0% of agents say AI is critical to their success: UJET report
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Every customer service agent now interacts with artificial intelligence (AI) on the job, yet not a single one considers it critical to their daily success, according to new research from contact center technology firm UJET.
The study, titled “The Agent and AI Disconnect: A Blueprint for Futuristic CX,” found that while 100% of agents use AI daily, 93% are confident they could perform their jobs without it.
Seventy-eight percent said their organization’s AI tools are not transformative, and 54% described AI as helpful but lacking the context and depth needed for real impact.
Agents doubt the tools they are told to use
The report surfaced deeper frustrations across the front lines. Eighty-one percent of agents juggle more than four tools at once, while nearly 20% manage seven or more.
Another 93% feel the need to verify AI-generated information before sharing it with a customer, and 15% call real-time AI recommendations unreliable or inaccurate.
Customers are not faring better. Sixty-five percent said they are frustrated at having to repeat information to a self-service bot before reaching a human — a breakdown that pushes more emotionally charged interactions onto agents and fuels burnout.
Seventy-one percent of agents said they expect to seek new work within 12 months because of AI-related job security concerns.
UJET CEO Vasili Triant said the rush to adopt AI has caused many brands to overlook their most vital asset — people.
He argued that immature implementations and tools without real-time customer context frustrate agents and damage customer experience, and that AI must shift from automating front-end chats to eliminating back-end complexity.
“The future of CX is not a choice between humans or machines,” Triant said.
What it means for offshore BPO and global CX delivery
For the outsourcing industry, the findings land at a sensitive moment. Global BPO providers in the Philippines, India and Latin America have invested heavily in AI-assisted agent desktops and automated self-service, often marketing these capabilities as the future of offshore customer experience.
UJET’s data suggests that buyers who treat AI as a headcount-reduction tool rather than an agent-enablement layer risk eroding the very service quality that drew them offshore in the first place.
With Gartner projecting generative AI resolution costs will exceed $3 per interaction by 2030 — higher than many human agents today — the economic case for hollowing out contact center teams is weakening.
The emerging takeaway for BPO leaders is straightforward: AI delivers value when it amplifies the human agent, not when it tries to replace one.
