AI chatbots are taking over customer service, but most of us would rather wait for a human

“Please hold for the next available agent.”

For busy consumers hoping to quickly resolve an issue through customer service, no seven words are likely to spark more dread. How long, exactly, are we excepted to suffer the indignity of terrible hold music before we throw our phones out the window?

A new survey gets us closer to an answer—and it’s somewhere between one and 11 minutes.

That’s how long the majority of respondents said they’d wait to speak with a human customer service representative rather than chat instantly with an AI assistant. In fact, if given the choice between a human or a bot, an overwhelming 81% said they would wait at least some amount of time to talk with a live agent.

To get more specific, the sweet spot for wait times is closer to four or five minutes, with 22% of respondents saying they’d hold that long for a human. Another 18% said they’d stick around for two or three minutes, while 16% apparently had the patience of a saint and would be willing to wait 11 minutes or longer.

In the end, only 14% said they wouldn’t wait at all for a human agent and would prefer instead to start chatting with AI to resolve their problem.

The survey, commissioned by the customer experience platform Callvu, offers a compelling rebuke of automated customer service solutions at a time when companies are leaning into chatbots like never before. Since the public launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT almost a year and a half ago, it’s hard to go 24 hours without another company promising to transform some aspect of daily life, launching AI-powered tools for everything from debt collection to dating to theme parks.

When it comes to customer service, however, Callvu’s survey suggests not only that most customers think human agents are worth the wait, but that human agents are better at getting the job done.

In a head-to-head comparison, live agents were perceived to be better suited to perform 7 out of 10 critical customer service tasks—far outperforming AI assistants when it comes to complex problem-solving and getting an issue resolved in one call.

Tellingly, respondents also thought humans would be more satisfying recipients for venting their frustrations, underscoring how the role of a customer service representative often goes beyond mere problem-solving and requires uniquely human abilities such as empathy.

That said, AI assistants did edge out their human counterparts when it came to perceptions of patience, getting simple questions answered quickly, and providing consistently accurate answers. This indicates that AI chatbots are seen as being more adept at handling certain basic customer service functions, which means that companies are wise to be investing in them—at least up to a point.

But make no mistake: When companies claim to be investing in AI to provide better service or make people’s lives easier, customers aren’t buying it. Asked why they thought so many companies were launching customer service chatbots, a decisive 57% of survey respondents said it was to save money and eliminate jobs. And, well, they’re probably not wrong.

Callvu’s report is available for free to download (name and email required) and includes surveys conducted in March 2024 and October 2023.