5 Benefits of AI in Customer Service

The AI customer services market size was valued at $308 million in 2022 and is expected to surpass almost $3 billion by 2032. (Tidio)

Customer service succeeds when people get clear help quickly, at any hour, in their own language, and without extra steps. AI can deliver that standard at scale. 

The strongest results appear when conversational AI pairs with vision AI, so customers can share an image of the issue, receive precise guidance, and get resolution in minutes. This approach benefits everyone – customers as well as suppliers – and is essential for blind and low vision customers who are often excluded by text-only support or phone-based agents trained to ask for visual information. 

In this blog, we define what AI in customer service means, explore five key benefits and introduce Service AI.

Contents

• What is AI in customer service? 
• Faster responses and quicker resolutions 
• 24×7 coverage with steady quality 
• Consistency across channels and countries 
• Multilingual support at practical cost 
• Real support for businesses without a dedicated team 
• Introducing Service AI from Be My Eyes

What is AI in customer service?

AI in customer service is software that understands a request, decides the next step, and delivers an answer or action across chat, voice, email, and visual channels. Modern systems combine:

• Language models to understand intent and reply clearly 
• Retrieval to ground answers in your current policies, product data, and troubleshooting guides 
• Vision models to read and interpret images of labels, screens, forms, and error messages 
• Workflow connections to handle tasks like refunds, order checks, and device resets 
• Controls and audit trails that keep data use transparent and compliant. 

So, what are the benefits…

1) Faster responses and quicker resolutions

Support agents utilizing AI tools can handle 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour, leading to increased productivity without additional staffing costs. (Nielsen Norman Group) 

Speed builds trust. Customer service automation through AI removes the queue by answering the simpler questions instantly and guiding customers through multi-step tasks with clear prompts. 

Vision adds another gear. When a customer uploads a photo of a router light, a product label, or a small-print serial number, the system reads and reasons without a long back-and-forth. That shortens time to resolution and reduces repeat contacts. 

For teams, the benefit is compounding. First response happens immediately, common issues close on first contact, and agents spend more of their time on cases that truly need human judgment. For customers, it feels like a direct line to a solution rather than a tour of your support structure.

What good looks like 

• First replies arrive in seconds, not minutes. 
• Visual issues resolve without screen-sharing or lengthy descriptions. 
• First-contact resolution rises because the system captures the right context the first time.

2) 24×7 coverage with steady quality

3 in 4 consumers will spend more with businesses that provide a good Customer Experience (CX). (Zendesk Benchmark data) 

A huge part of this is being able to respond to their queries at any time of the day. 

AI keeps service available at every hour with the same standard of guidance. That matters for urgent scenarios like account lockouts, travel changes, setup steps after a delivery, or accessibility questions that block basic use. 

Night and weekend availability also stabilizes peaks. During launches and seasonal surges, AI absorbs repetitive volume so queues do not spiral. The result is steady response times and a consistent experience whether it is 02:00 or 14:00.

What good looks like 

• Always-on triage, answers, and guided flows. 
• Clear status updates during incidents, not generic apologies. 
• No overnight backlogs waiting for the next shift.

3) Consistency across channels and countries

Another element of great customer experience is consistency in responses and across channels. 

In fact, over half of consumers believe great customer service is more important than product price. (Hyken) 

Customers notice when answers vary by shift, site, or region and AI helps narrow that gap. With a single source of truth and guardrails for tone and policy, systems deliver consistent guidance across chat, voice, email, and visual flows. 

Consistency also protects brand promises. A customer in São Paulo and a customer in Stockholm receive the same steps, the same eligibility rules, and the same clarity. That predictability reduces rework and escalations, and it simplifies quality assurance for service leaders. 

What good looks like 

• One knowledge base powers all channels. 
• Policies and workflows update centrally and take effect immediately. 
• Monitoring catches drift and flags answers that need review.

4) Multilingual support at practical cost

Serving customers in many languages is hard to staff and train. AI makes coverage practical by understanding and responding in dozens of languages with stable quality. Pair that with glossaries and brand style guidance and the result is clear, respectful help that reads naturally to native speakers. 

Multilingual capability should also handle numbers, addresses, and dates correctly for local formats. And, it should route to human experts when a legal or safety boundary appears. Most importantly, perhaps, it should keep policy and product facts aligned across languages so customers receive the same answer everywhere. 

What good looks like 

• Language detection and switching happen automatically. 
• Product and policy facts remain consistent across locales. 
• Hand-off to a native-speaking agent is available for edge cases.

5) Real support for businesses without a dedicated team

Finally, many companies do not have a staffed contact center but they still have a need to serve customers with the same clarity as larger brands. AI can help level the playing field. 

For example, a virtual agent can greet customers, answer common questions, guide product setup, and collect details for the rare issue that needs a human. Owners spend less time on inbox triage and more time building the business. 

This model works for startups, local retailers, and SMEs that sell directly to consumers. Additionally, with image input, even hardware and packaging questions have a clear path. A customer can snap a photo of a connector or a serial number, the AI identifies the part, and the right steps appear. 

What good looks like 

• A single inbox funnels chat, email, and image submissions into one AI workflow. 
• Clear coverage hours are published, with instant answers for common needs and scheduled callbacks for the rest. 
• Simple dashboards show what customers ask most, which helps founders improve the product and update web copy.

Introducing Service AI from Be My Eyes 

Service AI adds vision to conversation and brings an accessible-first design to customer support. It is part of the Customer Accessibility Suite from award-winning Be My Eyes, who is trusted by over 900,000 blind and low-vision consumers, who along with almost 10 million volunteers represents by far the largest global community focused on people who are blind or have low vision. 

What Service AI does 

• Gives instant brand benefits by providing accessible customer support for the blind and low vision community. 
• Interprets customer-submitted images of screens, labels, packaging, and error codes. 
• Chats through next steps in natural language, grounded in your policies and product data. 
• Resolves a large amount of requests without human intervention, while keeping an easy route to an agent or direct phone number. 
• Operates across time zones and more than 180 languages, with a consistent brand voice. 
• Fits teams of any size, including companies with no dedicated support staff. 

With Service AI, businesses get an accessible, highly-intelligent customer support solution that results in customers getting faster answers, fewer handoffs, and accessible help that respects their time. 

To see how this works in practice, book a free demo of Service AI from Be My Eyes today.