ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the AI management tower for enterprise reinvention, at this time launched new analysis that highlights the hole between the potential of AI and the way service is being delivered. The CX Shift: Buyer Expectations within the AI Period, discovered that residents and residents throughout the UAE are collectively spending greater than 83 million hours a yr on maintain, regardless of the enhancements made potential by AI.
The analysis, performed with ThoughtLab, surveyed 34,000 executives, service representatives and clients globally, together with 1,335 respondents within the UAE. The outcomes reveal that poor customer support within the UAE prices each client the equal of 10.8 hours a yr — greater than a full working day — spent coping with points equivalent to lengthy wait instances, repeating info or navigating gradual programs. Whereas organisations are investing in AI, outdated programs are stopping many from turning these investments into the quicker, smoother experiences clients anticipate.
Customers are paying a hidden productiveness tax
Throughout EMEA, the analysis discovered that buyer points take a median of three to 4 days to resolve — even in sectors designed for velocity, equivalent to banking and telecommunications. In manufacturing, decision instances stretch to almost a full working week. Even within the know-how sector, identified to be early adopters of platforms and know-how, lower than one in 5 (18%) customer support points are resolved inside an hour.
Near half of customers within the UAE (41%) charge present customer support as common, poor or horrible. In the meantime, 45% of consumers throughout the Emirates say they’d change to a competitor after a single poor or gradual expertise.
“Customers throughout EMEA are shedding whole working days to service experiences that ought to take minutes. The foundation trigger isn’t an absence of AI funding — it’s that the majority CRM programs had been constructed to file interactions, not resolve them. That’s the shift we’re driving: CRM as a system of motion, not a system of file,” stated Shakira Talbot, Group Vice President, CRM EMEA at ServiceNow.
AI is gaining belief however empathy stays the hole
Nearly two-thirds of UAE customers (62%) say AI has improved customer support. Half of these within the UAE (49%) report positive aspects in velocity, effectivity, and comfort; and 60% say AI has improved after-hours and 24/7 help. But velocity alone is inadequate.
55% of UAE customers cite lack of empathy as a high frustration. Channel preferences play an necessary function on this hole: whereas 89% of UAE customers want telephone help, 80% try self-service first — however 47% say present chatbots fail to know their questions or considerations.
“Clients wish to really feel heard and resolved, not simply routed. However that may’t occur when AI and human brokers function in numerous programs with completely different views of the shopper. The organisations getting this proper are those connecting their whole operation — entrance workplace to again workplace — on a single platform. That’s when CRM stops being a digital submitting cupboard and begins being a income engine,” added Talbot.
The true bottleneck is the system behind the service
Service representatives are constrained by the environments they work in, slowed down by fragmented programs and processes. Brokers within the UAE spend simply 44% of their working week on addressing buyer points. Meaning the rest is absorbed by administrative work, system-hopping, and chasing info. Within the UAE, 73% of service representatives should log into three to 5 programs to resolve a single subject. Info can also be more durable to entry on this manner, with over half (51%) of service brokers within the Emirates citing inconsistent buyer knowledge as a significant problem.
Executives are misaligned with what clients worth
The analysis reveals a persistent notion hole between what clients need and the place senior leaders are targeted. Lack of empathy is a high UAE buyer frustration (55%), but solely 24% of UAE executives prioritise it. Whereas half of consumers (50%) within the UAE are annoyed by being transferred between departments, 36% of UAE executives recognise it as a big subject.
AI should unify programs earlier than it might probably rework service
On the root of those challenges is fragmentated programs that aren’t constructed for the CRM wants of at this time. Within the Emirates, fewer than half of organisations (46%) have built-in knowledge throughout silos right into a single supply of reality, whereas lower than one in 5 (19%) have enterprise-wide AI methods that break down departmental boundaries.
Closing the hole requires AI that unifies knowledge, workflows, and groups — enabling CRM to evolve from a system of file right into a system of motion. The analysis exhibits that when organisations join service environments, they will free frontline groups to give attention to empathy, readability, and belief. With out this shift, AI investments underperform, frontline groups stay constrained, and clients proceed to bear the associated fee via gradual, irritating experiences.
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