AI Pulse · ANZ AI Watch

ANZ businesses are moving quickly on agentic AI in customer service. In a Genesys survey of 1,560 CX and business leaders, 39% of ANZ respondents called deploying agentic AI “critical”, compared with 22% globally. Nearly half, 48%, say they already use agentic virtual agents in customer interactions, according to the survey report.

That tells you AI agents are no longer just a future initiative for many local service teams. They are being put in front of customers now, handling questions and guiding conversations. But there is a warning in the same data. More than one in five ANZ consumers say they have waited over an hour to reach a human, versus 5% globally. Putting an AI agent at the front of the queue does not fix the underlying service operation if escalation paths, staff availability, customer data, and case ownership are still weak.

For owners and operators, the question is not whether an agent can answer common questions. It is what happens when it cannot. Map the handoff to a person, measure wait times by issue type, and review where customers abandon the process. Start with a narrow, high-volume task where the answer is reliable and the escalation route is clear. This is the kind of thing we build into an AI command centre, so leaders can see where AI is helping, where customers still get stuck, and what needs human attention.