TLDR:
- 42% of customers now arrive at service interactions better prepared due to external AI usage. This shifts the knowledge baseline for frontline agents.
- Customers now use tools like ChatGPT before contacting support. This creates an “AI bypass risk” where they skip your official channelsThis creates an “AI bypass risk.” They may skip your official channels. Customers now use tools like ChatGPT before contacting support.
- When AI provides accurate information, resolution speeds improve. When it doesn’t, friction and policy disputes increase.
- Traditional scripted service models are becoming outdated. Agents must now validate, clarify, and contextualise AI-shaped expectations.
- Organisations should update their internal knowledge systems to match this new behaviour. Doing so can turn external AI into a competitive customer experience (CX) advantage.
Customer service no longer begins when someone contacts your organisation.
According to Resonate’s 2025 report on the Current State of Customer Service and Experience Expectations in Australia, 2 in 5 customers now arrive already informed and influenced by external AI tools, with a measured 42% increase in customer preparedness linked to AI usage.
This trend mirrors global behavioural data as well:
- 68% of consumers say they now expect instant responses from businesses
- 81% of customers attempt toresolve issues themselves before contacting a live representative
- 58% of consumers have used generative AI tools like ChatGPT for information or advice
The shift is structural. Search engines are no longer the only first touchpoint. Large language models, third-party AI assistants, and public knowledge tools are now acting as an unofficial pre-service layer.
This is what we call External AI CX, a self-service layer organisations do not design, control, or optimise, yet must now account for.
Customer Service and Experience expectations
2025 | AUSTRALIA
Discover the moments that make or break first-contact resolution
The AI Bypass Risk: How Third-Party AI Tools Are Solving Problems Before They Call You
Customers are increasingly turning to third-party AI tools to understand issues, policies, and next steps before contacting customer support. This behaviour does not stem from dissatisfaction alone; it reflects convenience, accessibility, and the need to understand one’s problems.
They ask:
- “Can I get a refund for this?”
- “What does this policy mean?”
- “What should happen next?”
It’s convenience-driven behaviour.
Think of it like a patient searching up their symptoms before visiting the doctor. External AI tools offer immediate responses without wait times, menus, or escalation paths. As a result, customers often arrive at service interactions with pre-formed expectations about what should happen next.
This creates an AI bypass risk, where official CX channels are no longer the primary source of truth.
When external AI provides:
- Accurate policy interpretation → interactions are faster
- Incomplete or outdated information → friction rises
McKinsey estimates that companies using AI effectively in customer care can reduce cost-to-serve by 20–40%
When third-party AI tools actually produce the right information, aligning with company policy, interactions can be faster and smoother. But when it does not, friction increases. This is not a threat to be resisted, but as a structural shift in how customer self-service now operates.
The Double-Edged Sword: Two Outcomes of Third-Party AI Use
Third-party AI use produces two distinct outcomes, both rooted in customer preparation and customer empowerment. On one hand, customers arrive better informed, with clearer articulation of their issue and greater confidence navigating the interaction.
This reduces basic clarification time and can accelerate resolution when internal systems support it. On the other hand, when external AI provides incomplete or incorrect guidance, customers may challenge agents, question policies, or express frustration earlier in the interaction.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40% of customer service interactions will be influenced by generative AI tools used by customers themselves.
As customers become more empowered through external AI, the quality of the service interaction increasingly depends on how well agents can respond to informed, and sometimes misinformed, customers without defensiveness or rigidity.
Your New Agent Knowledge Baseline: 42% of Customers Are Now Better Prepared Thanks to External AI
One of the most operationally significant findings in the report is that customers are now measurably more prepared when they reach customer service, with a 42% increase in preparedness attributed to external AI usage.
This changes the agent knowledge baseline entirely. Agents are no longer introducing customers to concepts or processes from scratch; they are responding to customers who already believe they understand the issue. This would imply that traditional agent training models, which focus heavily on scripts and system navigation, are increasingly becoming outdated.
To combat this, agents must be familiar with the system, being equipped to validate, clarify, and correct customer understanding from any part of the customer service journey. This requires deeper product knowledge, stronger communication skills, and confidence in explaining nuance.
Without this shift, interactions risk becoming adversarial rather than collaborative, even when the customer arrives with good intent.
This is where internal knowledge systems become critical.
Platforms like Resonate CX’s AI-powered platform help surface real-time experience drivers and contextual data, enabling agents to respond confidently rather than defensively.
At the feature level, tools like Risk Radar allow teams to proactively identify friction points before they escalate.
When agents can see:
- Historical feedback
- Sentiment trends
- Operational context
- Policy drivers
Turning Risk into Opportunity: When Smart Customers Need Smarter Agents (The CX Strategy)
Organisations that recognise external AI CX early can convert AI bypass risk into strategic advantage. When customers arrive informed, service efficiency can improve, but only if agents are supported by robust knowledge management and empowered to engage at a higher level.
The need for smarter agents does not mean more information overload; it means better access to contextual knowledge, clearer policy rationale, and permission to explain the “why,” not just the “what.”
The CX strategy implication is clear: rather than competing with external AI, organisations must complement it. When internal knowledge systems are aligned, agents can confirm what external AI gets right and confidently course-correct what it gets wrong. This transforms customer empowerment into a strength instead of a friction point.
PwC reports that 73% of consumers say experience is a key factor in purchasing decisions.
In this environment, friction caused by AI misalignment directly impacts revenue.
Forward-thinking organisations are investing in:
- Unified VoC + operational data integration
- Real-time insight dashboards
- Continuous feedback loops
- Agent empowerment frameworks
Conclusion
The rise of external AI CX marks a fundamental shift in how customer self-service works. Customers are no longer waiting for organisations to educate them; they are arriving already shaped by third-party AI tools.
This introduces AI bypass risk, but it also creates an opportunity for faster, more informed interactions, if organisations adapt. The 2025 Resonate report shows that the winners will not be those who try to control this shift, but those who design CX strategies that acknowledge it.
By raising the agent knowledge baseline, investing in smarter knowledge management, and reframing customer preparation as an asset rather than a challenge, organisations can turn external AI from a threat into a power. In this new environment, customer experience no longer needs to start with your channel, it starts wherever the customer asks their first question.
The question isn’t whether AI will influence your service funnel.
It’s whether your organisation is equipped to respond with clarity, confidence, and contextual intelligence.
If 42% of customers are arriving better prepared, your frontline teams need systems that are smarter, faster, and insight-driven.
With Resonate CX, you can:
- Surface real-time experience drivers
- Detect emerging friction before it escalates
- Equip agents with contextual intelligence, not just scripts
- Align internal knowledge with evolving customer expectations
- Turn AI bypass risk into measurable CX advantage
See how leading organisations are redesigning their CX strategy for the AI-shaped customer journey.
Request a demo today. Because customer experience no longer starts when they contact you.
It starts wherever they ask their first question.
