticket volume reduction, net promoter scores (NPS), customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores, revenue generated from your customer portal, and higher lifetime value (LTV) associated with increased customer satisfaction.
• Feedback and info for marketing campaigns and VIP programs: Use hub data to create more targeted marketing campaigns and identify VIP customers for special offers, improving customer loyalty.

3. Data quality and integration reduce friction and personalize customer service

Our research found that while most companies rate their customer data quality as “good,” only 29% consider it “excellent.” And only 34% of customer service leaders strongly agree their team has access to high-quality customer data enabling personalized interactions.

Data quality is becoming increasingly important for customer service teams, especially as they rely more on AI and self-service in their processes. If data is incomplete, or systems aren’t integrated, customer service teams and AI agents don’t have an accurate picture of a customer’s current needs. 

This goes hand in hand with the 1 in 4 teams that plan to consolidate their service team tech stacks this year. With more unified systems (and quality data), customer service teams can work more efficiently, better coordinate with marketing, personalize service, and reduce friction in the customer experience.

Let’s say your shipping platform isn’t integrated well with your CRM or helpdesk. If a customer asks when they can expect their order, your service team would need to: 

1. Log in to a separate system, delaying their response.
2. Use the data from the most recent manual upload, which may be outdated, leaving them to give the customer an incorrect date.
3. Use an AI-generated summary that’s pulling from outdated data.

If you’re using a B2C CRM with a built-in customer data platform and embedded helpdesk, though, you can:

• Capture full customer history from the moment of sign-up, so marketing can refine targeting and customer service always has the full story.ccess to Ministry of Supply. That’s really powerful.”
• Track every customer interaction on every channel, so your teams never recommend the wrong products to customers or miss a complaint buried in an old email thread.
• Gain visibility into every click, purchase, and action in real-time, so the right team can react instantly to what customers want or need.
• Personalize customer service interactions using data from customer activities across both marketing and service.

4. Integrated customer service is a revenue and retention driver, not just a cost center

Improving customer satisfaction is the top priority for teams in 2026, according to our research. But close behind is increasing customer service’s impact on revenue generation and retention. And the second-most popular outlook for customer service professionals is that customer service will become a major driver of revenue and loyalty over the next few years.

Customer service has moved from a reactive cost center to a revenue and retention driver, particularly when service and marketing teams work closely together. According to Klaviyo’s 2025 State of B2C Marketing Report, brands with fully or highly aligned marketing and customer service teams are 26% more likely to have average LTVs >$1,000.

Here are just a few examples of how service teams can directly drive revenue, with help from connected marketing data and systems:

• Guide customers to purchase when they’re most likely to buy. Both AI and human agents can answer customer questions throughout the shopping experience, whether they’re making a personalized recommendation for a gift or resolving a quick sizing inquiry. This can directly reduce cart abandonment and increase purchases. 
• Identify and re-engage at-risk customers. Marketing teams can use data from customer service interactions and purchase history to find customers who may be likely to churn, and re-engage them with special offers and win-back campaigns. 
• Follow up after negative experiences to repair relationships. After a customer has a negative brand experience, like receiving an item late or being dissatisfied with the sizing, you can send out a discount on their next purchase or a complimentary item.
• Drive loyalty and build stronger customer relationships. Give shoppers access to a personalized customer hub where they can manage their relationship with your brand, redeem loyalty points, access discounts, quickly re-purchase items, and save favorites.

Women’s intimates brand Thirdlove, for example, drives revenue through self-service with a customer hub that displays an individualized “For You” page for every customer. There, customers can view and favorite items, receive personalized product recommendations, and track and redeem loyalty points.

Customers use the hub to manage their entire relationship with the brand—tracking orders, reaching out to support, and more. In 2025, Thirdlove’s customer hub generated over $200,000 in revenue.

5. Peak period preparedness separates top-tier customer service

Peak shopping periods like holidays, BFCM, and the change of seasons can make or break your brand reputation.

If you can maintain a top-tier level of customer service, you have the opportunity to turn brand new customers into loyal brand followers. But if you flounder under the pressure of higher service volumes, you may lose new and existing customers alike to brands with better, more efficient systems and teams.

According to our research, the top challenge for customer service teams is managing high volumes of inquiries during these peak periods. To tackle this, 25% of teams focus on handling volumes through staffing and automation, while another 25% prioritize maintaining quality. 

Here are a few ways to prepare your customer service organization for peak seasons:

• Expand self-service resources well beforehand. Make sure customers can get the information they need to make purchases 24/7, whether that’s through a customer portal, AI customer agent, or FAQs. Beef up your product detail pages prior to peak seasons with updated shipping information, common customer questions, and gifting options. 
• Proactively communicate to reduce ticket volume. Include information in your marketing automations like shipping policies and order deadlines, links to FAQs, and instructions on how to use products. Being proactive can help automate resolutions to problems that tend to contribute to service ticket volume.
• Scale team capacity. Use AI and automation to speed up your service team and increase their capacity. With AI handling routine order and store policy questions and automatically routing higher-priority tickets to the right people, your human agents can work more efficiently and more effectively.

The more prepared you are ahead of busy seasons, the less overwhelmed your service team will be, giving you time to make any necessary adjustments in real time and give customers the kind of support experience they expect.

In 2026, don’t just meet customer service expectations. Exceed them.

Exceptional customer service has become a key driver of loyalty and revenue. But the baseline of great customer service is constantly changing. Fail to keep up, and you’ll fail to compete.

Customer service excellence is non-negotiable in 2026, and you need the right tools to execute it. Klaviyo Service connects service and marketing with shared data and AI, and helps brands deliver smarter, connected experiences.

The Klaviyo Service suite includes:

• Klaviyo Customer Hub: a personalized, one-stop shop where customers can manage orders, redeem offers, discover products, and get support
• K:AI (Klaviyo AI) Customer Agent: a 24/7 autonomous service agent that’s trained on your storefront and customer data to answer questions, recommend products, and resolve issues instantly, across all channels
• Klaviyo Helpdesk: an AI-powered helpdesk that brings AI and human agents into a unified workspace across channels, providing full customer context for faster response times and more personalized interactionsce program from those who haven’t.