ChurnZero report shows AI’s impact on customer success

A new report from customer success and growth platform ChurnZero looks at how AI is impacting SaaS customer growth, with nearly 600 respondents having a positive outlook on the technology.

The biggest takeaway is that customer success teams are using AI for administrative tasks, with 81% using the tools to reduce time spent on manual tasks like logging, summarizing, or updating records. Other highlights from the report include:

• 32% are using AI in a tactical capacity in limited use cases, while 31% are embedding it in some workflows, 12% say it’s a core enabler of their GTM strategy, and 4% say AI is deeply embedded.
• In terms of tasks, 50% said AI helps personalize outreach, 48% said it helps teams prioritize the right customer actions faster, and 46% said AI makes it easier to act on data without needing analyst support.
• Customer success teams are less likely than sales teams to ask AI to solve problems at 32% of responders compared to sales at 48%.
• 37% of surveyors said AI execution is the biggest gap for CS teams in where their teams are today and where they need to be, followed by data quality at 25% and process, structure and alignment at 18%.
• More than half (53%) of CS leaders are optimistic about AI.
• Despite swift AI adoption, almost half (49%) of teams say they don’t have a consistent way to measure AI.

“When we asked nearly 600 customer success and revenue leaders what AI is doing for their teams, the picture that emerged was positive,” said YouMon Tsang, CEO and co-founder of ChurnZero in the report. “It could have gone either way. Almost everyone is using AI, mostly on administrative tasks, but they are using it… Fear, uncertainty, and doubt haven’t left, but at least there are no AI deniers anymore.”

Going forward: The report advises that teams shouldn’t measure AI as a category, rather they should pick one workflow and set quotas.

“AI adoption isn’t the outcome. Business impact is,” said Cat Lang, SVP of global customer success and professional services at Outreach, in the report. “Leaders need to move beyond measuring how much their teams use AI or how many hours it saves and start measuring what changes because of it.”