A Guide to Service Agents: The Backbone to Modern Customer Support

Working in an organization’s support function is no easy task. Service agents are often faced with answering questions as frustrating and time-consuming as “Why isn’t my password reset working?” or “Can you check the status of my request?” hundreds of times a day. Each one matters to the person asking, but together they drain time and energy that could go toward solving deeper issues.

Now, with the introduction of AI service agents, your human team members can offload some of this grunt work to technology. Our guide covers the work of service agents, both human and AI, exploring how they contribute to an organization’s support function. We’ll also introduce monday service alongside a selection of other platforms, so you can find the right service agent software partner for your business.

Key takeaways

• A service agent can be human or digital, working to resolve requests and keep operations running smoothly.
• AI service agents use technologies like natural language processing and machine learning to handle routine tasks and deliver faster support.
• When combined with human expertise, AI improves accuracy, response times, and overall customer satisfaction.
• Businesses adopting AI in their service operations gain sharper insights and free their teams to focus on higher-value work.
• monday service connects people, data, and AI to deliver a smarter, more efficient support experience in one platform.

What is a service agent?

A service agent is anyone or anything responsible for helping customers or employees receive timely, quality support. Service agents handle questions, solve problems, and make sure every request moves swiftly toward a resolution.

The term is broad, covering more than just people working on the help desk. Many service teams now use digital service agent tools to handle simple requests automatically, while human agents focus on conversations that need empathy or deeper knowledge. Together, they form a single support system designed to keep customers satisfied and operations running smoothly.

Service agent vs. customer service representative: What are the key differences?

The terms service agent and customer service representative often overlap, but they don’t always mean the same thing. A customer service representative, usually refers to a human customer support agent who interacts directly with customers, by answering questions and providing assistance in real time.

A service agent, on the other hand, reflects how service operations rely on a mix of people and technology working together to deliver fast, consistent support.

Here’s how the two roles compare in practice.

What do AI service agents offer?

AI service agents bring automation and intelligence to everyday support work. Instead of relying solely on human input, they use language understanding and data analysis to interpret requests and act on them automatically. At a technical level, they rely on several core capabilities:

• Natural language processing (NLP): Helps the system understand and classify written or spoken messages, even when phrased differently by each user.
• Machine learning: Allows the agent to recognize patterns over time and make better routing or response decisions based on past outcomes.
• Contextual reasoning: Connects information from multiple sources, like tickets, chat logs, or customer records, to deliver the right response at the right time.
• Automation triggers: Translates understanding into action, by creating or updating a ticket, sending a message, or escalating an issue to a human agent.

Together, these technologies create a digital service layer that works alongside people, handling routine interactions quickly while keeping humans available for moments that require empathy or judgment.

What are the benefits of using AI service agents?

When AI becomes part of the service team, every interaction gets faster, smarter, and easier to manage. Here are the benefits driving that shift.

Automating support

Repetitive tasks are one of the biggest drains on any service team’s time. AI service agents handle these routine interactions automatically, such as issuing refunds, updating orders, or answering common questions, so human agents can focus on the problems that actually need their attention.

According to McKinsey, an industry average of 22% of organizations now use AI in their service operations, a number that climbs to 30% in IT and 37% in media and telecom. As adoption grows, the result is a smoother handoff between automated and human support.

Elevating the customer experience

52% of consumers have stopped buying from a brand after a bad product or service experience, and 29% left because support didn’t meet their expectations. Meanwhile, 70% of business leaders admit their companies can’t keep up with how fast those expectations are changing.

AI service agents could be the answer that service-led organizations are looking for. With artificial intelligence, every interaction moves faster, and customers spend less time repeating themselves or waiting for answers. They receive a better service experience as a result.

Empowering human agents

AI doesn’t replace service teams, but it does make them more effective. By handling repetitive work and providing instant context, AI gives agents the information they need to respond quickly and with more accuracy. In particular, research from Nielsen Norman Group shows that agents using AI tools handled 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour.

Beyond speed, AI also reduces cognitive load, automatically summarizing past conversations and suggesting sensible next steps right inside the workflow. The result is a smoother, more confident experience for both the agent and the customer.

Delivering continuous improvement

Every interaction teaches an AI service agent something new. Over time, it learns which responses work best, where delays occur, and how to refine routing and recommendations for greater accuracy. These insights are each the building blocks of a continuous feedback loop that strengthens performance without extra manual oversight.

Instead of reacting to problems after they appear, service teams gain a system that’s busily improving in the background, turning daily support data into a steady source of progress.

Making data-backed decisions

AI service agents process significantly more information than any human team could manually, analyzing patterns across tickets, feedback, and system data to guide better decisions. They detect shifts in customer sentiment, flag potential fraud or compliance risks, and forecast where demand is likely to spike next.

From here, leaders gain a real-time view of performance and risk, helping them set priorities as they align service operations with wider business goals.

Streamline your customer support function with monday service

Customer expectations keep rising, but most service teams are still working with disconnected tools and manual workflows that feel like running through treacle. monday service keeps everything flowing by bringing ticketing, collaboration, and AI together in one intuitive platform built for modern support operations.

Here are the specific benefits you can expect when AI is baked into every aspect of your service experience.

Resolve more tickets on the first touch with AI-powered routing

If tickets bounce incessantly between queues, it forces customers to wait and agents to lose valuable time retracing their steps. monday service removes any hint of friction with an AI-powered ticketing system that analyzes every request on arrival. The system interprets language, identifies urgency, and matches the issue to the right specialist instantly. SLA rules, agent skills, and real-time availability guide each decision, so the right work goes to the person who can resolve it.

If a ticket does need escalation, monday service passes along the entire case history, including messages, linked assets, and approvals, so the next agent picks up exactly where the last left off.

Cut handle time with instant answers and suggested actions in-flow

Customer service agents work faster when the next step is obvious. And that’s exactly what they get with monday service’s AI Blocks that simplify every ticket. They read long threads, pull out the facts that matter, and show agents what to do next. Instead of searching through messages or files, agents see clear context and recommended actions right where they’re working. Each request moves faster because the answer is already waiting in the workflow.

Keep support running 24/7 with monday.com’s Digital Workforce

Customer service teams can’t be everywhere at once. So, when requests come in overnight or during peak hours, issues pile up and customers wait longer than they should. monday.com’s Digital Workforce closes that gap by working continuously alongside your team. These AI-driven specialists handle routine updates, follow-ups, and reports automatically, keeping queues clear and information moving even when agents are offline.

Each digital worker learns from your workflows and adapts to how your team operates. And now, through the Agent Factory, you can design and train custom workers to match your exact service processes, creating a reliable, always-on extension of your support team that never loses track of what needs to happen next.

Spot risks and trends early with live service intelligence

Customer support teams can’t afford to find out about a backlog after it’s already hurting response times. You need to see where pressure is building (and why it is) before service quality slips.

monday service enables this with live AI dashboards that highlight what’s happening across every queue, channel, and agent in real time. AI monitors performance data continuously, flagging unusual trends or emerging issues so you can step in early and keep operations running smoothly.

Scale service without adding headcount through no-code automation

As ticket volumes grow, service teams often face a choice: hire more agents or let response times slip. Neither is sustainable.

monday service removes that trade-off by automating the repetitive work that drains capacity, like ticket intake, routing, updates, and approvals. With simple no-code tools, teams can build and adjust workflows on their own, keeping processes efficient even as demand rises. The result is a support function that scales smoothly without stretching people thin.

Compare monday service to other AI service agent software

monday service leads the way in AI-driven service management, but choosing the right platform always comes down to fit. If you’re exploring the market, you might have noticed a few alternatives during your research. Here’s how they compare.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service platform that helps organizations manage customer interactions across channels like email, chat, and social media. It’s built around a centralized ticketing system, with tools for automation, analytics, and agent assistance.

Key features

• AI copilot for suggested replies, summaries, and knowledge lookups
• Quality Assurance to auto-evaluate 100% of conversations across human and AI agents
• Workforce management for forecasting and automated scheduling

What users think

“Its robust automation, including AI-powered ticket routing, workflow triggers, and macros, reduce agent workload and speed resolution. Zendesk Support Suite can be expensive at higher tiers. Also it has a steep learning curve making it a little difficult for new or smaller teams to understand and utilize the tool.” — Abhishek R., a project analyst

Pricing

• Accurate pricing is available from the vendor on request
• Free trial available

2. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a cloud-based helpdesk platform designed to make customer support simple for growing teams.

Key features

• Ticketing with shared inbox, customer portal, and reports
• Freddy AI Copilot and Freddy AI Agent/Insights options
• Skills-based routing, custom objects, and advanced analytics on higher tiers.

What users think

“Freshdesk provides a very intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for both agents and customers to navigate. At times, the system performance can slow down when handling a large volume of tickets.” — Ashish R., production editor

Pricing

• Pricing starts at $15 per agent/mo
• 4 packages available: Growth, Pro, Pro & Copilot, Enterprise
• Free trial available

3. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is part of the wider Zoho business suite and focuses on bringing customer support, automation, and analytics together under one affordable system. It’s often chosen by teams already using Zoho CRM or other Zoho products, thanks to its tight integration across sales, marketing, and service functions.

Key features

• Generative AI and sentiment analysis via Zia; Answer Bot on Enterprise
• Blueprints (drag-and-drop workflow builder) and skills-based routing
• Multilingual knowledge base and multi-brand help center

What users think

“Zoho’s uptime has been dependable, and their support team has been responsive whenever assistance was needed. Although the mobile app experience could be smoother and faster.” — Saurabh R., manager

Pricing

• Premium plans start at $7/agent/mo
• 4 premium plans available: Express, Standard, Professional, Enterprise
• Free plan available for 3 user licences

4. Salesforce (Agentforce)

Agentforce is Salesforce’s AI-driven customer service solution, built on the company’s extensive CRM and data platform. It brings generative and predictive AI capabilities directly into existing Salesforce workflows, making it ideal for large enterprises already embedded in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Key features

• Agent builder with generative and predictive AI in the flow of work
• Digital Wallet to track usage and costs in real time
• Add-ons for Sales, Service, and industry-specific editions

What users think

“I like that Agentforce helps provide faster service to customers. It can handle simple queries on its own, which means live agents get to focus on the more important and complex issues. The only small challenge is that it still needs some fine-tuning for more complex queries.” — Sheik Abdullah J., salesforce developer

Pricing

• Pricing starts at $125 per user/month
• Add-ons available through Flex Credits and industry bundles
• Free trial available

5. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 Customer Service extends Microsoft’s business suite into customer support, offering unified case management and AI-driven insights. It’s designed for organizations that already rely on Microsoft 365, Power BI, or Azure, providing a deeply integrated, enterprise-ready environment.

Key features

• AI-based routing to send issues to the best-suited agent
• AI suggestions for similar cases and knowledge articles to speed resolutions
• Omnichannel options and voice/digital add-ins on higher tiers

What users think

“What I like best about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is its seamless integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. The learning curve is quite steep, and although there is documentation available, it frequently does not provide enough detail when it comes to more advanced customizations.” — Vaishalee V., a procurement analyst

Pricing

• Pricing starts at $50 per user/month
• 3 packages available: Professional, Enterprise, and Premium
• Free trial available

Choose monday service as your AI service solution

The next generation of service excellence comes from connecting every request, insight, and action in one intelligent system. This is made possible with monday service, which adds built-in AI to human expertise, so you can continuously improve how work gets done. Here’s what sets us apart as a service agent platform:

• 72+ integrations with tools and apps across core functions, meaning your service data flows constantly rather than getting stuck in silos.
• 217+ apps and 27+ views across the platform, plus 36+ column types so you can design your service workflows your way.
• Dashboards that pull from as many as 50 boards and support 30 widgets per dashboard, giving you layered visibility across tickets, assets, projects, and performance.
• Full support ecosystem including 24/7 access, priority support on enterprise plans, live chat, community forums, and expert consulting, so you’re never alone in implementation or scaling.
• No-code setup and flexibility, meaning you get up and running fast, adapt as you grow, and keep total cost of ownership low.

Here’s how just a small selection of monday service users have experienced our platform:

• “I appreciate how straightforward it is to use the system to create exactly what I need from others. It enables me to dive deeply into the specific details of what people require support with.” — Chad B., a people systems analyst
• “The client portal is easy to create and set up with AI.” — Vianney S., a small business user
• “It’s intuitive, works well, and makes sense.” — A media production user
• “The team at monday.com (monday service) are super helpful.” — Chris V., an enterprise user
• “We as a company are more connected and the visibility into where we are in the development of a project is unmatched.” — Danielle G., a customer support manager

Pricing for monday service starts at $26/seat/mo, with your pick of Standard, Pro, and Enterprise plans available. Take your service operation to the next level by getting a free 14-day monday service trial today.