AI agents: 2025 predictions

For many marketers, handing over customer interactions to an automated genAI-based process requires a leap of faith. The good news is that as more AI agents come to market, the use of this technology to improve engagement and increase revenue will become clearer.

Adoption is already underway. During the 2024 holiday seasontraffic to retail sites from chatbots powered by genAI increased 13x over the previous year. Chatbot usage peaks on Cyber ​​Monday, up 1,950% year-over-year, according to Adobe.

2025 will be the year of the AI ​​agent

Marketers who want to integrate AI agents they now have several options for the customer experience. Salesforce introduced by Agentforce in September 2024, and last time SAP has announced purchasing assistant agents for later in 2025.

Dig deeper: Salesforce Agentforce: What You Need to Know

“While in 2023 and 2024 [was for] As we realize the first benefits of AI in customer experience, 2025 will be the year we really start to see the profound impact it will have,” said Jay Patel, SVP and GM, Webex Customer Experience Solutions, Cisco. “This shift will see artificial intelligence become an integral part of customer interactions and its capabilities embraced by both consumers and businesses.

Patel added: “By 2025, artificial intelligence will be woven into the fabric of everyday customer service operations – including AI agents that have natural voice capabilities and the ability to respond to customer requests. This takes efficiency, personalization and satisfaction to an unprecedented level. This mainstream adoption will not only improve the customer experience, but also set new standards for engagement, making AI an indispensable tool in the customer service arsenal.”

Better personalization from AI agents

Advances in agents in 2025 will help brands create personalized AI agents for customers. These AI models, which will include small language models operating on individual devices, will power highly personalized virtual assistants, according to Patel.

“These assistants will seamlessly interact with brands and service providers, offering a level of convenience and customization that was previously unattainable,” said Patel. “The move to personalized AI will not only enable users to communicate more effectively and in a personalized way, but also anticipate their needs, making interactions more intuitive and proactive. These developments will significantly improve the overall customer experience and create a more dynamic and responsive digital environment.”

Artificial intelligence representatives reflecting the brand’s core value

“On the other hand, brands will increasingly embrace AI agents that embody their unique values, personality and purpose,” said Patel. “These AI management representatives will interact with customers in ways that are deeply aligned with the brand ethos, ensuring interactions are authentic, meaningful and memorable. By using AI to communicate their core values, brands will create more consistent and emotionally resonant customer experiences. Additionally, these AI agents will enable brands to maintain a cohesive voice and presence across all touchpoints, enhancing customer loyalty and trust.

Dig deeper: How genAI can fill the trust gap for brands

More investment in AI for agents

Businesses have committed to investing in AI in 2025. Almost all organizations surveyed by Invoca said will increase investment next year.

“In 2025, investment in AI will definitely move from experimentation to execution,” said Megh Gautam, chief product officer at Crunchbase. “While 2022-2024 saw companies making stunning AI announcements and conducting large-scale and in some cases performative experiments, 2025 will be the year AI must prove its return on investment. Companies will abandon generic AI applications in favor of targeted solutions that solve specific, high-value business problems.”

Gautam added, “We will see this play out in two key areas. The first is the rise of AI agents – agent AI – handling routine but complex operational tasks. Salesforce’s success this year is driven by this trend. Second, widespread adoption of AI tools that drive measurable improvements in core business metrics, particularly sales optimization and customer support automation.”

“With the help of AI agents, brands can now have their local store manager trained and ready to assist digital customers 24/7,” said Monica Ho, CMO of AI-powered marketing technology company SOCi. “AI agents have the ability to bring back dormant online business profiles, increase traffic and strengthen brand loyalty through immersive consumer experiences that resonate. By reducing human error, AI agents act as reliable strategic assets to represent brands with a local touch that manual efforts are difficult to achieve. For brands, deploying AI agents will be critical to building compelling, scalable and trusted local experiences that will differentiate them from the competition in 2025.”

Using AI agents to get customer insights

AI agents engage customers in conversations. These longer Q&As provide a new stream of data from which marketers can improve experiences and increase revenue.

“Using agent-based AI, marketers can more easily gain a holistic view of the customer journey from data stored across systems and departments,” said Pedro Andrade, vice president of AI at Talkdesk, a cloud contact center software company. “In 2025, we’ll see marketers lean on this technology to capitalize on rich customer knowledge.”

Data from these conversations can be analyzed elsewhere in the stack, and the resulting insights can be used for more holistic marketing strategies.

“For example, in a contact center, AI agents can connect with existing CRMs to analyze customer interactions in real time, identify patterns and proactively suggest solutions or personalized offers,” Andrade said. “Using conversational AI, these agents can anticipate customer needs by autonomously deciding on processes to address the need.”

Andrade added, “Insights marketers can glean include top drivers of customer churn and competitor launches, new features or enhancements customers are asking for during interactions, and new topics. These AI agent systems can automate research on vast amounts of data to gain insight and ensure marketers that their strategy is resonating with customers, develop more effective and relevant campaigns that highlight areas of customer interest, and proactively address issues in their communications.”

Streamlining marketing strategy and functions

With data and insights from conversations with AI agents, marketers get a new simplified process for improving campaigns. How does it work?

“Agent AI can monitor phone calls or chats with customers to continuously understand their feelings and attitudes and verify the correlation of these emotions with changes in purchasing patterns,” Andrade explained. “Agent AI can uncover insights from sentiment analysis, enabling marketers to more easily empathize with customers and integrate feedback into marketing strategies, campaigns and messaging.”

Keep people in the loop

“Virtual assistants and sentiment analysis will change the function of contact center workers, not replace them,” said Titus Jumper, CEO and founder of digital marketing company Sales-Hub. “As virtual assistants handle most routine queries, human agents will move into ‘people in the loop’ roles, supervising and supporting AI in complex or emotionally charged interactions. Rather than managing basic inquiries, these agents intervene when human empathy, fine judgment or specialized knowledge is required, enabling a seamless escalation process.”

As AI agents join marketing and service teams, businesses will need to implement retraining programs in the new year, Jumper says.

Dig deeper: A gap in AI adoption has been identified between executives and entry-level marketers