Global spend on AI agents for customer experience is set to grow 400 per cent over the next two years, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The tech research firm said that spending will reach $6.6 billion by 2027, rising from $1.3 billion in 2025.
The company explained that this substantial growth is driven by improvements in AI models and new prompt-based tools that make AI agents easier to build and deploy, enabling faster returns on investment.
Large enterprises in unregulated industries are among the first to adopt AI agents to automate high-volume, repetitive tasks.
However, to attract higher-spending enterprises in regulated sectors and support more advanced use cases, Juniper Research said platforms must prioritise security through immutable audit trails and data‑residency controls that govern AI agents’ access to data.
The company added that these measures will increase confidence in automating more complex customer interactions, without compromising compliance or service quality.
Molly Gatford, senior research analyst at Juniper Research, said that as AI capabilities move beyond basic automation, AI agent vendors must not only strengthen compliance, but also provide data-driven evidence of returns on investment beyond workforce efficiency.
“Iterative advances in AI models and the emergence of tools designed to leverage these in specific use cases are accelerating enterprise demand toward autonomous, goal-oriented systems,” she explained. “As more vendors enter the AI agent market to meet this demand, those offering easy development and deployment will be best placed to capitalise on rising spend over the next two years.
“Demonstrating measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and revenue generation will be critical to increasing adoption.”
Earlier this month, Gartner released research which predicted half of the companies that have reduced employee numbers due to AI will rehire staff to carry out similar functions under different job titles by next year.
The technology firm said that despite widespread speculation that AI will drastically reduce customer service roles, its research indicates that this is not the case.
According to a survey of 321 customer service and support leaders conducted by Gartner in October 2025, only a fifth of them have reduced agent staffing due to AI.
The company’s research found that the number of people working in customer service roles has remained steady, even as they support more customers.
