Monday Morning Impact – January 13
Gartner: Unofficial Third-Party GenAI Tools Will Resolve Many Customer Service Issues
By 2027, 40% of all customer service issues will be fully resolved by unofficial third-party tools powered by GenAI, according to research by Gartner, Inc.
Consumers are increasingly adopting unofficial third-party GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Apple Intelligence to resolve customer service issues. The deep integration of GenAI into these widely available consumer tools is driving a shift in consumer behavior, as customers prefer these platforms for their convenience and availability. As a result, customer service teams may expect a decline in official first-party service volume.
“There is a transformation in customer behavior and a reset in their expectations with GenAI continuing to reshape the customer service landscape,” said Daniel O’Sullivan, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. “As customers increasingly self-solve issues through GenAI-enabled tools, there will be diminished demand for official first-party service. When customers do have to engage with first-party service, their expectations will be higher.”
GenAI-enabled third-party platforms can provide customers with a significantly lower effort experience than even the best first-party options, according to Gartner. While first-party service channels require customers to navigate unfamiliar user interfaces, or wait for solutions, consumer GenAI tools offer immediate answers with minimal effort, integrated into the devices, apps and websites consumers already use daily. Leaders must therefore continue to assess the value of first-party service investments.
According to a Gartner survey of 187 service and support leaders conducted in July and August of 2024, 84% agreed that customers have higher expectations for service now than in the past. As a result, leaders must focus on minimizing customer effort and breaking down sources of friction that lead to a disconnected customer journey. They are advised to use GenAI to improve self-service success by implementing a conversational experience across channels and capturing customer intent through natural language inputs.
“Leaders should create differentiated self-service experiences for customers and focus investments on more sophisticated queries that third-party options cannot easily handle,” said O’Sullivan. “They must keep a close eye on the fast-changing third-party space, monitoring quality and availability of third-party GenAI responses and concentrating their investments on self-service capabilities that supplement, rather than replace, third-party options.”
Gartner clients can read more in: “Third-Party GenAI Will Eclipse Your Company’s Customer Service.”
Channel Impact®
Customer expectations for service will evolve as they become accustomed to the low-effort, familiar, and conversational capabilities of widely available GenAI tools. Customer service and support influencers must help in strategy evolution and adaptation that matches the needs of customers.
Flexera Adjusts Global Partner Program to Better Serve MSPs
Flexera, an Itasca, Illinois-based company specializing in technology spend and risk management, has announced a major update to its global partner program. The company says the revised program expands the focus on MSPs with additional capabilities offered in the growing FinOps arena, enhanced ITAM features and also includes plans to expand into SaaS Management. In addition, Flexera plans to release a new partner services layer for Flexera One, its flagship family of applications, to allow partners and MSPs to provide unique services to meet their customers’ business requirements.
“According to industry analyst estimates, organizations will spend more than $5 trillion on technology in 2024,” said Brian Hibner, Senior Vice President, Alliances and Services at Flexera. “Yet, we find many organizations still asking basic questions like ‘what technology do we own’ and ‘what’s being used and what’s being wasted’. We want to empower our customers and partners with a system of insight that can unite the tools they love with a common set of data that offers actionable insights to drive value.”
Beyond program and technology investments, Flexera has expanded its internal partner organization with support, enablement and leadership hires, as well as its MSP team, with further open head count planned for 2025.
Channel Impact®
The updated channel program with tailored MSP offerings and forthcoming partner services are expected to provide partners with the essentials to holistically address technology spend and risk.
GTT Appoints Sara Seegers as Channel Partner Chief
GTT Communications, Inc., an Arlington, Virginia-based networking and security-as-a-service provider for multinational organizations, has announced the appointment of Sara Seegers as senior vice president and channel partner chief for its indirect channels business in the Americas.
Seegers will lead GTT’s strategic relationships with technology services distributors, selling partners, information technology consultants and other third-party distribution channels in the Americas. GTT’s Partner program is structured to support channel partners with dedicated teams for sales, solution design and delivery.
“We value the crucial role our channel partners have in extending our reach to deliver global networking and security as a service solutions that simplify digital transformation initiatives for our customers,” said Joan Logan, division president of Americas at GTT. “Sara is an accomplished executive with deep and nuanced experience of the channel ecosystem, and I am delighted to welcome her to the GTT team.”
“I am thrilled to join at this exciting time where the GTT Envision platform is simplifying the growing complexity enterprises face when managing distributed networks,” said Seegers. “GTT brings a unified approach to solving connectivity, networking, security and cloud challenges that holds exceptional potential for our partner community to simplify and deliver an industry-leading partner and customer experience.”
Seegers is an industry veteran of more than twenty years, having served in various roles throughout her career, most recently as the national vice president of the Indirect Partner Channel at Lumen. She holds a master’s degree in business administration from Concordia University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Eastern Michigan University.
Channel Impact®
Seegers is a widely respected channel advocate, with an ability to build relationships, programs, and mutually valuable sales efforts.
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