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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Service leaders see investment in AI agents as essential to meet business demands.
• Conversational AI is reshaping customer communication across digital channels.
• AI field service investments will significantly increase over the next year.

Nearly 8 out of 10 service leaders say investment in AI agents is essential for meeting business demands, according to the 2026 State of Service report from Salesforce. The report’s seventh edition surveyed 6,500 service professionals across 40 countries and five continents, including service vice presidents, directors, and team leaders.

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Here is the executive summary of the key findings: 

1. Teams tackle AI adoption challenges: Service teams face challenges such as meeting customer demands with limited resources, talent shortages, and successfully implementing AI. However, companies that have integrated their service channel data into a unified platform are 1.4x more likely to rate their AI implementation as very successful than those with siloed systems.
2. AI agents redefine customer service: Companies are incorporating predictive, generative, and agentic AI to deliver faster, more accurate, and more personalized interactions. Leaders expect AI agents to amplify prior AI outcomes and are backing that expectation with investment. Seventy-nine percent  of service leaders say investing in AI agents is essential to meeting business demands.
3. AI gets conversational with voice and multimodal interactions: Conversational AI is reshaping customer communication across digital channels, like text and chat, increasing self-service resolution rates. When cases do need human attention, the right AI tools maintain context. Eighty-five percent of service professionals with voice AI say customer transitions to human representatives are seamless. 
4. Agentic AI makes field service safer and more efficient: Field service organizations face inefficiencies caused by administrative tasks, scheduling issues, and long wait times for parts. AI can help. Eighty-five percent of field service leaders believe their AI field service investments will increase over the next year.

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Here are the top 10 key takeaways of the State of Service 2026 report: 

AI adoption challenges 

1. Customer service demands are growing faster than expected. The research shows that 82% of service professionals agree that customer expectations are higher than they used to be. And customers expect a lot, from 24/7 support to tailored interactions. And though 81% of service representatives say building relationships with customers is an important part of their job, they spend less than half their time (46%) with customers due in part to administrative tasks and internal responsibilities. The pressure of excellent service is real – 43% of consumers say a poor customer service experience will prevent them from making a repeat purchase.
2. Talent shortages prevent customer service from leveraging AI agents. Attrition is an obstacle: 12% of service employees left their companies over the past year, and these highly trained individuals are often hard to replace. Top service challenges include keeping up with changing customer expectations, high operational costs, and difficulty hiring and retraining employees. 
3. Security concerns hold back AI adoption. Service leaders cite security concerns as their top challenge while implementing AI, and over half say it’s delayed or limited these initiatives. The research found that 75% of IT security leaders believe AI-driven cyber threats will soon outpace traditional defenses.

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AI agents reshape customer service 

1.  AI adoption comes in multiple forms of capabilities, each progressively harder to implement. Companies are investing in all three forms of AI: predictive, generative, and agentic. Sixty-nine percent of service professionals say their organization uses at least one form of AI, with 39% reporting the use of agentic AI. Only 6% of service leaders don’t expect to use agentic AI within five years — a finding that makes sense, given that 79% say AI agent investment is essential to meet business demands. The timelines noted are much longer than they should be. All businesses should have agentic AI capabilities by 2027. It is difficult for companies to deliver value at the speed of need without AI agents, especially when customers will use them to engage. 
2. AI agents are delivering measurable results today. Service ops and leaders who use AI agents expect their service costs and case resolution times to decrease by an average of 20%. At Salesforce, AI agents have answered nearly 4 million cases with satisfaction, including support for web, phone, and app channels. In addition to cost savings, AI agents deliver 20% faster resolution times, 20% less wait time, 18% more case deflections. 
3. Humans and AI agents can do more together, faster and better. The report found that collaboration between humans and AI in customer service yields significant benefits. In fact, 83% of service representatives at organizations with AI say they have better career prospects because of it, and 82% say working with AI has helped them develop new skills. It’s also made them more productive and their jobs less stressful.

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AI agents are conversational and can deliver multimodal interactions

1. Customers are talking more with AI agents. Multimodal AI is technology that can handle different types of input — voice, text, chat, and visual — within a single system. AI agents are turning these touchpoints into natural-language conversations. Already, 36% of organizations with both voice and text AI have integrated these modes.
2. The benefits of conversational AI are realized by both customers and companies. Conversational AI works best when it’s built on your organization’s data — ensuring it delivers accurate answers while maintaining your brand voice and tone. It also taps into customer data to personalize every interaction — speaking their language, matching their tone preferences, and adapting to their communication needs. Research found that 89% of context is maintained when customers move from voice AI to human reps. 
3. AI agents are getting much better at understanding humans. The research found that 88% of companies said they are good or excellent at maintaining a consistent brand voice. However, there’s still room for improvement across the board. While 35% of service professionals say their AI is excellent at understanding emotions, others are less impressed. This represents a major leap toward making AI interactions feel truly natural.

The State of Service report also found that field service organizations are realizing great productivity gains by using AI agents. According to the report, 37% of technicians said admin tasks keep them from doing their actual jobs, and they spend an average of 7.27 hours per week on low-value tasks. Technicians said AI could tackle 35% of admin work, freeing up two hours a week. Eighty-eight percent report at least a moderate improvement in technician utilization, and 85% report at least a moderate improvement in dispatcher productivity. The report noted that 85% of field service leaders believe their AI investments will increase over the next year.

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AI agents are transforming customer service, and agentic maturity is creating customer journeys from good to great. To learn more about the State of Service 2026 Report, you can visit here.