
Manisha Karn at Level AI outlines what to consider when evaluating AI customer service agents and how they differ from traditional chatbots.
Until recently, this was more a promise than a reality. Traditional customer support bots relied on rigid decision trees that forced customers through scripted menus, often frustrating users when their needs didn’t fit into predefined categories. You’ve probably seen it: “I see you have a question about returns. Press 1 for yes, 2 for no.”
But generative AI has changed the game. Modern AI customer service agents can now understand language more like a human, holding natural conversations, recognizing intent, and even responding with empathy when customers are confused or upset.
As a result, companies are rethinking how they use automation in customer service, and many are now actively searching for the right AI agent to deploy.
That said, not all AI agents are created equal. So in this article, we discuss what to look for when evaluating these platforms.
Make sure the agent you’re considering uses real AI (not rule-based logic) to interact with customers. When conversations feel natural and responsive, customers are more likely to feel heard and understood, and get a better experience.
Unlike traditional bots that rely on decision trees or scripted menus, true AI-powered agents use NLP and generative AI to understand intent, detect sentiment, and respond appropriately, even when the conversation doesn’t follow a predictable path.
Such contact center automation tools can handle interruptions, switch topics midstream, and maintain a conversational tone that adapts to the customer’s mood and phrasing.
Many legacy bots try to mimic understanding by using rigid flows and keyword matching. But this often backfires.
For example, if a customer says, “I wasn’t expecting to pay that much. Is there anything you can do?” a basic bot may not register this as a billing concern simply because it doesn’t contain the exact keywords like “refund” or “return.”
This lack of contextual awareness is also why traditional systems tend to force customers into choosing from preset menus, an approach that feels unnatural and often frustrating.
When people have to repeat themselves or rephrase to get the bot to understand, trust in the system erodes quickly, and the likelihood of escalation increases.
In customer experience strategy, closing the loop means not just collecting feedback, but acting on it, and letting the customer know you did.
For example, if a customer complains about a confusing ordering process, closing the loop means acknowledging the issue, addressing the root cause, and improving the process behind the scenes. This builds trust while also driving meaningful change within the organization.
The faster your system can react to feedback, the more effectively it connects insights, automation, and learning, forming a continuous cycle of improvement.
That’s where many legacy chatbots fall short. Bots built on decision trees don’t adapt on their own. Their responses are hardcoded, so any changes require manual updates and developer involvement, which is both time-consuming and costly.
In contrast, AI-driven virtual agents use customer analytics software to learn from real interactions. They can interpret intent, manage edge cases, and refine their behavior over time.
By analyzing patterns in customer feedback, they can proactively identify recurring issues and optimize future responses without human intervention.
The most capable agents go even further. They turn insights into action, updating records, adjusting orders, or triggering follow-ups, all while tracking performance metrics like resolution rates, customer satisfaction, and others that support a wide range of customer analytics use cases.
This kind of intelligent feedback loop not only improves service quality but also helps your team stay ahead of customer needs.
Today’s customers expect a smooth, consistent experience across every channel, whether that’s web, chat, email, social, or voice.
But many platforms still struggle to deliver this, especially when it comes to voice. That’s because voice is harder to get right.
Conversations often feel robotic or scripted, which makes sense given that many legacy bots rely on rigid decision trees and keyword matching.
AI-driven agents, by contrast, are built to handle real conversations, not just recognize commands. They’re designed to understand natural language, respond with empathy, and take meaningful actions across both voice and text channels.
And they can do this at scale, adapting fluidly to the customer’s intent regardless of where the interaction begins.
Next, we’ll highlight the top AI agent platforms that combine conversational intelligence with strong, channel-agnostic performance, offering a consistent experience whether customers are typing or talking.
Level AI’s Virtual Agent is a fully integrated platform that combines voice and chat support, agentic automation, and performance monitoring in a single system. It’s designed not just to talk, but to understand, take action, and continuously improve.
AI Virtual Agent:
Zendesk AI Agents are chatbots that resolve customer requests across multiple channels and handle routine inquiries from routine FAQs to complex issues.
These AI agents determine why the customer is contacting the organization and can retrieve accurate answers, do certain actions, and escalate to humans when needed.
Key features include:
Zendesk AI Agents is offered as a feature of their standard pricing plans, starting at around $50 for a small customer service team.
Fin is designed to answer requests and resolve queries across channels with conversational interactions. It uses generative AI and integrates with external services like helpdesks and knowledge bases.
Its features include:
Pricing starts at around one dollar per resolution, with a minimum allotment of 50 resolutions per month.
Sendbird is a multichannel AI agent that handles customer inquiries and focuses on smooth handoffs to human agents when required.
Sendbird integrates with a number of external customer data systems like CRMs, helpdesks, etc., and offers security and compliance with several standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and more.
Key features include:
Pricing isn’t immediately available on the website and requires a conversation with sales.
Ada is designed to automate customer service across web, mobile, and messaging channels, allowing businesses to provide instant and personalized support.
Features include:
According to the website, you need to book a demo to get pricing information.
Breeze Agents is HubSpot’s AI agent that handles high-volume conversations across multiple channels. Breeze connects with external systems like your knowledge base and Hubspot CRM to provide fast, accurate, and cited responses using customer data, and can escalate to human reps when needed.
Key features include:
Breeze is included as a feature in HubSpot’s Professional and Enterprise plans, and HubSpot uses a credit system to track pricing for AI usage.
Gartner rates case summarization and post-interaction wrap-up as among the most practical use cases available. Both give agents a structured overview of each interaction without manual note-taking.
A. AI customer service agents are AI-powered systems that automate customer support by understanding queries, responding conversationally, and resolving issues across channels.
A. AI agents use natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and integrations with CRM and support tools to handle customer queries and automate workflows.
A. AI chatbots follow predefined scripts, while AI agents for customer service can understand context, handle complex conversations, and take real actions.
A. AI in customer service improves response time, reduces costs, enables 24/7 support, and enhances customer satisfaction.
A. AI agents are widely used in call centers, contact centers, SaaS companies, e-commerce, banking, and telecom industries.
Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell