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AI to handle four in 10 customer queries in Singapore by 2027
As companies turn to AI agents to solve manpower constraints, more than nine in 10 APAC consumers say they want clear explanations for AI-driven decisions
Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to handle nearly half of all customer service interactions in Singapore within the next two years, but businesses risk alienating customers if they fail to explain how the technology works.
By 2027, AI is expected to manage 41% of customer service cases in Singapore, up from an estimated 30% today, according to the State of service report released by customer relationship management software giant Salesforce today.
The study, which surveyed service professionals globally, including 100 in Singapore, found that adopting AI has jumped from the ninth to the third highest priority for local business leaders in just one year.
However, a separate report released the same day by customer service platform Zendesk suggests that while Singaporean firms are rushing to automate, they may be overlooking a critical consumer demand: trust.
Zendesk’s 2026 Customer experience trends report found that 96% of consumers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region – the highest figure globally – now demand clear explanations for AI decisions. Despite this, the report noted a significant gap in readiness. Only 35% of organisations currently provide a fully auditable record of AI decisions, while only 37% of customer service agents see building trust and transparency as a top priority.
Mitch Young, Zendesk’s senior vice-president for APAC, noted that consumers in this region are becoming increasingly sophisticated. “In APAC, what’s industry-leading today quickly becomes tomorrow’s standard. Customers here aren’t just looking for a speedy reply – they want instant resolution, deep personalisation and transparent, understandable AI,” said Young.
He added that the business case for investing in AI maturity is strong, and those that do so are seven times more likely to see improvements in customer churn and nearly twice as likely to report strong returns.
The rise of the AI agent
The push towards automation comes as Singaporean businesses continue to grapple with manpower costs and the need for operational efficiency. The Salesforce report noted the rise of the agentic enterprise, where autonomous AI agents work alongside people to handle routine tasks.
Gavin Barfield, Salesforce ASEAN’s vice-president and chief technology officer, said agentic AI helps solve the historic trade-off between keeping costs low and providing quality service.
“For decades, customer service has been limited by a commercial constraint: businesses couldn’t afford to hire enough staff to answer every call instantly, so they relied on workarounds like hold music to manage the volume of enquiries,” said Barfield. “AI agents eliminate this trade-off, solving for both scale and quality. Instead of rationing exceptional service, companies can now use AI agents to deliver the immediate, tailored attention of a personal concierge to the mass market.”
For the local workforce, the integration of AI appears to be shifting roles rather than eliminating them entirely. Service representatives in Singapore using AI reported spending 20% less time on routine tasks, such as handling password resets or status updates, freeing up about four hours a week for more complex work. Consequently, 84% of Singapore service representatives said AI is creating growth opportunities, with many upskilling to manage more complex issues that require human empathy and judgement.
However, hurdles remain. The Salesforce report found that security is the top concern for Singapore’s service leaders, with 49% admitting that security fears have delayed AI roll-outs. Disconnected data is another major challenge, with 78% of customer experience leaders in APAC noting that the failure to connect siloed knowledge will cause AI to deliver inconsistent answers that erode customer trust, according to Zendesk’s study.
“The best systems connect past interactions to present intent to anticipate what is next, putting contextual intelligence in action,” said Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier. “That is the balance Zendesk delivers: automation that feels personal and builds trust by bringing real context to every conversation.”
Read more about AI in APAC
- Australia’s Woolworths Group will enhance its digital shopping assistant, Olive, using Google Cloud’s newly released agentic AI platform, Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience.
- Research from Thoughtworks reveals that while 77% of global businesses are focused on generating revenue from AI initiatives, Asian markets are leading the charge in agentic AI adoption, job creation and executive confidence.
- Microsoft has expanded its AI footprint in India, teaming up with four of the country’s largest IT services companies to deploy agentic AI capabilities across enterprises.
- Singlife has started deploying Salesforce Agentforce to assist customer service teams as part of a broader move to harness the capabilities of agentic AI across its business.
