By Robin Gareiss, CEO and Principal Analyst at Metrigy
Many moons ago in grade school, I learned about the five senses. To make a point about the importance of each of the senses, the teacher made us select one sense we thought we could live without. As we went around the room, not a single student selected eyesight.
It’s just a small indicator that even as young children, we inherently feel the value of seeing a group of friends at the beach over the taste of a freshly baked cookie or the feeling of a tight hug. Fast-forward several decades, and video communications has amplified the value of vision. Today’s younger generations cannot fathom only being able to communicate with a friend or family member through snail mail or an occasional phone call.
Yet, when it comes to interactions with businesses, visual communication is not readily available: 48% of companies use video, but nearly half of those only use it when an agent permits the escalation, according to Metrigy’s Customer Experience Optimization 2025-26 global study of 656 companies. Meanwhile, more than 90% of consumers want to visually engage with businesses, especially when it comes to troubleshooting products, conducting consultative calls, online shopping, and orientations/training, according to Metrigy’s CX Optimization – Consumer Views 2024-25 research study of 503 North American consumers.
Not every type of call requires a visual interaction, but voice and text only go so far. Many companies, and their customers, would benefit from one- or two-way video calls. For example, 71% want to use video or video with screen sharing when troubleshooting new products, while 73% want the same for consultative calls with physicians, lawyers, or financial advisors.
The trouble is, 40% of consumers say companies don’t make it easy to communicate over video and 29% say they would like to communicate over video but no companies they have interacted with offer it. Not using video is a wasted opportunity. Those that do provide visual capabilities are seeing huge improvements to their business metrics: 74% saw a 41% improvement in customer satisfaction, 67% increased resolution speed by 40%, and 43% increased sales by 33%.
Enter AI and Augmented Reality
Visual interactions are primarily with live agents today, over video calls or screen sharing. But moving forward, we expect to see a growing number of customer service interactions with avatars using AI or augmented reality (AR). Think of all the AI agents trained on words from voice or text; now imagine AI agents trained on three-dimensional visual elements.
The challenge to broader adoption is consumer preference. Today, 84% of consumers prefer to interact with a human agent rather than an AI agent (regardless of the format—voice, text, or video). Even if they were assured their issue would be resolved, 80% still want to interact with humans. Why? Humans’ ability to understand the issue (43%), followed by assurance that the issue is resolved properly (23%). Those who prefer AI say their top reasons are speed to resolution (41%) and consistency in responses (19%). In fact, the top reason for using AI agents, speed, is the lowest reason cited for using human agents.
By combining visual capabilities with AI, the AI or human agents can identify and understand an issue much quicker and in greater detail than through voice or text alone. The improvement isn’t incremental; it’s disruptive and transformational.
Technologically, it’s not only possible but also already showing promising results for customer service from the contact center or in the field in the following ways:
- Remote troubleshooting of problems with devices, smart homes, and electronics – saves time, improves customer satisfaction
- Remote assistance for field service technicians trying to fix a challenging problem onsite – reduces the need for a follow-up visit, resolves problem faster, helps with training technicians
- Interactive ideas and feedback from a trained AI avatar for furniture, décor, or clothing – increases revenue, increases customer satisfaction
- Virtual visits for home inspections, compliance validation, or security checks – saves time, cuts costs associated with travel and salaries, speeds processes
- Remote feedback on insurance damage that does not require a claims adjuster visit – saves time, improves customer satisfaction, faster resolution
Though consumers prefer speaking to live agents, 82% are willing to give AI agents a chance providing AI resolves their issue or gives them the option to transfer to a human agent. The bottom line is that customers want their issue resolved quickly and accurately. The interface used is paramount to achieving those goals.
CX leaders must evaluate how they can understand the issue and use reasoning to provide a solution as efficiently as possible. Based on the issue at hand, this could be an AI agent alone with a customer and/or a human agent.
For example, in troubleshooting a device, like a robot vacuum or an Internet router, a company could have trained AI video avatar agents that instruct customers to hold their phones to the back of the device. The video agents can interact with the customer, asking for different views or making suggestions about what to press to fix the issue. If the video agents cannot resolve the issue, they can bring in a human agent for further evaluation and resolution.
By the time human agents join the interaction, tier 1 troubleshooting is complete and they can immediately move to more advanced problem-solving. Seeing the device is crucial for AI to understand the issue, reason to troubleshoot, and work quickly to resolve the issue. A well-trained AI video agent, like humans trained on the product, can identify problems quickly. If the customer only spoke or typed the issue, the time to resolution would dramatically increase—up to 80% longer, according to our research. Visual AI models are growing more accurate; the processing power already available within business data helps to identify and know the next steps. But increasingly complex service issues will become a battleground for technology providers to address. Visual AI capabilities will become necessary to address a multitude of sophisticated use cases effectively – all while keeping costs down, accuracy high, and employees and customers satisfied.
