Post-Purchase Tasks Will Transition to a Unified Customer-Facing Role by 2027

By 2027, Gartner expects 30 percent of the Fortune 500 to consolidate post-purchase tasks, such as expansion, service, success, and renewal, into a unified customer-facing employee role.

Generative artificial intelligence, it said, promises to automate greater portions of customer service agent roles, creating employee capacity that will allow customer service and support leaders to experiment with new talent management approaches. Merging post-purchase tasks into a single role will allow them to maximize the value of AI investments, increase employee efficiency, and meet business demands, it said further.

"As the lines between post-purchase services begin to blur, service, sales, and success leaders will battle for ownership of the customer relationship," said Emily Potosky, senior director of research in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. "Service and support leaders must move fast in order to maintain their influence and avoid their function being subsumed by another."

Gartner also predicts that customer service and support leaders will be impacted by government actions that might impact organizations with digital-only ambitions.

One such prediction maintains that by 2028, the European Union will mandate the right to talk to a human in all customer service interactions.

This comes as generative AI is accelerating the shift toward self-service, and a number of organizations are experimenting with hiding or entirely shutting down their assisted channels, according to Gartner. In response to growing consumer backlash against AI-generated service, Gartner predicts the EU will adjust its consumer protection laws, requiring organizations to provide access to a customer service employee.

"The EU has a reputation as a standard-setter when it comes to consumer protection," Potosky said. "If the EU takes this step, organizations that rely too heavily on generative AI-assisted service could need to scramble to boost their assisted service offering, despite many leaders currently promoting the cost-savings of a digital only-strategy."