72% of Business Leaders Now Believe AI Outperforms Humans in Customer Service

A HubSpot survey conducted in 2026 found that 72% of business leaders now believe AI can deliver better customer service than human agents - citing faster response times, consistent answers, and 24/7 availability as the primary drivers.

The finding represents a significant shift in executive sentiment from just two years ago, when the majority of leaders still viewed AI as a supplement to human service rather than a replacement for it in high-volume, repeatable tasks.

The same research shows the chatbot market entering a rapid growth phase, with multimodal AI - systems that handle text, voice, images, video, and documents within a single conversation - emerging as the next capability frontier.

Businesses that move to multimodal now are positioning ahead of a wave of customer expectations that analysts expect to become standard by 2027. The remaining 28% of leaders who are sceptical predominantly cite concerns about nuance, empathy, and the handling of emotionally charged interactions.