Your Chatbot is Annoying. Here’s How to Fix AI Customer Support

The Gist

• Consumer expectations. Customers increasingly expect instant gratification regarding product selection, delivery and the resolution of any consumer issues. 

• AI chatbots drive efficiency. AI-enabled tools help consumers resolve common issues quickly while freeing human agents to manage more complex or individual problems.

• Reputational management. Integrating AI-enabled technologies with human-powered customer support helps brands maintain and build business reputation and encourage positive consumer feedback.

Consumers have always favored doing business with companies they like and trust. However, the strength of these relationships is more often based on efficiency, availability and value rather than any significant human engagement. The real test of these relationships is when something goes wrong, and the first port of call is an AI-enabled chatbot.

Here’s how consumer behavior and expectations can best be managed across all stages of the customer journey by combining the power and efficiency of AI in customer support alongside dedicated human support.

Table of Contents

The Shift Toward Outsourcing Customer Support

According to data from Statista, U.S. consumers have always valued doing business with companies with good customer support. Sixty percent of respondents surveyed said they did more business with companies that prioritized customer services. However, providing good customer support is expensive, so businesses have often sought to outsource this effort, initially to off-shore contact centers and, more recently, to AI-enabled chatbots.

This move to digital customer support channels has been challenging. In 2024, 70% of consumers said they preferred to resolve customer service issues on the phone. Meanwhile, the popularity of digital channels has decreased from a high of 41% in 2021 to 30% in 2024, which suggests that they are becoming less popular with consumers as technologies become more pervasive.

Optimizing Efficiency in Customer Service

Regardless of how customer support is deployed, it must be delivered efficiently and effectively. PissedConsumer.com’s 2025 consumer trends report highlights the importance of deploying more efficient strategies. The customer insights published in this report highlight how complaints about unresponsive, untrained agents and unresolved customer support issues spanned all industries, with consumers frustrated by long wait times and inadequate resolutions.

Evolving Consumer Expectations in Customer Support

Consumers increasingly expect almost instant gratification. They demand shorter delivery windows, more transparent tracking and quick resolution when things go wrong. These changing consumer behavior trends are impacting what, when and how consumers engage customer support teams and online services.

The report suggests that busy engagement periods relating to consumer issues typically occur around peak shopping periods like Black Friday and the holidays. Meanwhile, new, emerging and disruptive industries like online marketplaces and food delivery apps that rely on third-party sellers and “gig economy” workers face a real challenge in managing customer expectations in a decentralized business model.

It’s also important to remember that external influences, such as global supply chain problems related to ongoing geopolitical situations and post-pandemic issues, cannot be ignored when deploying customer support. These issues continue to impact product availability, delivery schedules and pricing.

Related Article: The Top Challenges Facing CMOs in 2025

How AI Will Impact Customer Support This Year

AI in customer support, particularly through chatbots and virtual assistants, will play a more significant role in customer service in 2025. This move will help companies maintain good levels of support throughout the year, including around peak sales seasons when consumer issues are at their highest. While this allows customer support teams to be more efficiently staffed in terms of human resources, it’s essential to monitor how this digital service impacts engagement and issue resolution levels. 

It’s also vital to make sure that human engagement isn’t removed completely from the process and that customer service agents are adequately trained to handle more complex and potentially emotional issues that AI-enabled systems may be unable to handle.

Key Consumer Support Needs

While the business landscape has changed, many consumer issues remain the same as they always have. Making sure your AI-enabled tools and human customer support teams are properly set up is essential. Providing them with the resources they need to manage issues efficiently and effectively will help improve positive consumer feedback and reduce negative online reviews.

Typical consumer issues in 2025 include the following:

Refund Delays 

Delays relating to refunds are a regular issue for consumers throughout the year, and they peak during seasonal sales (i.e., March, May and November). Refunds are particularly difficult to manage as they often have to be approved by a senior customer support manager, which adds an extra human step to the process. The process can be improved by publishing clear refund policies prominently on your website and providing faster processing and automated tracking.

Billing and Payment Disputes 

Hot on the tail of refund delays, billing and payment disputes often require human engagement across multiple departments to fully understand and resolve the issue to everyone’s satisfaction. Failure to resolve these issues promptly and efficiently will lead to consumer distrust and dissatisfaction, which impacts your organization’s reputation. 

Customer Service Inefficiencies

This is an area where AI can really come to the rescue by efficiently triaging customer support issues, pointing customers in the right direction or passing them over for human assistance. Human agents must be adequately trained and available to manage any inquiries triaged from the AI system.