Phone assistants are winning customer service conversations over company chatbots

The article argues that customers increasingly ask built-in phone assistants such as Siri and Gemini about bills, data, and contracts instead of using company-run chatbots. It cites Gartner research showing that self-service resolution remains low and that use of third-party generative AI tools in service interactions has grown while company chatbot use has stayed largely flat. The author says businesses need to connect their systems to the assistants customers already use rather than relying only on their own apps, portals, IVRs, and chatbots.

Gartner's 2024 customer survey found that although almost three-quarters of people try to solve issues on their own first, only 14% of service journeys finish entirely through self-service. A later Gartner study from July 2026 reported that third-party generative AI use in service contacts almost doubled over a year, while company chatbot usage barely moved after 2022.

Apple's App Intents and Android's App Functions already let apps expose actions that phone assistants can call. The proposed bridge would let Siri or Gemini trigger existing app functions, using current sessions, checks, and backend systems, without building a new language model or answer repository.