Gartner Survey Finds 85% of Service and Support Leaders are Expanding Human Agent Responsibilities Despite Expectations of Mass AI Layoffs

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 28, 2026--

Eighty-five percent of customer service and support leaders are expanding human agent responsibilities as AI reduces contact volume and shifts work toward higher-value tasks, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. Just thirty-one percent have implemented, or are planning, frontline workforce reductions through layoffs in response to AI through 1Q27.

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A Gartner survey of 321 customer service and support leaders worldwide, conducted from September through October 2025, found that workforce transformation is underway, with 80% of service and support leaders reporting pressure to make workforce changes as AI reduces contact volumes and improves agent efficiency.

“Service and support leaders need a plan for how they will reshape their workforce for AI’s impact, otherwise a plan will be handed to them,” said Kathy Ross, Vice President Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice.

Rather than pursuing widespread job cuts, more organizations are taking a measured approach to managing these shifts. Sixty-three percent (63%) of service leaders are reducing frontline headcount gradually through attrition, while reallocating agent capacity toward higher-value responsibilities that support growth, loyalty and long-term efficiency (see Figure 1).

“As AI begins to automate simple work, that success creates a new challenge,” said Eric Keller, Senior Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “Service leaders must decide whether to simply do the same work at lower cost or to redeploy human agents into roles that AI cannot replace and that customers value most.”

AI Expands the Scope of Human Work

Rather than using AI efficiency gains solely to reduce costs, the majority of organizations are expanding and redefining the role of the human agent. The survey found that 85% of service leaders are adding new tasks and responsibilities to frontline agent roles, while 75% are shifting agents into entirely new roles within the service and support organization. Despite external expectations for rapid workforce reductions, large-scale layoffs remain the exception rather than the norm, underscoring a broader shift toward workforce redesign rather than elimination.

As agent roles evolve, human interaction continues to play a critical role in customer trust and decision-making. In a separate Gartner customer survey of 5,801 customers in the U.S. conducted from January - February 2025, 54% of customers said they trust human agents more than AI for product or service recommendations, compared with 32% who trust AI more, reinforcing the importance of human involvement in complex, high-stakes or advisory interactions.

“Organizations that only use AI to reduce costs risk missing a strategic opportunity,” said Keller. “The real advantage comes from combining AI efficiency with human judgment, empathy and experience to deliver outcomes that technology alone cannot.”

Gartner clients can read more in the report: As AI Frees Up Agent Capacity — Here’s What Smart Leaders Do and listen to the webinar: Redesign the Frontline Role for AI’s Impact.

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About the Gartner Customer Service & Support Conference

The Gartner Customer Service & Support Conference is taking place November 4-5, 2026, in Denver, providing customer service and support leaders with actionable advice about the trends, tools and emerging technologies they need to deliver business results in an AI-driven world. Gartner analysts address the biggest opportunities, challenges and priorities in the market today, including the latest advancements in AI , innovative strategies that are transforming customer experience, streamlining support channels and harnessing data to drive results to shape the future of their organizations. Follow news and updates coming out of the conference on the Gartner Newsroom and on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerCSS.

About Gartner for Customer Service & Support Leaders

The customer service and support function is vital to maintaining customer loyalty and influencing brand perceptions. Gartner for Customer Service & Support Leaders provides indispensable insights, advice and tools needed to achieve service and support leaders’ mission-critical priorities, specifically improving the customer experience while managing costs; designing an optimal service channel strategy; measuring and reducing customer effort; and how to hire, develop and retain high-potential frontline talent.

Follow news and update from the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerCSS. Members of the media can find additional information and insights in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Newsroom.

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Gartner (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective business and technology insights that drive smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization's mission-critical priorities. To learn more visit gartner.com.

Gartner Survey Finds 85% of Service and Support Leaders are Expanding Human Agent Responsibilities Despite Expectations of Mass AI Layoffs

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, putting to death an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history.

Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of the killing of a young girl.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term, saying too many families have waited too long to see justice. The lethal injections just hours apart were the first nearly back-to-back executions since Arkansas put two men to death three hours apart in 2017.

DeSantis, who has the authority under Florida law to set execution dates, decided earlier this month to carry out both executions on the same day.

Nationwide, the use of the death penalty had been declining for two decades, but that number has ticked up behind the increased pace in Florida. Since 2025 began, Florida has carried out nearly half the state executions across the country.

Dominick Anthony Occhicone, the octogenarian, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke following a three-drug injection. His execution came shortly less than five hours after the ex-police officer, James Aren Duckett, 68, received a lethal dose in the same death chamber.

Occhicone, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986, is the oldest prisoner executed in Florida’s history since modern record-keeping began a century ago. Nationwide, an older inmate, 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr., received a lethal injection in Alabama in 2018 for a wave of mail bombs in 1989 that killed a federal judge and wounded a Black civil rights attorney.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Duckett became the 11th inmate executed by the state of Florida this year. He was convicted of raping and drowning 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while he was working as a police officer in central Florida in 1987.

Duckett declined to make a final statement, responding “no sir” when asked and showing no response when the prison warden shook him and shouted his name minutes into his execution. He was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m.

Afterward, the girl's family members said they had suffered for decades.

“I waited nearly 40 years to have him dead,” Dorthy Tula, the victim's mother, said before breaking down.

“This man took advantage of his badge,” said Tracy Mcfall-Buskirk, the girl's cousin.

Nationwide, a total of 19 executions, including Tuesday's, have been carried out so far this year. Florida has conducted 12 executions to date in 2026 — more than all other states combined.

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, oversaw a record 19 executions last year, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the U.S. in 1976.

Overall, Florida now has executed 30 people since the beginning of 2025 while the rest of the U.S. states combined have carried out 35 executions over the same period. Another execution in Florida is set for August.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty recently urged DeSantis to halt both executions as an “unprecedented escalation” of Florida’s use of the death penalty.

“Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want," said the group's executive director, Grace Hanna.

DeSantis hasn’t said why he scheduled two executions hours apart. And he has rarely commented on the pace of executions, previously noting some on death row had committed crimes as far back as the 1980s.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly," the governor said last year.

Just before Duckett was scheduled to be executed in March, the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay to allow for DNA testing of old evidence. The results were inconclusive, meaning they did not exonerate Duckett or definitively connect him to the crime. Judges have allowed the jury verdict to stand.

When Occhicone’s death warrant was signed last month, his was the only execution scheduled for Tuesday. But after the Florida Supreme Court removed Duckett’s stay on July 8, DeSantis signed a new death warrant and added Duckett to Occhicone’s execution date. Florida Department of Corrections records show multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past, the last being in 1964.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied last appeals from both men Tuesday and the Florida Supreme Court last week.

Duckett’s attorneys had claimed his innocence and challenged the state’s handling of DNA evidence.

Occhicone’s attorneys said age-related ailments including kidney and prostate problems could make his execution especially painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment.

All Florida executions are by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Law enforcement vehicles sit parked outside the Florida state prison in Starke, Fla., on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Fischer)

This combo from photos provided by Florida Department of Corrections shows from left, James Aren Duckett and Dominick Anthony Occhicone. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)

FILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, file)