Most of us have been interacting with customer support agents for years. It can be a frustrating experience: Oftentimes the agent knows less than we do about their product or service, calls are dropped or transferred to other agents. About two years ago, I had such a bad experience with AT&T Inc.’s customer support that I ended up cancelling my cell and internet service with the company.

But now there are artificial intelligence chatbots and chat programs that are supposed to make our lives better. With all the attention focused on ChatGPT and other AI-based chatbots, a new long-term research study has found that AI can help improve support, but only under carefully controlled situations. Let’s examine the specific circumstances and what’s in store for the future of support. In this post for SiliconANGLE, I dive into what they found and make some recommendations on how to be more effective at deploying AI for customer support situations.