If you’ve landed on this page, it’s most probably because you’ve been looking for information about AI voice bots. And you’re definitely not alone. AI voice bots are getting incredibly popular, with more businesses looking to implement these solutions in 2025.
While AI-powered voice bots can be used in both customer service and sales environments, in this blog, we’ll be talking about how AI voice bots can be leveraged by customer service and support teams, in particular. If you’re unsure yet whether implementing an AI voice bot for customer service is a worthwhile investment for your business, read on to find out.
What Exactly are Customer Service AI Voice Bots?
Imagine a helpful robot answering your inbound calls and helping your customers get answers to their questions and resolve issues in a way that a human customer support agent would. A customer service AI voice bot does just that. AI voice bots (also known as AI voice agents, AI virtual agents, or AI virtual assistants) are software solutions powered by Artificial Intelligence that understand spoken language and provide contextually relevant responses, engaging users in a natural, human-like dialogue. For your customers, that means being able to get voice support whenever they need it, without having to wait on hold.
No wonder the demand for conversational AI solutions is growing at lightning speed. Based on the Voicebots Market Report by IndustryARC, the voicebots market size is estimated to reach $98.2 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 18.6% during the forecast period 2022-2027.
How Do AI Voice Bots Actually Work?
So, how do AI voice bots interpret human language and respond to customer queries in a natural, human-like way? Several AI-driven technologies come into play in the process:
- Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR): First, the voice bot captures a user’s spoken input through Automatic Speech Recognition (voice recognition) technology that converts audio signal into a digital text format.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): Using Natural Language Processing algorithms, the voice bot processes the converted text to accurately understand the user’s intent and the context of what’s being said.
- Natural Language Understanding (NLU): Based on the recognized user intent, the bot determines the best (i.e., the most effective and contextually relevant) response using Natural Language Understanding technology.
- Natural Language Generation (NLG): Once the necessary information is sourced, the voice bot dynamically generates a text response to address the customer’s query through Natural Language Generation technology.
- Text-to-Speech (Speech Synthesis): The voice bot converts the text response into computer-generated reproduction of human speech that is created through deep learning techniques and literally makes the bot sound like a human rep.
- Machine Learning (ML): Finally, AI voice bots use Machine Learning to evolve and improve the accuracy and relevance of responses over time by continually learning from past customer interactions and user feedback – that’s how AI voice bots eventually become smarter.
Benefits of Using AI Voice Bots in Customer Service Environments
When it comes to using AI bots in customer service, the benefits are truly immense. Let’s take a closer look at them:
✓ AI voice bots can answer repetitive questions
First and foremost, similarly to AI chatbots, AI voice bots can answer a bunch of questions from your customers and prospects, potentially saving hours of precious time for your reps. In e-commerce, for example, these are questions like ‘Where is my order’, ‘What are your shipping fees?’, ‘What’s your return policy?’, or ’How do I change my delivery address?’, to name just a few.
Anyone working in customer service knows that these types of questions are way too common, and answering them over and over again is not only frustrating for service reps, but it also takes a significant amount of their time that could have been spent on other, higher-value activities. In fact, research shows that WISMO (Where is my order?) calls can account for up to 35% of customer support interactions. Fortunately, AI voice bots can be trained to answer these and dozens or hundreds of other common questions, freeing up your reps for more complex issues.
✓ AI voice bots can support your customers 24/7
The demand for immediate, always-on customer support is real – and AI voice bots can help you deliver just that, meeting your customers’ expectations. Salesforce research found that 83% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a brand. On top of that, no one wants to wait on hold. According to research from Invoca, 5% of people will hang up immediately when being put on hold, 28% will hang up after five minutes or less, and only 6% are willing to stay on hold for 30 minutes or longer.
With a customer service AI voice agent, you can deliver that instant support consumers have come to expect, even outside of your operating hours, without having to put anyone on hold. And the best part is that AI voice bots aren’t just good at answering customers’ questions. When integrated with your backend systems (like CRM, e-commerce platform, and calendar software), voice bots can actually perform specific actions like:
- Booking appointments
- Changing delivery addresses
- Updating account information
- Initiating product returns
- Processing refunds
- Modifying subscriptions
✓ AI voice bots can provide multilingual support
Similarly to AI chatbots, some of the most advanced AI voice bot solutions that are trained on diverse language datasets can support your customers in multiple languages. If your business serves customers across multiple countries and regions – that can be a game changer. Multilingual AI voice bots can recognize the language a customer is using and immediately switch to that language.
That can help you meet your customer preferences for language-specific support and ultimately improve customer satisfaction. Most importantly, you don’t have to hire native-speaking agents for each language you want to support. That basically means you can grow your business globally without increasing your support-related costs.
✓ AI voice bots can reduce the load on your customer service team
It’s common knowledge that, unfortunately, customer service jobs might be challenging and stressful. And having to handle a high number of support requests often becomes overwhelming. Based on Calabrio’s report, 1 in 3 customer service agents say having to handle too many customer calls is their biggest challenge in the workplace, contributing to their overall job-related stress. That can eventually lead to increased burnout and turnover, which has always been particularly high among customer service reps.
Luckily, AI voice bots come to the rescue by significantly reducing the number of calls that need to be handled by customer service teams. For your reps, that means fewer customer calls with recurring questions that they need to answer throughout the day and more time to focus on more engaging tasks. Not only does it reduce the load on your reps, but it also helps increase job satisfaction, prevent burnout, and reduce turnover.
✓ AI voice bots can deliver proactive service
AI voice bots aren’t just great for reactive customer support. Many AI voice bot solutions can initiate outbound calls and engage with customers proactively, enabling you to deliver proactive service. According to Salesforce research, 61% of service professionals say their organizations address issues proactively, but only a third of customers agree.
Similarly, in a Gartner survey of over 6000 customers, only 13% of respondents reported any type of proactive customer service. The same research also found that proactive customer service leads to improvements in Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT), Net Promoter Scores (NPS), Customer Effort Scores (CES), and Value Enhancement Scores (VES).
AI voice bots are excellent tools for providing proactive customer support. For example, you can use an AI voice bot to remind your customers of upcoming payments, subscription renewals, or scheduled appointments to reduce no-shows.
✓ AI voice bots can collect customer feedback
In addition to all of the mentioned above, AI voice bots can be used to collect customer feedback through surveys. The fact is that phone surveys typically have a much higher response rate than email surveys. And AI voice assistants can help you gather valuable customer feedback in a much more efficient way. While you can also collect surveys through an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that allows customers to provide their input using voice commands, IVR phone surveys are still less flexible and feel more robotic.
AI voice bots can interact with customers in a natural, conversational way and adapt based on responses and customer sentiment in real time. In addition to simple yes/no answers, voice bots can collect open-ended feedback and instantly escalate negative feedback to your human reps.
What’s more, AI voice bots can easily pull customer data from your CRM and other internal systems to deliver a more personalized experience. And finally, voice bots can reach hundreds or even thousands of customers simultaneously, gathering large-scale feedback in a matter of minutes.
✓ AI voice bots can reduce your support-related costs
While we’ll admit that AI voice bots aren’t for every business out there – and implementing them will most probably not result in cost savings for SMBs – but for large-scale businesses and enterprises, it’s an excellent opportunity to reduce support-related costs. A report by IBM actually found that businesses using AI-based virtual agents can reduce customer service costs by up to 30%.
How exactly do AI voice bots reduce support-related costs? Firstly, AI voice bots can handle hundreds or even thousands of customer calls simultaneously, while a single rep can only handle one call at a time. It means that businesses with high inbound call volumes don’t need to bring in additional reps to handle customer calls effectively, reducing the costs of hiring, onboarding, and training new agents. And secondly, AI voice bots can operate 24/7/365 without breaks or vacations, so you can also cut costs associated with night shifts and hiring agents across multiple time zones.
Recommended reading: How AI Benefits Customer Service and How it is Used in Contact Centers
What are the Most Common Use Cases for AI Voice Bots Across Industries?
Let’s now look at some specific examples of how AI voice bots can be effectively used across various industries:
Retail and e-commerce
If you’re running a retail or e-commerce business, chances are your support reps are overwhelmed by a ton of repetitive questions, most of which can be effectively answered by a well-trained AI voice bot. From helping customers place orders, providing the most relevant information about your products and shipping options, and giving product recommendations to delivering real-time order status updates and supporting return/ exchange requests – AI voice bots can handle this all without getting your reps involved.
Healthcare
Healthcare is another example of an industry where AI voice bots are becoming increasingly popular and are being quickly adopted. AI voice bots can do the initial pre-screening, direct patients to the most appropriate care providers, and help them find the nearest one. Better yet, voice bots can automate the entire process of booking or rescheduling appointments, reducing the load on healthcare staff. Additionally, they can reach out to patients proactively and remind them of upcoming appointments or medication refills.
Real estate
For real estate businesses, AI voice bots can also be particularly helpful. The majority of inbound calls real estate businesses usually receive can be successfully answered by AI voice bots, freeing up real estate agents to focus on their clients instead of handling repetitive queries. These are usually questions about property specifications, availability, and pricing. Moreover, AI voice bots can help schedule property viewings by integrating with the calendar software and qualify prospective buyers. Additionally, AI voice bots can process maintenance requests from tenants and assist with rent payment reminders.
Travel and hospitality
AI voice bots can truly be powerful automation solutions for businesses in the travel and hospitality industries that often have to deal with high inbound call volumes. Firstly, AI voice bots can simplify and streamline the booking process by helping customers search for vacation packages, flight options, and hotels, process reservations, and modify or cancel bookings without involving human agents. Secondly, AI voice bots can answer the most common questions like visa requirements, hotel check-in/check-out times, and pet policy, to name just a few. Plus, AI voice bots can automate the feedback collection process.
Insurance
Insurance is certainly one of the industries that can immensely benefit from implementing AI voice bot solutions. Similarly to other industries mentioned here, insurance businesses are often overwhelmed by the number of inbound calls they receive. And because insurance is a high-stakes business – every customer and every call is important. AI voice bots can help insurance businesses provide policy information, qualify inbound leads, help existing customers with claims processing, and deliver emergency assistance.
Banking and financial services
Banking and financial services industries are traditionally known for long wait times, whereas customers still want 24/7 support availability and prompt responses to their questions. This is where AI voice bots can make a difference. AI voice bots can easily handle account balance and transaction history inquiries, bill payment questions, card activation/ deactivation, etc. They can also give product recommendations and provide personalized financial advice – all without the need to expand internal teams.
Education
Even in the education sector, AI voice bots also can be helpful by improving the way educational institutions handle interactions with their students and manage admin tasks. For example, AI voice bots can answer common questions about the available programs, courses, schedules, tuition fees, payment options, and registration deadlines. They can also guide students through the application process, reducing the number of interactions where human support is needed. Additionally, AI voice bots can deliver proactive reminders about registration deadlines, upcoming payments, or schedule changes.
Will AI Voice Bots Replace Human Agents? Limitations of Customer Service AI Voice Bots
Gartner predicts that investment in generative AI will eventually lead to a 20-30% reduction in customer service agents by 2026, but it will not completely replace the live customer service function. While it’s true that the latest advancements in generative AI have made AI voice bots and chatbots much more sophisticated, intelligent, and efficient – at VoiceSpin, we also believe that these solutions aren’t going to completely replace human customer service reps anytime soon (or, in fact, ever at all). And here’s why:
Lots of consumers still prefer to interact with a human service rep
Though today’s tech-savvy consumers feel more confident interacting with AI bots, many would still prefer to talk to a human rep, even if that means having to wait. Based on Callvu’s AI in Customer Service report, nearly 80% of consumers said they would wait to speak with a live human rep for at least a few minutes versus engaging with an AI bot immediately. And let’s face it, in certain scenarios (especially when having sensitive issues), we’d all rather talk to a human agent.
AI voice bots may fail when it comes to handling complex customer inquiries
AI voice bots certainly excel at answering simple questions and handling routine tasks, but they aren’t smart enough (at least not yet) when it comes to complex requests like troubleshooting tech issues or resolving disputes and complaints. Overall, any type of support requests that involve multiple steps and require critical thinking and creative problem-solving can’t be effectively resolved by AI bots. And according to the stats published by HubSpot, 62% of consumers would rather talk to a human agent over a bot when they have complex questions or difficult problems.
AI voice bots lack emotional intelligence and empathy
Though customers care about quick and efficient issue resolutions, they also want to be treated as individuals and feel that their issues matter. And that’s where AI voice bots may fail because empathy and human connection are nearly impossible to replicate by technology. While a bot can be trained to simulate empathetic phrases like “I’m very sorry to hear that”, it might still sound robotic and scripted. No wonder that based on SurveyMonkey’s report, 61% of consumers believe human reps understand their needs better than AI, and 52% say human agents are less likely to frustrate them.
Data privacy and security remains a major concern for many companies
Data privacy and security are some serious concerns for many companies looking to implement AI-powered voice bots. And this is particularly critical for highly regulated industries and those having to deal with highly sensitive customer information (like payment data). How will customer data be used by a voice bot vendor? What security protocols do they have in place? How do we protect our customers’ data from AI voice spoofing? These concerns are real, and they may often impact the decision making.
AI voice bots aren’t cost-effective solutions for small businesses
While AI voice bots can help large-scale businesses and enterprises reduce support-related costs, we have to admit that they aren’t cost-effective for small businesses, considering the expenses involved in implementing them. The costs may vary widely depending on the provider and a range of factors like the bot’s complexity, integration requirements, and features. In general, the overall cost of implementing an AI voice bot would involve the initial setup cost, integration costs, per-user fees, and usage-based costs (per minute or interaction).
AI Voice Bots vs. AI Chatbots: Which One is Better for Your Business? Key Factors to Consider
1. Customer preferences
Naturally, your customers’ communication preferences is the first thing you should consider when deciding between the two solutions. If you are serving a tech-savvy audience that prefers digital communications over voice interactions, AI chatbots would be more suitable. Alternatively, if the majority of your customers prefer talking rather than typing, implementing an AI voice agent is a better choice. In addition, of course, you want to consider your industry-specific needs.
2. Deployment time and costs
AI chatbots are usually faster to deploy and integrate with your existing tech stack. They are also easier to pilot and iterate. Getting an AI voice bot up and running, on the other hand, might take longer as it’s a more complicated process.
And there are also cost factors to consider. Implementing an AI voice bot generally requires more investment as there are higher infrastructure costs involved due to voice processing, it’s going to be more expensive per interaction considering voice processing fees, and there are also higher bandwidth requirements. AI chatbots have lower infrastructure requirements, lower bandwidth needs, and are cheaper per interaction.
3. Size and type of your business
Enterprise businesses might benefit from both. But if you’re operating a small or a mid-sized business, we’d generally recommend to start with AI chatbots. They are faster and easier to deploy, train, and integrate with your existing backend systems – and per-usage costs are going to be lower compared to voice-based interactions. VoiceSpin’s AI chatbot might be just the right solution. You can test it out to see how it works on our demo page.
Best Practices for Implementing AI Voice Bots for Customer Service and Support
Transparency is key – be honest with your audience
Transparency is vital when it comes to implementing AI-powered voice bots or chatbots. The fact is that the latest advancements in AI and voice technology have made bots much more intelligent. Some of the most advanced solutions can truly interact with customers in a way a human agent would. And that often makes it harder for people to tell the difference between human reps and AI agents. But according to Salesforce research, for 72% of consumers, it’s important to know if they are communicating with an AI agent or a human. Being transparent with your customers isn’t just a matter of using AI in an ethical way, it’s also a key to building customer trust.
Provide a pathway to human agents (when they are available)
We’ve already mentioned it earlier, some people just aren’t comfortable interacting with AI bots – they want a real human on the other end who can truly understand their needs and deliver empathetic support, especially when dealing with sensitive issues or complaints. And as you can see from the stats above, 46% of people would be more likely to use an AI agent if there was a clear escalation path to a live person. When your human reps are available, make sure to always give your customers an opportunity to connect with an agent if they need to. Your AI voice bot and human reps should work side by side to deliver a truly positive customer experience.
Don’t give up entirely on your human support reps
It’s a total misconception to think that AI voice bots or AI chatbots can completely replace your human customer service team. AI bots can easily and effectively resolve low-complexity issues or perform specific tasks your AI model is trained on, but (let’s be honest) nothing more than that. Even the most advanced AI voice bots fall short in de-escalating tense situations and resolving complex issues where human judgment, critical thinking, empathy, and personalization can make a difference. AI voice bots should only complement – not entirely replace – your human reps.
Heavily invest in bot training before it goes live
Just like AI chatbots, AI voice bots are only as good as the data you feed into them. So, before your AI voice bot goes live, invest as much time and effort as needed to ensure it can accurately understand customer intent, handle all possible scenarios, and provide relevant (and helpful) responses. Because a poorly trained AI voice bot isn’t just useless, but it might also become a major source of frustration for your customers instead of helping you improve customer experience. And what’s also important to understand, training your voice bot is an ongoing process that doesn’t stop after the implementation.
Get Started with VoiceSpin’s Customer Service AI Voice Bot Now
AI-powered voice bots and AI virtual agents are still an emerging technology and a new territory for businesses to explore. But considering the rising customer expectations for 24/7 support and phone still being the most preferred customer support channel for the majority of today’s consumers, we believe that now is the best time to invest in implementing a customer service AI voice bot. Not only will it help you automate and streamline your customer service operations, but it will ultimately give your business a competitive edge.
And let’s also not forget that AI voice bots aren’t just used for customer service automation. AI voice bots can answer incoming calls from your prospects and help you automate the entire process of qualifying inbound leads through a series of predefined questions. VoiceSpin’s AI voice bot does just that and more. Here’s a quick recap of what our AI voice bot can help you with:
- Deliver 24/7 customer support without asking for a coffee break
- Help your customers get instant answers without ever being put on hold
- Interact with your customers using your brand voice
- Free up your customer support team to focus on higher-value activities
- Seamlessly transfer conversations to human agent when needed
- Scale your call center operations without increasing your support costs
- Automatically qualify inbound leads based on your specific criteria
Book a demo call with one of our sales reps and learn more about VoiceSpin’s AI voice bot and whether implementing it is a valuable investment for your business in 2025.
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