

TL;DR:
The way shoppers buy online has shifted and customers are at the center.
They no longer want to scroll through product pages, dig through FAQs, or wait 24 hours for an email reply. They open a conversation, ask a specific question, and expect a useful answer in seconds. Brands that can’t deliver these experiences at scale are seeing customer hesitation turn into abandoned carts and lost revenue.
This shift has a name: conversational commerce. It's the practice of using real-time, two-way conversations as your primary sales channel, through chat, AI agents, messaging apps, and voice.
What started as an experiment for early adopters has become a key growth lever, with 84% of ecommerce brands treating conversational commerce as a strategic pillar this year vs. last year.

We surveyed 400 ecommerce decision-makers across North America, the U.K., and Europe to understand how conversational commerce and AI are reshaping the ecommerce landscape. These findings are complemented by aggregated and anonymized internal Gorgias platform data from 16,000+ ecommerce brands.
The State of Conversational Commerce in 2026 trends report breaks down all of the findings, including five key trends shaping the ecommerce landscape.
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A few years ago, adding an AI chatbot to your site that could provide tracking links and Help Center article recommendations was a differentiator. Today, it's table stakes. McKinsey found that 71% of shoppers expect personalized experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don't get them.
Right now, most ecommerce professionals use AI, with 93% having used it for at least 1 year. Enthusiasm is accelerating quickly, with only 30% of ecommerce professionals rating their excitement for AI at 10/10 in April 2025. Similarly, while AI adoption rose steadily year over year, it reached a clear peak in 2026.

The use cases driving this adoption are practical and high-volume:

These are the tickets that flood brands’ inboxes every day. AI agents resolve them instantly, without pulling teams away from conversations that actually require human judgment.
Explore AI adoption and use case data in more depth in the full report.
The traditional ecommerce funnel, visit site, browse products, add to cart, check out, is losing ground. Shoppers now discover products on Instagram, ask questions via direct message, and complete purchases without ever visiting a website.

Conversational AI is actively increasing revenue, with 79% of brands reporting that AI-driven interactions have increased sales and conversion in their business.

The practical implication is that every channel is becoming a storefront. Creating personalized touchpoints with customers earlier in the journey, through proactive engagement, is impacting the bottom line.
Read the full report to explore how AI conversions have increased QoQ by industry.
Pre-purchase hesitation is one of the biggest conversion killers in ecommerce. A shopper lands on your product page, has a question about sizing or compatibility, can't find the answer quickly, and leaves. That's a lost sale that had nothing to do with your product.
Conversational AI changes that dynamic. When a shopper can ask a question and get an accurate, personalized answer in real time, the friction disappears.
Brands using Gorgias saw this play out at scale in 2025. When AI Agent recommended a product, 80% of the resulting purchases happened the same day, and 13% happened the next day.

Brands are further accelerating the buying cycle through proactive engagement. On-site features such as suggested product questions, recommendations triggered by search results, and “Ask Anything” input bars drove 50% of conversation-driven purchases during BFCM 2025.
Explore how AI is collapsing the purchase cycle in Trend 3 of the report.
There's a persistent narrative that AI is making CX teams redundant. The data tells a different story. 62% of ecommerce brands are planning to grow their teams, not cut them. But the scope of those teams is changing.

New roles are emerging around AI configuration and quality assurance. Teams are investing in technical members to write AI Guidance instructions, develop tone-of-voice instructions, and continuously QA results.
CX teams are also bridging the gap between support goals and revenue goals, as the two functions increasingly overlap.

The result is CX teams that are more technical than they were before. Agents who once spent their days answering repetitive tickets are now spending that time on higher-value work: complex escalations, VIP customer relationships, and improving the AI systems and knowledge bases that handle the volume.
Learn more about the evolution of CX roles in Trend #4.
Despite increasing AI adoption, data shows that ecommerce brands shouldn’t strive for 100% automation. Winning brands are building systems in which AI handles repetitive tier-1 tickets, and humans handle complex, sensitive cases.

AI handles speed and scale. It resolves order-tracking requests at 2 a.m., processes return-eligibility checks in seconds, and answers the same shipping question for the thousandth time without compromising quality.
Human agents handle conversations that require context, empathy, or decisions that fall outside the standard playbook. There are several topics where shoppers still prefer human support.

Successful hybrid systems require continuous iteration, meaning reviewing handover topics, Guidance, and reviewing AI tickets on a weekly basis.
Discover how leading brands are balancing human and AI systems in Trend #5.
The 2026 trends are about expansion and standardization. The 2030 predictions are about what comes next.

Voice-based purchasing is the biggest bet on the horizon. Only 7% of brands currently use voice assistants for commerce, but 89% expect it to be standard by 2030. The vision is a customer who can reorder a product, check their subscription status, or manage a return entirely over the phone.
Proactive AI is the other major shift. Rather than waiting for a customer to reach out, AI will anticipate needs based on browsing behavior, purchase history, and where someone is in their relationship with your brand. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a sales associate who remembers what you bought last time and knows what you're likely to need next.
Explore where ecommerce brands are allocating their AI budgets in the full report.
The brands winning in 2026 are creating smart, scalable systems where AIhandles volume and humans handle nuance. They’re treating every conversational channel as an opportunity to serve and sell.
The data is clear: AI adoption is accelerating, customer expectations are rising, and the revenue impact of getting this right is measurable.
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TL;DR:
In 2025, chat’s growth outpaced email by 2.5x quarter over quarter. Chat has become our most powerful customer experience tool for how shoppers discover products, ask questions, and decide to buy.
We knew it needed an upgrade, so we reimagined the entire experience from the ground up.
The result is 36% more engagement with product recommendations, nearly 2.25x more shoppers add-to-cart, and 7.3% more customer engagement.
In this post, we'll walk you through our thinking, what’s new in Chat, and how brands are already seeing big gains.
Chat has outpaced email support. Today’s shoppers prefer the speed of quick chat conversations over email. And when shoppers make a new move, we watch, listen, and move with them.
This behavioral shift isn’t happening in isolation. It aligns with the rise of conversational commerce and proves a universal move toward real-time conversations in ecommerce.
In fact, the signals were already there. Two years of building AI Agent showed us just how much design shapes behavior. The interface is the experience, and we knew that pushing chat experiences to closely resemble human interactions would transform how shoppers engage.
Our new and updated chat brings that vision to life. We believe that shopping is moving from static pages to conversations. This new update is built for how people actually want to shop.
The new design turns live chat into an interactive shopping surface made for modern shoppers. We've brought together multiple ways for shoppers to jump into chat, added clickable replies instead of typing, browsable product cards right in the conversation, and quick cart access.
Let's walk through what's new.
Chat now comes in a softer color palette that adapts to your store’s branding. We removed message bubbles in favor of an airy design that brings in the familiarity of speaking to your favorite conversational AI assistant. Every interaction now has the breathing room for deeper conversation and personalization.

It’s now easier for shoppers to get an answer with quick reply buttons and suggested questions in Chat. This replaces the tree-based flows of the previous Chat, removing the need to follow a fixed path. Shoppers can find answers faster without typing text-heavy explanations.

Browsing and buying within Chat is now possible. Previously, it only supported product links that would open in a new page. With the upgrade, you can view item details without leaving the conversation. Shoppers can browse, compare products, and add to cart in one place.

We’re keeping the context by removing the external redirects. The new interface lets shoppers browse product recommendations right in chat. View key product details, images, descriptions, variants, and pricing without opening a new tab.

Chat adds clickable questions on product pages — like “Is this true to size?” or “What’s the difference between shades?” — designed to match what a shopper is likely wondering in the moment. These context-aware prompts help remove buying hesitation before shoppers even think to ask.

Chat adds instant access to shopper actions, like a cart button and an orders button for returning customers. Shoppers can jump straight to their cart or check on an existing order without waiting for an agent to give them a status update.

Every update in Chat drives performance. We didn’t simply give it a makeover, we also fine-tuned its underlying mechanics.
When product suggestions are easy to browse, shoppers interact with them more. The new product cards make shopping feel natural, allowing customers to explore items at their own pace. That convenience led to a 36% increase in engagement with recommended products.
Chat keeps the entire shopping journey inside the conversation, from browsing and asking questions, to adding to cart and checking out. This new layout removes the usual tab-switching between chat and the website. Less friction has led to more than double add-to-cart actions than before the redesign.
Chat's cleaner design and contextual entry points make it easier for shoppers to start a conversation. With suggested questions on product pages and quick reply buttons, more visitors are choosing to engage earlier in their journey. This has resulted in a 7.3% lift in chat engagement.
Conversational commerce has moved from concept to reality. Chat makes it part of the everyday shopping experience, letting shoppers browse, ask questions, compare products, and check out in one interaction. It brings the ease of the in-person shopping experience into the digital world.
We built Chat to redefine the shopping experience. We hope you see it reflected in your customers’ journeys.
Book a demo to see what's possible with the new experience.
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TL;DR:
Customer education has become a critical factor in converting browsers into buyers. For wellness brands like Cornbread Hemp, where customers need to understand ingredients, dosages, and benefits before making a purchase, education has a direct impact on sales. The challenge is scaling personalized education when support teams are stretched thin, especially during peak sales periods.
Katherine Goodman, Senior Director of Customer Experience, and Stacy Williams, Senior Customer Experience Manager, explain how implementing Gorgias's AI Shopping Assistant transformed their customer education strategy into a conversion powerhouse.
In our second AI in CX episode, we dive into how Cornbread achieved a 30% conversion rate during BFCM, saving their CX team over four days of manual work.
Before diving into tactics, understanding why education matters in the wellness space helps contextualize this approach.
Katherine, Senior Director of Customer Experience at Cornbread Hemp, explains:
"Wellness is a very saturated market right now. Getting to the nitty-gritty and getting to the bottom of what our product actually does for people, making sure they're educated on the differences between products to feel comfortable with what they're putting in their body."
The most common pre-purchase questions Cornbread receives center around three areas: ingredients, dosages, and specific benefits. Customers want to know which product will help with their particular symptoms. They need reassurance that they're making the right choice.
What makes this challenging: These questions require nuanced, personalized responses that consider the customer's specific needs and concerns. Traditionally, this meant every customer had to speak with a human agent, creating a bottleneck that slowed conversions and overwhelmed support teams during peak periods.
Stacy, Senior Customer Experience Manager at Cornbread, identified the game-changing impact of Shopping Assistant:
"It's had a major impact, especially during non-operating hours. Shopping Assistant is able to answer questions when our CX agents aren't available, so it continues the customer order process."
A customer lands on your site at 11 PM, has questions about dosage or ingredients, and instead of abandoning their cart or waiting until morning for a response, they get immediate, accurate answers that move them toward purchase.
The real impact happens in how the tool anticipates customer needs. Cornbread uses suggested product questions that pop up as customers browse product pages. Stacy notes:
"Most of our Shopping Assistant engagement comes from those suggested product features. It almost anticipates what the customer is asking or needing to know."
Actionable takeaway: Don't wait for customers to ask questions. Surface the most common concerns proactively. When you anticipate hesitation and address it immediately, you remove friction from the buying journey.
One of the biggest myths about AI is that implementation is complicated. Stacy explains how Cornbread’s rollout was a straightforward three-step process: audit your knowledge base, flip the switch, then optimize.
"It was literally the flip of a switch and just making sure that our data and information in Gorgias was up to date and accurate."
Here's Cornbread’s three-phase approach:
Actionable takeaway: Block out time for that initial knowledge base audit. Then commit to regular check-ins because your business evolves, and your AI should evolve with it.
Read more: AI in CX Webinar Recap: Turning AI Implementation into Team Alignment
Here's something most brands miss: the way you write your knowledge base articles directly impacts conversion rates.
Before BFCM, Stacy reviewed all of Cornbread's Guidance and rephrased the language to make it easier for AI Agent to understand.
"The language in the Guidance had to be simple, concise, very straightforward so that Shopping Assistant could deliver that information without being confused or getting too complicated," Stacy explains. When your AI can quickly parse and deliver information, customers get faster, more accurate answers. And faster answers mean more conversions.
Katherine adds another crucial element: tone consistency.
"We treat AI as another team member. Making sure that the tone and the language that AI used were very similar to the tone and the language that our human agents use was crucial in creating and maintaining a customer relationship."
As a result, customers often don't realize they're talking to AI. Some even leave reviews saying they loved chatting with "Ally" (Cornbread's AI agent name), not realizing Ally isn't human.
Actionable takeaway: Review your knowledge base with fresh eyes. Can you simplify without losing meaning? Does it sound like your brand? Would a customer be satisfied with this interaction? If not, time for a rewrite.
Read more: How to Write Guidance with the “When, If, Then” Framework
The real test of any CX strategy is how it performs under pressure. For Cornbread, Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025 proved that their conversational commerce strategy wasn't just working, it was thriving.
Over the peak season, Cornbread saw:
Katherine breaks down what made the difference:
"Shopping Assistant popping up, answering those questions with the correct promo information helps customers get from point A to point B before the deal ends."
During high-stakes sales events, customers are in a hurry. They're comparing options, checking out competitors, and making quick decisions. If you can't answer their questions immediately, they're gone. Shopping Assistant kept customers engaged and moving toward purchase, even when human agents were swamped.
Actionable takeaway: Peak periods require a fail-safe CX strategy. The brands that win are the ones that prepare their AI tools in advance.
One of the most transformative impacts of conversational commerce goes beyond conversion rates. What your team can do with their newfound bandwidth matters just as much.
With AI handling straightforward inquiries, Cornbread's CX team has evolved into a strategic problem-solving team. They've expanded into social media support, provided real-time service during a retail pop-up, and have time for the high-value interactions that actually build customer relationships.
Katherine describes phone calls as their highest value touchpoint, where agents can build genuine relationships with customers. “We have an older demographic, especially with CBD. We received a lot of customer calls requesting orders and asking questions. And sometimes we end up just yapping,” Katherine shares. “I was yapping with a customer last week, and we'd been on the call for about 15 minutes. This really helps build those long-term relationships that keep customers coming back."
That's the kind of experience that builds loyalty, and becomes possible only when your team isn't stuck answering repetitive tickets.
Stacy adds that agents now focus on "higher-level tickets or customer issues that they need to resolve. AI handles straightforward things, and our agents now really are more engaged in more complicated, higher-level resolutions."
Actionable takeaway: Stop thinking about AI only as a cost-cutting tool and start seeing it as an impact multiplier. The goal is to free your team to work on conversations that actually move the needle on customer lifetime value.
Cornbread isn't resting on their BFCM success. They're already optimizing for January, traditionally the biggest month for wellness brands as customers commit to New Year's resolutions.
Their focus areas include optimizing their product quiz to provide better data to both AI and human agents, educating customers on realistic expectations with CBD use, and using Shopping Assistant to spotlight new products launching in Q1.
The brands winning at conversational commerce aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the largest teams. They're the ones who understand that customer education drives conversions, and they've built systems to deliver that education at scale.
Cornbread Hemp's success comes down to three core principles: investing time upfront to train AI properly, maintaining consistent optimization, and treating AI as a team member that deserves the same attention to tone and quality as human agents.
As Katherine puts it:
"The more time that you put into training and optimizing AI, the less time you're going to have to babysit it later. Then, it's actually going to give your customers that really amazing experience."
Watch the replay of the whole conversation with Katherine and Stacy to learn how Gorgias’s Shopping Assistant helps them turn browsers into buyers.
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TL;DR:
Your AI sounds like a robot, and your customers can tell.
Sure, the answer is right, but something feels off. The tone of voice is stiff. The phrases are predictable and generic. At most, it sounds copy-pasted. This may not be a big deal from your side of support. In reality, it’s costing you more than you think.
Recent data shows that 45% of U.S. adults find customer service chatbots unfavorable, up from 43% in 2022. As awareness of chatbots has increased, so have negative opinions of them. Only 19% of people say chatbots are helpful or beneficial in addressing their queries. The gap isn't just about capability. It's about trust. When AI sounds impersonal, customers disengage or leave frustrated.
Luckily, you don't need to choose between automation and the human touch.
In this guide, we'll show you six practical ways to train your AI to sound natural, build trust, and deliver the kind of support your customers actually like.
The fastest way to make your AI sound more human is to teach it to sound like you. AI is only as good as the input you give it, so the more detailed your brand voice training, the more natural and on-brand your responses will be.
Start by building a brand voice guide. It doesn't need to be complicated, but it should clearly define how your brand communicates with customers. At minimum, include:
Think of your AI as a character. Samantha Gagliardi, Associate Director of Customer Experience at Rhoback, described their approach as building an AI persona:
"I kind of treat it like breaking down an actor. I used to sing and perform for a living — how would I break down the character of Rhoback? How does Rhoback speak? What age are they? What makes the most sense?"
✅ Create a brand voice guide with tone, style, formality, and example phrases.
Humans associate short pauses with thinking, so when your AI responds too quickly, it instantly feels unnatural.
Adding small delays helps your AI feel more like a real teammate.
Where to add response delays:
Even a one- to two-second pause can make a big difference in a robotic or human-sounding AI.
✅ Add instructions in your AI’s knowledge base to include short response delays during key moments.
Generic phrases make your AI sound like... well, AI. Customers can spot a copy-pasted response immediately — especially when it's overly formal.
That doesn't mean you need to be extremely casual. It means being true to your brand. Whether your voice is professional or conversational, the goal is the same: sound like a real person on your team.
Here's how to replace robotic phrasing with more brand-aligned responses:
|
Generic Phrase |
More Natural Alternative |
|---|---|
|
“We apologize for the inconvenience.” |
“Sorry about that, we’re working on it now.” (friendly) |
|
“Your satisfaction is our top priority.” |
“We want to make sure this works for you.” (friendly) |
|
“Please be advised…” |
“Just a quick heads up…” (friendly) |
|
“Your request has been received.” |
“Got it. Thanks for reaching out.” (friendly) |
|
“I will now review your request.” |
“Let me take a quick look.” (friendly) |
✅ Identify your five most common inquiries and give your AI a rewritten example response for each.
One of the biggest tells that a response is AI-generated? It ignores what's already happened.
When your AI doesn't reference order history or past conversations, customers are forced to repeat themselves. Repetition can lead to frustration and can quickly turn a good customer experience into a bad one.
Great AI uses context to craft replies that feel personalized and genuinely helpful.
Here's what good context looks like in AI responses:
Tools like Gorgias AI Agent automatically pull in customer and order data, so replies feel human and contextual without sacrificing speed.
✅ Add instructions that prompt your AI to reference order details and/or past conversations in its replies, so customers feel acknowledged.
Customers just want help. They don't care whether it comes from a human or AI, as long as it's the right help. But if you try to trick them, it backfires fast. AI that pretend to be human often give customers the runaround, especially when the issue is complex or emotional.
A better approach is to be transparent. Solve what you can, and hand off anything else to an agent as needed.
When to disclose that the customer is talking to AI:
For more on this topic, check out our article: Should You Tell Customers They're Talking to AI?
✅ Set clear rules for when your AI should escalate to a human and include handoff messaging that sets expectations and preserves context.
We're giving you permission to break the rules a little bit. The most human-sounding AI doesn't follow perfect grammar or structure. It reflects the messiness of real dialogue.
People don't speak in flawless sentences every time. We pause, rephrase, cut ourselves off, and throw in the occasional emoji or "uh." When AI has an unpredictable cadence, it feels more relatable and, in turn, more human.
What an imperfect AI could look like:
These imperfections give your AI a more believable voice.
✅ Add instructions for your AI that permit variation in grammar, tone, and sentence structure to mimic real human speech.
Human-sounding AI doesn’t require complex prompts or endless fine-tuning. With the right voice guidelines, small tone adjustments, and a few smart instructions, your AI can sound like a real part of your team.
Book a demo of Gorgias AI Agent and see for yourself.
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TL;DR:
You’ve chosen your AI tool and turned it on, hoping you won’t have to answer another WISMO question. But now you’re here. Why is AI going in circles? Why isn’t it answering simple questions? Why does it hand off every conversation to a human agent?
Conversational AI and chatbots thrive on proper training and data. Like any other team member on your customer support team, AI needs guidance. This includes knowledge documents, policies, brand voice guidelines, and escalation rules. So, if your AI has gone rogue, you may have skipped a step.
In this article, we’ll show you the top seven AI issues, why they happen, how to fix them, and the best practices for AI setup.
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AI can only be as accurate as the information you feed it. If your AI is confidently giving customers incorrect answers, it likely has a gap in its knowledge or a lack of guardrails.
Insufficient knowledge can cause AI to pull context from similar topics to create an answer, while the lack of guardrails gives it the green light to compose an answer, correct or not.
How to fix it:
This is one of the most frustrating customer service issues out there. Left unfixed, you risk losing 29% of customers.
If your AI is putting customers through a never-ending loop, it’s time to review your knowledge docs and escalation rules.
How to fix it:
It can be frustrating when AI can’t do the bare minimum, like automate WISMO tickets. This issue is likely due to missing knowledge or overly broad escalation rules.
How to fix it:
One in two customers still prefer talking to a human to an AI, according to Katana. Limiting them to AI-only support could risk a sale or their relationship.
The top live chat apps clearly display options to speak with AI or a human agent. If your tool doesn’t have this, refine your AI-to-human escalation rules.
How to fix it:
If your agents are asking customers to repeat themselves, you’ve already lost momentum. One of the fastest ways to break trust is by making someone explain their issue twice. This happens when AI escalates without passing the conversation history, customer profile, or even a summary of what’s already been attempted.
How to fix it:
Sure, conversational AI has near-perfect grammar, but if its tone is entirely different from your agents’, customers can be put off.
This mismatch usually comes from not settling on an official customer support tone of voice. AI might be pulling from marketing copy. Agents might be winging it. Either way, inconsistency breaks the flow.
How to fix it:
When AI is underperforming, the problem isn’t always the tool. Many teams launch AI without ever mapping out what it's actually supposed to do. So it tries to do everything (and fails), or it does nothing at all.
It’s important to remember that support automation isn’t “set it and forget it.” It needs to know its playing field and boundaries.
How to fix it:
AI should handle |
AI should escalate to a human |
|---|---|
Order tracking (“Where’s my package?”) |
Upset, frustrated, or emotional customers |
Return and refund policy questions |
Billing problems or refund exceptions |
Store hours, shipping rates, and FAQs |
Technical product or troubleshooting issues |
Simple product questions |
Complex or edge‑case product questions |
Password resets |
Multi‑part or multi‑issue requests |
Pre‑sale questions with clear, binary answers |
Anything where a wrong answer risks churn |
Once you’ve addressed the obvious issues, it’s important to build a setup that works reliably. These best practices will help your AI deliver consistently helpful support.
Start by deciding what AI should and shouldn’t handle. Let it take care of repetitive tasks like order tracking, return policies, and product questions. Anything complex or emotionally sensitive should go straight to your team.
Use examples from actual tickets and messages your team handles every day. Help center articles are a good start, but real interactions are what help AI learn how customers actually ask questions.
Create rules that tell your AI when to escalate. These might include customer frustration, low confidence in the answer, or specific phrases like “talk to a person.” The goal is to avoid infinite loops and to hand things off before the experience breaks down.
When a handoff happens, your agents should see everything the AI did. That includes the full conversation, relevant customer data, and any actions it has already attempted. This helps your team respond quickly and avoid repeating what the customer just went through.
An easy way to keep order history, customer data, and conversation history in one place is by using a conversational commerce tool like Gorgias.
A jarring shift in tone between AI and agent makes the experience feel disconnected. Align aspects such as formality, punctuation, and language style so the transition from AI to human feels natural.
Look at recent escalations each week. Identify where the AI struggled or handed off too early or too late. Use those insights to improve training, adjust boundaries, and strengthen your automation flows.
If your AI chatbot isn’t working the way you expected, it’s probably not because the technology is broken. It’s because it hasn’t been given the right rules.
When you set AI up with clear responsibilities, it becomes a powerful extension of your team.
Want to see what it looks like when AI is set up the right way?
Try Gorgias AI Agent. It’s conversational AI built with smart automation, clean escalations, and ecommerce data in its core — so your customers get faster answers and your agents stay focused.

TL;DR:
Chargebacks are more than a thorn in a merchant’s side — they’re a growing financial and operational threat. According to Ethoca, chargebacks are projected to more than double, from $7.2 billion in 2019 to $15.3 billion by 2026 in the U.S. alone. And while fraud plays a role, the primary reason customers file chargebacks is simpler: they feel ignored.

At Chargeflow, we recently published a comprehensive report analyzing why customers dispute chargebacks. The findings were eye-opening. While it’s true that fraud is a real concern, most chargebacks happen for a different reason: a lack of communication between merchants and customers.
Top stats from Chargeflow’s report:
When customers feel ignored or frustrated, they often turn to their bank for a solution instead of reaching out to the merchant first. Understanding these behaviors is key to preventing disputes before they escalate and cause chaos.
So, what actually drives customers to dispute charges? Here’s what the data says.
While chargebacks are often the cost of doing business, the truth is that many disputes are preventable — but only if merchants understand the root causes. We identified five key drivers behind chargebacks.
According to our research, most customers file a dispute right away after encountering an issue, leaving no opportunity to resolve the problem. Another 38% file within one to three days if they don’t receive a timely response.
Why? Customers assume the fastest way to get their money back is by filing a chargeback, especially if they receive no response from the merchant.
We found that 80% of customers never receive a follow-up after filing a chargeback. Additionally, 64% of customers state immediate communication is crucial, yet many businesses fail to reach out.
Why? Customers expect businesses to be proactive. When they don’t hear back quickly, they assume the merchant won’t help, making a chargeback seem like the best option.
98% of customers report a neutral to highly satisfactory experience when filing chargebacks, and only 12% are denied.

Why? Many customers believe chargebacks are faster and easier than dealing with merchants directly, especially if return policies are unclear.
The most common reason for filing a chargeback is “product not received” (35% of the cases). Other common reasons included:
Why? When customers don’t receive clear shipping updates or experience delivery delays, they assume their order won’t arrive and file a chargeback rather than waiting.
Friendly fraud occurs when a cardholder makes a legitimate purchase but later disputes the charge as fraudulent or unauthorized, leading their card issuer to reverse the payment.
Our research found that:

According to our State of Chargebacks report, 79% of chargebacks are actually friendly fraud, meaning they were filed for invalid reasons.
Why? Many customers mistakenly believe that a chargeback is just another way to request a refund, rather than a process intended for fraud or merchant failure.
📌 The takeaway: Most chargebacks aren’t actual fraud, but rather a result of customer confusion, impatience, or poor communication from merchants.
Merchants who want to stop chargebacks before they happen need a two-part strategy:
Chargebacks result from slow response times, poor communication, and unresolved issues, not fraud. Adopting AI-driven customer support and chargeback automation allows businesses to significantly reduce disputes and retain more revenue.
Many chargebacks happen because customers don’t receive a fast enough response. In fact, 52% say they will dispute a charge if the response time is too slow. AI-powered chatbots provide real-time support, resolving issues before they escalate.
Customers expect updates regarding orders and refunds, but often don’t receive them. 80% of customers report never hearing from a merchant after filing a chargeback.
Automated order updates, refund confirmations, and proactive notifications keep customers informed, reducing unnecessary disputes.
Customers expect round-the-clock support, but most businesses can’t provide live assistance. AI-powered ticketing and automation ensure every customer receives help, regardless of the time zone or urgency.
The result? Fewer chargebacks, faster resolutions, and increased customer satisfaction.
It’s impossible to please every customer. On average, chargebacks take 50 days to resolve successfully. Focus your energy on retaining high-value, long-term customers.
Lost inquiries take on average 15 days to resolve, and lost chargebacks take 38 days. Prioritize cases based on impact.
Advanced automated ticketing systems can route inquiries and prioritize urgent cases.
Ensure customer service teams have quick-response templates to speed their resolutions.
“Product not received” was the most cited reason for delivery-related chargebacks. Work closely with carriers and third-party suppliers to improve fulfillment and reduce disputes.
Use automated tools for real-time analytics, enhanced communication, and proactive alerts, which will reduce response times.
Successfully tackling chargebacks requires both proactive customer support and automated dispute management. That’s why Gorgias and Chargeflow work so well together to give merchants a comprehensive defense against disputes.
Post-purchase automation isn’t just about reducing customer support workload or quick replies. It's about finding the most effective ways to increase customer loyalty and prevent disputes.
Learn more about how AI-driven automation enhances post-purchase experiences here.
As you know, chargebacks are costly, frustrating, but most importantly, preventable. Our research shows that most chargebacks don’t stem from fraud, but from poor communication, slow response times, and customer uncertainty.
By prioritizing fast, AI-driven customer support and automated chargeback management, merchants can resolve issues before they escalate, improve customer experience, and protect their revenue.
With Gorgias handling proactive customer support and Chargeflow managing chargeback disputes, merchants get a powerful, end-to-end prevention system that ensures fewer chargebacks, higher dispute win rates, and, at the end of the day, happier customers.
Don’t let chargebacks drain your revenue. Take control today with faster, smarter automation.
Download Chargeflow’s full Psychology of Chargebacks Report to dive deeper into the data and start preventing disputes before they happen.

TL;DR:
When customer service teams are at their busiest, they need a helpdesk that keeps up. That’s exactly why our Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team has been working behind the scenes to make the Gorgias platform faster than ever.
Over the past year, we've made remarkable improvements to our platform to eliminate bottlenecks, speed up data retrieval, and reduce incidents. For you, this means fewer disruptions, faster load times, and a more reliable helpdesk experience.
Here's how we did it.
Our platform relied on a single, shared database connection pool to manage all queries. Think of it as having just one pipe handling all the water flowing through your house — when too much water rushes in at once, the whole system backs up.
In practice, this meant a single surge in database requests could clog the entire system. When lower-priority background tasks got stuck, they could prevent high-priority operations (like loading tickets or running automations) from working properly. This would cause the entire helpdesk to slow down or, worse, become completely unresponsive.
Using PgBouncer, a tool that manages database connections and reduces the load on a server, we implemented multiple connection pools. Instead of relying on a single pipeline to stream all requests, we created separate "pipes" for different requests.

Like how road traffic picks up again after an exit, routing our database traffic into separate connection pools makes sure high-priority customer interactions don’t lag behind automated background tasks.
This solution is future-proof. In the event that a lower-priority task is delayed in one connection pool, other functionalities of the helpdesk will continue working because of the remaining connection pools.
The results speak for themselves:
We've eliminated incidents caused by connection pool issues in the helpdesk completely. This reduced major helpdesk outage incidents by around four per year and maintained an average uptime of over 99.99%.
As Gorgias grew to over 15,000 customers, so did the volume of data. We’re talking data from tickets, integrations, automations, and many more. The combination of more users and data meant slower searches within the helpdesk.
However, the amount of data was not the problem — it was how our data was organized.
Imagine this: An enormous storage room full of file cabinets containing every piece of data. Sure, those file cabinets kept data organized, but you would still need to spend time searching through the entire room, running up and down aisles of cabinets, to find your desired file. This method was cumbersome.
We needed a more efficient way to keep our data easy to find, especially as more customers used our platform.
The answer was database partitioning — breaking our large datasets into smaller, more manageable segments. Using Debezium, Kafka, and Kafka-connect JDBC, all managed by Terraform, we migrated over 40TB of data, including 3.5 billion tickets, without a moment of downtime for our merchants.
Instead of a giant room with thousands of file cabinets, we divided that giant room into 128 smaller rooms. So now, instead of looking for a file in one room, you know you just need to go into room number 102, which has a much smaller area to search.
This approach allows our system to quickly pinpoint the location of data, significantly reducing the time it takes to find and deliver information to users.
Additionally, database maintenance has become more efficient. Some of the partitions can probably sit without needing to be changed at all. We just have to maintain the partitions that are getting new files, which cuts down on maintenance time.
Better database partitioning provides several benefits:
When incidents occurred in the past, our response process was inconsistent, leading to delays in resolution. It was sometimes unclear who should take the lead, what immediate actions were required, and how to effectively communicate with affected customers.
Additionally, post-incident reviews varied in quality, making it difficult to prevent similar issues from happening again. We needed a standardized framework to address incidents in a timely fashion.
To streamline incident management, we introduced a replicable, automated process:
With our improved incident management process:
With more brands catching on to how essential a solid CX platform is, our team's got our work cut out for us. Here's what's on the way:
Gorgias will inevitably face new challenges in performance — no system is completely immune to downtime.
But we've built our architecture with the future in mind, and it’s more resilient than ever as more and more brands realize the power of conversational AI CX platforms.
The result? A platform you can count on to help you deliver exceptional customer service, without technical issues getting in the way.
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TL;DR:
Shoppers aren’t just open to AI — they’re starting to expect it.
According to IBM, 3 in 5 consumers want to use AI as they shop. And a McKinsey study found that 71% expect personalized experiences from the brands they buy from. When they don’t get that? Two-thirds say they’re frustrated.
But while most brands associate AI with support automation, its real power lies in something bigger: scaling personalization across the entire customer journey.
We’ll show you how to do that in this article.
Before AI can personalize emails, recommend products, or answer support tickets, it needs one thing: good data.
That’s why one of the best places to start using AI isn’t in sales or support — but in enriching your customer data. With a deeper understanding of who your customers are, what they want, and how they behave, AI becomes a personalization engine across your entire business.
Post-purchase surveys are gold mines for understanding customers — but digging through the data manually? Not so fun.
AI can help by analyzing survey responses at scale, identifying trends, and categorizing open-ended customer feedback into clear, actionable insights. Instead of skimming thousands of answers to spot what customers are saying about your shipping times, AI can surface those insights instantly — along with sentiment and behavior signals you might’ve missed.
Try this prompt when doing this: "Analyze 500 open-ended post-purchase survey responses. Identify the top 5 recurring themes, categorize customer sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), and surface any trends related to product quality, delivery experience, or customer support."
One of AI’s biggest strengths? Spotting intent.
By analyzing things like page views, cart activity, scroll behavior, and previous purchases, AI can identify which shoppers are ready to buy, which ones are likely to churn, and which just need a little nudge to move forward.
This doesn’t just apply to email and retargeting. It also works on live chat, in real time.
Take TUSHY, for example.
To eliminate friction in the buying journey, TUSHY introduced Shopping Assistant — a virtual assistant designed to guide shoppers toward the right product before they drop off.
Instead of letting potential customers bounce with unanswered questions, the AI Agent steps in to offer:

With a growing product catalog, TUSHY realized first-time buyers were overwhelmed with options — and needed help choosing what would work best for their home and hygiene preferences.
“What amazed us most is that the AI Agent doesn’t just help customers choose the perfect bidet for their booty — it also provides measurement and fit guidance, high-level installation support, and even recommends all the necessary spare parts for skirted toilet installations. It’s ushering in a new era of customer service — one that’s immediate, informative, and confidence-boosting as people rethink their bathroom habits.”
—Ren Fuller-Wasserman, Sr. Director of Customer Experience at TUSHY
AI also helps you see the road ahead.
Instead of looking at retention and loyalty metrics in isolation, AI can help you forecast what’s likely to happen next and where to focus your attention.
By segmenting customers based on behaviors like average order value, order frequency, and churn risk, AI can identify revenue opportunities and weak spots before they impact your bottom line.
All you need is the right prompt. Here’s an example you can run using your own data in any AI tool:
Prompt: “Analyze my customer data to forecast revenue by segment. Break customers into at least three groups based on behavior patterns like average order value, purchase frequency, and churn risk.
For each segment, provide:
Here’s what a result might look like:
Instead of flying blind, you’re making decisions with clarity — and backing them with data that scales.
When used strategically, AI becomes a proactive sales agent that can identify opportunities in real-time: recommending the right product to the right shopper at the right moment.
Here’s how ecommerce brands are using AI to drive revenue across every part of the funnel.
Your prices shouldn’t be static — especially when your competitors, inventory, and customer behavior are anything but.
AI-powered tools like Shopping Assistant help brands automatically adjust pricing based on shopper behavior. The goal is to make the right offer to the right customer.
For example:
With dynamic pricing, you can protect your margins and boost conversions — without relying on blanket sales.
AI-powered chat is no longer just a glorified FAQ. Today, it can act as a real-time shopping assistant — guiding customers, boosting conversions, and helping your team reclaim time.
That’s exactly what Pepper did with “Penelope,” their AI Agent built on Gorgias.
With a rapidly growing product catalog (22 new SKUs in 2024 alone), Pepper knew shoppers needed help discovering the right products. Customers often had questions about styles, materials, or sizing, and if they didn’t get answers right away, they’d abandon carts and move on.
Instead of hiring more agents to keep up, Pepper deployed Penelope to live chat and email.
Her job?
“With AI Agent, we’re not just putting information in our customer’s hands; we’re putting bras in their hands... We’re turning customer support from a cost center to a revenue generator.”
—Gabrielle McWhirter, CX Operations Lead at Pepper

Let’s look at how Penelope performs on the floor:
A shopper asked about the difference between two wire-free bras. Penelope broke down the styles, support level, and fabric in plain language — then followed up with personalized suggestions based on the shopper’s preferences.
Using Gorgias Convert chat campaigns, Pepper triggers targeted messages to shoppers based on behavior. If someone is browsing white bras? Penelope jumps in and offers assistance, often leading to faster decisions and fewer abandoned carts.
If a customer adds a swimsuit top to their cart, Penelope suggests matching bottoms. No full-screen popups, no awkward sales scripts — just thoughtful, helpful guidance.
Penelope also handles WISMO tickets and return inquiries. If a shopper is dealing with a sizing issue, Penelope walks them through the return process and links to Pepper’s Fit Guide to make sure the next purchase is spot on.

By implementing AI into chat, Pepper saw a 19% conversion rate from AI-assisted chats, an 18% uplift in AOV, and a 92.1% decrease in resolution time.
With Penelope handling repetitive and revenue-driving tasks, Pepper’s team now has more time to offer truly personalized touches — like virtual fit sessions that have turned refunds into exchanges and even upsells.
Bundling is a proven tactic for increasing AOV — but most brands still rely on subjective judgment calls or static reports to decide which products to group.
AI can take this a step further.
Instead of just looking at what’s bought together in the same cart, AI can analyze purchase sequences. For example, what people tend to buy as a follow-up 30 days after their first order. This gives you powerful clues into natural buying behavior and bundling opportunities you might’ve missed.
If you’re looking to explore this at scale, you can use anonymized sales data and feed it into AI tools to surface patterns in:
Try this prompt:
"Analyze this spreadsheet of order data and identify product bundle opportunities. Look for: (1) products frequently purchased together in the same order, (2) items commonly bought as a second purchase within 30 days of the first, and (3) patterns in high-value or high-frequency product pairings. Provide insights on the most promising bundles and why they might work well together."
Just make sure you’re keeping customer data anonymous — and always double-check the insights with your team.
Related: Ecommerce product categorization: How to organize your products
AI isn’t just here to deflect tickets. From quality assurance to proactive outreach, AI can elevate the entire support experience — on both sides of the conversation.
Manual QA is slow, selective, and often feels like it’s chasing the wrong tickets.
That’s where Auto QA comes in. Instead of reviewing just a handful of conversations each week, Auto QA evaluates 100% of private messages, whether they’re handled by a human or an AI agent.
Every message is scored on key metrics like:
It gives support leaders a full picture of how their team is performing, so they can coach with clarity, not just gut feeling.
Here’s what brands can do with automated QA:
Let’s walk through a real example.
Customer: “Hi, my device broke, and I bought it less than a month ago.”
Agent: “Hi Kelly, please send us a photo or a video so we can determine the issue with your device.”
Auto QA flags this interaction with:
Reactive support is table stakes. AI takes it a step further by anticipating issues before they happen — and proactively helping customers.
Let’s say login errors spike after a product update. AI detects the surge and automatically triggers an email to affected customers with a simple fix. No need for them to dig through help docs or wait on chat — support meets them right where they are.
Proactive AI can also be used for:
This saves the time of your agents because the AI will spot problems before they turn into tickets.
Your customers are telling you what they think. AI just helps you hear it more clearly.
By analyzing reviews, support tickets, post-purchase surveys, and social comments, AI can spot sentiment trends that might otherwise fly under the radar.
For example:
Related: 12 ways to upgrade your data and trend analysis with Ticket Fields
Whether you’re enriching customer data, making smarter product recommendations, triggering dynamic pricing, or proactively resolving support issues, AI gives your team the power to scale personalization without sacrificing quality.
With Gorgias, you can bring many of these use cases to life — from AI-powered chat that drives conversions to automated support that still feels human.
And with our app store, you can tap into additional AI tools for data enrichment, direct mail, bundling insights, and more.
Personalized ecommerce doesn’t have to mean more work. With the right AI tools in your corner, it means smarter work — and better results.
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TL;DR:
AI is no longer a futuristic concept associated with sci-fi movies and robots. It’s driving real change in ecommerce right now. Currently, 84% of ecommerce businesses list AI as their top priority. And it’s only getting bigger. By 2034, the ecommerce AI market is expected to hit $62.64 billion.
Brands that use AI to improve personalization, automate customer support, and refine pricing strategies will have a major competitive edge.
The good news? Most brands are still figuring it out, which means there’s huge potential for early adopters to stand out.
Let’s dive into the key AI trends shaping ecommerce in 2025, and how you can use them to future-proof your business.
Instead of searching for keywords, shoppers can upload a photo and instantly find similar or matching products. Visual search eliminates the guesswork of finding the right words to describe an item and reduces friction in the search process.
In 2025, improvements in computer vision and machine learning will make visual search faster. AI will better recognize patterns, colors, and textures, delivering more precise results in real-time.
For customers, visual search simplifies product discovery while brands benefit from increased average order values. Visual search creates more opportunities to surface related products that customers might miss during manual searches, ultimately boosting conversion and revenue.
Pinterest is already doing it. With Pinterest Lens, users can take a picture on the spot to find similar products or ideas to help them with easier purchases or creative projects.

Pro Tip: Optimize product images and metadata (like color, size, and material) so your products appear accurately in visual search results. Clean, high-quality images and detailed tagging will make your catalog easier for AI to process and match.
Conversational AI, like Gorgias AI Agent, already handles 60% of customer conversations. Brands that adopt it often see more than a 25% improvement in customer satisfaction, revenue, or cost reduction.
Soon, advanced natural language processing (NLP) will make it easier for customers to use text, voice, and images to find exactly what they’re looking for. These multimodal capabilities will elevate support conversations, resulting in fewer abandoned carts and support teams that can focus on more complex issues.
For example, Glamnetic uses AI Agent to manage customer inquiries across multiple channels, resolving 40% of requests automatically while maintaining a personalized touch. Their AI can automate responses to common questions, recommend products based on browsing history, and even track orders in real-time.

Pro Tip: Invest in AI chat tools that integrate with your customer support system and sync with real-time product and order data. Your responses will be accurate and timely, without losing the personal touch.
Read more: The Gorgias & Shopify integration: 8 features your support team will love
According to McKinsey, omnichannel personalization strategies, including tailored product recommendations, have a 10-15% uplift potential in revenue and retention. But with only 1 in 10 retailers fully implementing personalization across channels, there’s a massive opportunity for brands to innovate.
In 2025, AI-driven product recommendations will become even more precise by analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history in real-time. Predictive AI will adjust recommendations on the fly, showing customers the right products at the right moment.
Take Kreyol Essence as an example. They use Gorgias Convert to track customer behavior and recommend products based on past purchases and browsing patterns. When a customer buys a hair mask, AI suggests complementary products like scalp oil or leave-in conditioner — increasing average order value without feeling pushy.

Personalization boosts sales by helping customers discover products they actually want. Plus, it creates a more tailored shopping experience, which encourages customers to return.
Pro Tip: Test different recommendation strategies, like “frequently bought together” or “you may also like,” to see which ones drive the most conversions.
Learn more: Reduce Customer Effort with AI: A Smarter Approach Than Surprise and Delight
In 2025, more customers may use smart speakers and voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant to shop hands-free. AI will improve voice recognition and contextual understanding, so it’s easier for customers to find products they want.
Instead of fumbling with a keyboard, customers will be able to say, “Order more coffee pods,” and AI will not only recognize the request but also pull up the preferred brand and size based on past orders. Less friction will make the buying process more intuitive, especially for repeat purchases.
Voice commerce expands shopping accessibility and creates a more convenient experience for busy customers. It also opens the door for brands to surface product recommendations and upsell during the conversation.
Pro Tip: Optimize product descriptions and catalog structure for voice search. Clear, simple language and detailed product tags will help AI understand and surface the right products.
A recent McKinsey report suggests that investing in real-time customer analytics will continue to be key to adjusting pricing and more effectively targeting customers.
In 2025, machine learning will allow ecommerce brands to adjust product prices instantly based on demand, competitor pricing, and customer behavior. If a competitor drops their price on a popular item, AI can respond immediately, so you stay competitive without sacrificing margins.
Machine learning will also refine pricing models over time, finding the sweet spot between profitability and customer conversion.
For example, AI might detect that customers are more likely to buy a product when it’s priced at $29.99 rather than $30, and adjust accordingly. More competitive pricing means higher revenue and better margins, but it also increases customer trust when prices are consistent with market trends.
Pro Tip: Test different pricing strategies and monitor how they affect sales and customer behavior.
According to McKinsey, AI-driven personalization and customer insights can improve marketing efficiency by 10-30% and cut costs significantly.
In 2025, AI will analyze customer data like purchase history, browsing patterns, and feedback to generate smarter, more actionable next steps. Instead of guessing what customers want, brands will have the data to predict it.
For example, Shopping Assistant can identify a shopper’s interest level and purchase intent and then use it to adjust its conversational strategy. It analyzes shopper data like browsing behavior, cart activity, and purchase history.
Here’s how it would behave for different customers:

AI-driven personalization leads to a 5-10% higher customer satisfaction and engagement. Yet, only 15% have fully implemented it across all channels — leaving a huge gap to fill.
In 2025, AI-driven personalization will go beyond product recommendations. Brands will be able to adjust website layouts based on customer preferences, highlight products that align with their style, and even customize customer service interactions.
A higher level of personalization will boost conversion rates and customer satisfaction. When customers feel like a brand “gets” them, they’re more likely to make a purchase and come back for more.
For example, Shopping Assistant can adjust discounts and provide smart incentives to drive sales. When adjusting for discounts, AI Agent analyzes shopper behavior, including browsing activity, cart status, and conversation context, to offer a discount based on how engaged and ready the shopper is to buy.

Pro Tip: Use AI to test different personalization strategies and refine them based on performance data. Small adjustments, like changing product order or highlighting specific categories, can have a big impact on sales.
Keeping the right products in stock at the right time is about to get a whole lot easier. In 2025, AI will predict demand patterns and automate restocking decisions based on sales trends, seasonality, and customer behavior. Instead of manually tracking inventory, AI will handle it in real time to avoid stock issues.
For example, AI could notice a spike in orders for a specific product right before the holidays. It could then automatically increase stock levels to meet demand or scale back on items that aren’t moving as fast. Real-time tracking means fewer missed sales and less wasted inventory.
Efficient inventory management not only cuts costs but also improves the customer experience. When products are consistently available, customers are more likely to trust and stick with your brand.
Pro Tip: Implement AI-powered inventory management to sync data across all sales channels. This ensures accurate stock levels and seamless fulfillment, whether customers are shopping online or in-store.
AI makes it easier for brands to deliver a personalized and efficient shopping experience. From helping customers find products faster with visual search to automating support with conversational AI, there are plenty of opportunities for personalization.
The brands that adopt and refine these strategies now will be better positioned to meet customer expectations and stay ahead of the competition. Start by implementing conversational AI and later test some other AI trends like personalized suggestions.
Ready to see how AI can upgrade your brand? Book a demo to see AI Agent in action.
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TL;DR:
Ecommerce brands are under pressure to convert more shoppers, but relying only on AI or human agents can lead to missed sales opportunities. While 34% feel that the use of AI improved their customer experience, according to Statista, 27% feel it hasn’t made a difference — suggesting that AI alone isn’t always the answer.
It’s true that AI speeds up responses and personalizes interactions at scale, while human agents build trust and close complex deals. But the solution isn't to choose one over the other.
This article will evaluate the strengths of both AI and human agents, offering insights to help you optimize and scale your pre-sale strategies using a hybrid AI-human intelligence approach.
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Using AI and human support agents together in a hybrid approach will directly impact your success as a brand. It allows you to:
Reducing customer effort is one of the key ways to spark delight and satisfaction from customer interactions. The more stress-free and simple you can make navigating the shopping experience, the better.
AI comes in handy here in many ways, like:
All of these traits combined make a much easier experience for customers and an efficient, streamlined process for the brand. When agents aren’t bogged down with questions like these, they can focus on high-touch situations.
Pre-sales support moves the needle by answering crucial customer questions that might be blocking a purchase. Tools like Shopping Assistant make a world of difference on your store’s website. A part of AI Agent, Shopping Assistant has a 75% higher conversion rate than human agents, on average.
Here’s an example of what it looks like from bidet company TUSHY:

AI understands a shopper’s journey by tracking key behavioral signals: products and pages viewed, purchase history, and cart data.
The floating query bar transforms product search into a seamless conversation, eliminating the need for clicks, filters, or endless navigation. It allows customers to find what they're looking for through natural conversation with the Shopping Assistant—wherever they are on your site.
Because AI tracks this information, it can personalize interactions based on the signals above. It does this by asking clarifying questions and remembering previous interactions in the same session.
This type of proactive support actually leads to more sales: it garnered almost 10k in revenue for jewelry shop Caitlyn Minimalist.
”Customers interact with the Shopping Assistant like they would a customer service rep—it’s a two-way conversation where they answer questions and get personalized product recommendations,” says Gabi, Customer Service Lead at Caitlyn Minimalist.
That success was similar for beauty shop Glamnetic.
“An instant response builds confidence,” says Mia Chapa, its Sr. Director of Customer Experience.
“We live in a world with short attention spans, so customers appreciate how quickly we can respond to their inquiries.”

Quality assurance in CX is the process of ensuring that each customer interaction fits a specified list of criteria (communication, resolution completeness, attitude, etc.).
While this process has largely been a manual and time-consuming one, AI changes that for support teams.
AI-powered QA can actually review all tickets, is a scalable solution, is more consistent in its review process, saves time, and even provides instant agent feedback.
Manual QA, on the other hand, is a time-consuming and slow process, and often means feedback is delayed until leaders have the chance to review tickets. Even once they get to QA, there's a limit to how many tickets they can review in a given time frame.
Feature spotlight: Meet Auto QA: Quality checks are here to stay
AI can even make product recommendations for shoppers. These recommendations are based on browsing actions like if they repeatedly view the same pages and check return and shipping policies. It also tracks their entire behavior across your store: products and pages viewed, purchase history, cart data, and cart abandonment data.
Caitlyn Minimalist achieved incredible outcomes by leveraging AI for personalized recommendations:
“We've always based our customer service on a patient, empathetic point of view because a lot of people purchase for important moments in their lives—weddings, deaths, graduations. People are gifting in response to big life moments, so we need the Shopping Assistant to really listen to our customer’s situation and support them,” says Michael Holcombe, Co-owner and Director of Operations at Caitlyn Minimalist.
Shopping Assistant can also handle objections and offer discounts, if price is what’s stopping customers from completing a purchase.

We’re not talking about reducing headcount. AI just supports agents in being able to handle their core responsibilities better. For example, mybacs was able to double the number of tickets they resolved without adding a single person to the team.
“This isn’t a matter of eliminating jobs, but giving our employees their primary jobs back," says Luke Wronski, CEO of RiG’d Supply. “Our hope is to have AI give us the time back to have a conversation with you about the stuff that keeps us stoked to do what we do.”
Aside from saving money on hiring additional human agents, AI helps your support team reduce costs in other ways.
For Dr. Bronners, that meant 4 days per month in team time-savings by handling routine inquiries efficiently, and $100,000 saved per year by switching from Salesforce to Gorgias.
Gorgias is hands down the best AI tool—not just for CX, but also for teams like web, ecommerce, and marketing. And our customers couldn’t agree more.
“We were hesitant at first, but AI Agent has really picked up on our brand’s voice. We’ve had feedback from customers who didn’t even realize they were talking to an AI,” says Lynsay Schrader, Lab and Customer Service Senior Manager at Jonas Paul Eyewear.
Here’s a complete rundown of how Gorgias AI Agent bridges gaps in customer experience:
|
Pain Point |
AI Agent |
|---|---|
|
Limited working hours |
Operates 24/7 so customers don’t have to wait for a response. |
|
Juggling multiple conversations at once |
Can chat with as many customers as needed, and even remembers details within the same conversation. |
|
Answering repetitive questions |
Resolves frequently asked questions in seconds, freeing agents to focus on more complex requests. |
|
Limited time/lack of opportunity to provide proactive support |
Suggests solutions before customers encounter problems, uses advanced analytics to assess shopper intent, and adjusts strategies to nudge customers toward the checkout. |
|
Engaging customers with personalized messages |
Uses AI-powered intent scoring that evaluates user behavior, engagement, and responses in real-time to tailor responses, and sales strategy, and predict purchase likelihood. |
|
Using on-brand language across the team |
Consistently speaks in your brand’s tone of voice using Guidance and internal documents. |
|
Not enough time to focus on sales |
Engages customers with conversation starters, overcomes sales objections with recommendations, and guides users to purchase decisions with context-aware communication. |
A hybrid human and AI Agent approach is the best way to level up your customer support operations and sales strategy.
Book a demo with us to see the power of AI Agent.
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TL;DR:
As a CX manager, your reporting is your strategic advantage. It's how you prove your team's value, identify emerging trends, and determine exactly what decisions to make.
But when creating those reports becomes time-consuming? That's when insights get buried.
With Gorgias Dashboards, you can build CX reports rooted in your business goals. Unlike standard reports, these customizable dashboards allow you to mix and match over 70 metrics and KPIs, so you can track progress on efforts like reducing your ticket backlog, boosting automation rate, and more.
In this post, we’ll tell you why CX reporting matters, how to set up Dashboards in Gorgias, and show you seven different ways to customize them based on your business needs.
With 70+ charts and metrics to choose from, there are endless ways to style your dashboard. To make it easier for you, we’ve put together seven dashboards for specific use cases.
Let’s start with the basics. This is an all-in-one dashboard for a high-level overview of support and agent performance.
Recommended metrics to track:

Trying to bump up your CSAT score? This dashboard will help you improve customer satisfaction by keeping metrics related to response time and customer sentiment in your line of sight.
Recommended metrics to track:
Make sure to add a filter for customer satisfaction scores of 1-2 stars to dig into the reasons for low scores. Go to Add Filter > Satisfaction score > check 1 and 2 stars, as shown below:

What to look out for:

Peak seasons are the ultimate test of how robust your customer support organizational structure is, and nowhere is it more obvious than in your chat tickets. Without well-trained agents and proper automations in place, it’s easy to drown. Here’s a dashboard to keep up with chat inquiries.
Recommended metrics to track:
Don’t forget to toggle the filter for the chat channel by clicking Add Filter > Channel > Chat.

What to look out for:
Maybe you’re in this rut: You’ve established your SLAs (service level agreements), but your team is struggling to meet them. What now?
Go back to the data. With this SLA compliance dashboard, you can look at exactly how many tickets have breached or achieved SLAs while monitoring agent performance. This dashboard is ideal for brands that provide warranties and/or limited-time return windows.
Recommended metrics to track:
You may find that breached SLAs are caused by certain topics (like refunds) or channels (like social media). Dive deeper by adding a filter for contact reason and channel. Click Add Filter > Contact Reason / Channel.

What to look out for:
Constant returns and refund requests are issues you want to address immediately. Looking at return reasons per customer is inefficient. Instead, get the bigger picture with a dashboard that highlights customer sentiment and product data.
Recommended metrics to track:
Pro Tip: This dashboard works best if you have a Ticket Field for Contact Reason and Return as a Contact Reason. Then you can add a filter for return-related tickets by clicking Add Filter > Contact Reasons > Return.

What to look out for:
Related: 12 ways to upgrade your data and trend analysis with Ticket Fields
From food and beverage to skincare brands, product quality is central to your success. Use this dashboard to keep an eye on how customers feel about your products, then use the data to implement changes customers actually want.
Recommended metrics to track:
You can analyze specific customer sentiments (like tickets that only say “too salty”) by applying a filter. For example, you would click Add Filter > Ticket Field Filters > Flavor > Too Salty.

What to look out for:
More and more customers are using social media apps to shop — in fact, the global social commerce market is projected to grow by 31.6% each year through 2030. The best way to give browsers a good first impression of your brand is by prioritizing social media support.
Recommended metrics to track:
Don’t forget to apply a filter for your social media platforms by clicking Add Filter > Channel > Facebook / Instagram / TikTok Shop.

What to look out for:
You can create up to 10 dashboards. Here’s how to create a new dashboard:
Try it for yourself with our interactive tutorial:
With Gorgias Dashboards, CX managers have full control over their reporting.
By tracking the right KPIs and customizing dashboards based on goals, your team can set the standard for flawless customer support.
Find out the power of custom dashboards in Gorgias. Book a demo now.
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TL;DR:
AI is everywhere in customer service—powering live chats, drafting responses, and handling inquiries faster than ever.
But as AI takes on more of the customer experience, one question keeps coming up: Should brands tell customers when they’re talking to AI?
Legally, the answer depends on where you operate. Ethically? That’s where things get interesting. Some argue that transparency builds trust. Others worry it might undermine confidence in support interactions.
So, what’s the right move?
This guide breaks down the debate and gives CX leaders a framework to decide when (and how) to disclose AI—so you can strike the right balance between innovation and trust.
Depending on where your business operates, disclosure laws may be strict, vague, or nonexistent. Some laws, such as the California Bolstering Online Transparency Act, prohibit misleading consumers about the use of automated artificial identities.
For maximum legal protection, it’s best to proactively disclose AI use—even when not explicitly required.
A simple disclaimer can go a long way in avoiding legal headaches down the line. Here’s how to disclose AI use in customer interactions:
Truthfully, AI laws are evolving fast. That’s why we recommend consulting legal counsel to ensure your disclosure practices align with the latest requirements in your region.
But beyond avoiding legal trouble, transparency around AI usage can reinforce customer trust. If customers feel deceived, they may question the reliability of your brand, even if the AI delivers great service.
Related reading: How AI Agent works & gathers data
Research shows that 85% of consumers want companies to share AI assurance practices before bringing AI-driven products and experiences to market.
But what does “transparency” actually mean in this context? An article in Forbes broke it down, explaining that customers expect three key things:
How you disclose AI matters just as much as whether you disclose it. At the end of the day, AI isn’t inherently good or bad—it’s all about how it’s implemented and trained.
The way a brand approaches AI disclosure can impact trust, satisfaction, and even conversion rates—making it a decision that goes beyond simple legal requirements.
While some customers appreciate honesty, others may hesitate if they prefer human support. Brands must weigh the pros and cons to determine the best approach for their audience.
Let’s be honest: AI in customer service still carries baggage. While some consumers embrace AI-driven support, others hear "AI" and immediately picture frustrating, robotic chatbots that can’t understand their questions.
This is one of the biggest risks of transparency: customers who’ve had bad AI experiences in the past may assume the worst and disengage the moment they realize they’re not speaking to a human.
For brands that thrive on personal connection and high-touch service, openly stating that AI is involved could create skepticism or drop-off rates before customers even give it a chance.
Another challenge? The perception gap.
Even if AI is handling inquiries smoothly, some customers may assume it lacks the empathy, nuance, or problem-solving skills of a live agent. Certain industries may find that transparency about AI use leads to more escalations, not fewer, simply because customers expect a human touch.
Despite the risks, transparency about AI can actually be a trust-building strategy when handled correctly.
Customers who value openness and ethical business practices tend to appreciate brands that don’t try to disguise AI as a human.
Being upfront also manages expectations. If a customer knows they’re speaking to AI, they’re less likely to feel misled or frustrated if they encounter a limitation. Instead of feeling like they were "tricked" into thinking they were talking to a human, they enter the conversation with the right mindset—often leading to higher satisfaction rates.
And then there’s the long-term brand impact.
If customers eventually realize (through phrasing, tone, or inconsistencies) that they weren’t speaking with a human when they thought they were, it can erode trust.
Deception—whether intentional or not—can backfire. Proactively disclosing AI use prevents backlash and reinforces credibility, especially as AI becomes a bigger part of the customer experience.
Arcade Belts, known for its high-quality belts, wanted to improve efficiency without compromising customer experience. By implementing Gorgias Automate, they reduced their reliance on manual support, creating self-service flows to handle common inquiries.

Initially, automation helped manage routine questions, such as product recommendations and shipping policies. But when they integrated Gorgias AI Agent, they cut their ticket volume in half.
The transition was so seamless that customers often couldn’t tell they were interacting with AI. “Getting tickets down to just a handful a day has been awesome,” shares Grant, Ecommerce Coordinator at Arcade Belts. ”A lot of times, I'll receive the response, ‘Wow, I didn't know that was AI.”
You can read more about how they’re using AI Agent here.
We mentioned it earlier, but deciding whether or not to disclose your use of AI in customer support depends on compliance, customer expectations, and business goals. That said, this four-part framework helps CX leaders evaluate the right approach for their brand:
Before making any decisions, ensure your brand is compliant with AI transparency regulations.
AI transparency should align with your brand’s values and customer experience strategy.
Rather than making assumptions, run controlled tests to see how AI disclosure affects customer satisfaction.
AI strategies shouldn’t be static. As customer preferences and AI capabilities evolve, brands should refine their approach accordingly.
If you decide to be transparent about AI in customer interactions, how you communicate it is just as important as the disclosure itself. Let’s talk about how to get it right and make AI work with your customer experience, not against it.
AI doesn’t have to sound like a corporate FAQ page. Giving it a personality that aligns with your brand makes interactions feel natural and engaging. Whether it’s playful, professional, or ultra-efficient, the way AI speaks should feel like a natural extension of your team, not an out-of-place add-on.
Instead of:
"I am an automated assistant. How may I assist you?"
Try something on-brand:
"Hey there! I’m your AI assistant, here to help—ask me anything!"
A small tweak in tone can make AI feel more human while still keeping transparency front and center.

Read more: AI tone of voice: Tips for on-brand customer communication
One of the biggest mistakes brands make? Leaving customers guessing whether they’re speaking to AI or a human. That uncertainty leads to frustration and distrust.
Instead, be clear about what AI can and can’t do. If it’s handling routine questions, product recommendations, or order tracking, say so. If complex issues will be escalated to a human agent, let customers know upfront.
Framing matters. Instead of making AI sound like a replacement, position it as a helpful extension of your support team—one that speeds up resolutions, but hands off conversations when needed.
Even the best AI has limits—and customers know it. Nothing is more frustrating than a bot endlessly looping through scripted responses when a customer just needs a real person to step in.
AI should be the first line of defense, but human agents should always be an option, especially for high-stakes or emotionally charged interactions.
A smooth handoff can sound like:
"Looks like this one needs a human touch! Connecting you with a support expert now."
AI disclosure doesn’t have to feel like an apology. Instead of focusing on limitations, highlight the benefits AI brings to the experience:
It’s the difference between:
"This is an AI agent. A human will follow up later."
vs.
"I’m your AI assistant! I can answer most questions instantly—but if you need extra help, I’ll connect you with a team member ASAP."
The right framing makes AI feel like an advantage, not a compromise.
AI perception isn’t static. Regularly analyzing sentiment data and customer feedback can help refine AI messaging over time—whether that means adjusting tone, improving explanations, or updating how AI is introduced.
When you follow these best practices, AI can be a real gamechanger for your customer support. Just take it from Jonas Paul…
Jonas Paul Eyewear, a direct-to-consumer brand specializing in kids' eyewear, needed a way to manage high volumes of tickets during the back-to-school season without overwhelming their customer care team.

To streamline these conversations, Jonas Paul implemented AI Agent to provide instant responses to FAQs. This allowed human agents to focus on more complex cases that required personalized attention.
“Being able to automate responses for things like prescription details and return policies has allowed us to focus more on the nuanced questions that require more time and care. It’s been a game changer for our team,” said Lynsay Schrader, Lab and Customer Service Senior Manager and Jonas Paul.
Jonas Paul saw a 96% decrease in First Response Time and a 2x ROI on Gorgias AI Agent with influenced revenue. You can dive in more here.
Whether or not your brand chooses to disclose AI in customer interactions, the key is to ensure AI enhances the customer experience without compromising transparency, accuracy, or brand identity.
So how can you get started? Gorgias AI Agent was built with both effectiveness and transparency in mind.
For every interaction, AI Agent provides an internal note detailing:
Excited to see how AI Agent can transform your brand? Book a demo.
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TL;DR:
The AI revolution in ecommerce customer support is already here. 77% of service teams are already using AI, and 92% say it improves time to resolution.
Brands that embrace AI can improve efficiency, scale faster, and deliver better customer experiences.
But what does that look like in practice?
In a recent Grow Your Business in 2025 with Conversational AI webinar, Kevin Gould, co-founder of Glamnetic, and Zoe Kahn, owner of Inevitable Agency & former VP of Retention and CX at Audien Hearing, shared how their teams use Gorgias AI Agent to streamline support, reduce workloads, and convert more shoppers into customers.
For them, AI isn’t just hype, it’s delivering real results—and Kevin and Zoe have seen it firsthand.
Ahead, we’ll break down Kevin and Zoe’s firsthand experiences, covering:
Watch the full webinar replay here:
As ecommerce brands grow, so does the demand for fast, high-quality customer support. But hiring and training more agents isn’t always scalable—especially when a significant portion of support tickets are repetitive, like “Where’s my order?” or “How long does shipping take?”
That’s where AI comes in. Instead of bogging down human agents with routine questions, AI-powered support can handle high ticket volumes instantly, freeing up CX teams to focus on complex issues, relationship-building, and revenue-generating conversations.
Both Glamnetic and Audien Hearing have seen firsthand how AI can transform CX. Glamnetic reduced manual responses by 15,000–16,000 tickets, while Audien Hearing saw AI outperform some human agents in both response speed and upselling.
Related reading: How to build an effective AI-driven customer support strategy
As Glamnetic scaled, so did its customer support workload. Managing tens of thousands of tickets while maintaining fast, high-quality support became a challenge. Many of the inquiries Glamnetic receives are repetitive––think order updates, shipping questions, and product details.
The brand needed a way to streamline responses without losing the personal touch.
Here’s what made the difference: Glamnetic used AI Agent to automate responses for thousands of tickets, allowing human agents to focus on higher-value interactions that drive customer loyalty and sales.
Kevin Gould, co-founder of Glamnetic, was excited about infusing AI across the entire business. “CX felt like the first natural extension. A big part of that was [Gorgias] pushing us into it pretty quickly. We saw early on that AI could be a force multiplier for the business."

The results speak for themselves:
Read more: How Glamnetic uses AI Agent to handle 40% of Support Volume with "mind-blowing" results
"What’s really interesting is that AI handled 24% of tickets across the entire year…Now, we’ve gotten much smarter about how we deploy AI for revenue generation, and it’s been highly impactful. It’s well worth your time to deploy this across your company." —Kevin Gould, Co-founder, Glamnetic
Scaling customer support while keeping costs in check is a challenge for any fast-growing ecommerce brand—especially one focused on retention and long-term customer relationships.
For Audien Hearing, this meant managing a team of over 80 support agents while ensuring that every interaction added value to the customer experience.
Rather than endlessly hiring more agents, Audien Hearing turned to AI to optimize. AI Agent helped them handle high ticket volumes faster, without sacrificing quality. With AI handling routine inquiries, their team was able to focus on higher-value conversations that drove long-term growth.
Zoe Kahn, former VP of Retention & CX, notes the importance of efficiency when managing large teams, “Once you reach that scale, you have to figure out how to be efficient and adapt to the right tools. AI helped us a lot. That said, it’s not a magic button. It takes training and adjustment. Adopting AI with Gorgias has allowed our team to focus on the tasks that truly need a human touch."
The impact was undeniable:

Read more: How Audien Hearing increased efficiency for 75 agents and reduced product returns by 5%
"[AI Agent] ended up being one of our fastest agents—answering the most tickets and driving the most revenue. A lot of that revenue was potentially missed revenue because these were customers sitting on the site, asking questions about the products, and wanting an answer now so they could purchase…Now, AI can answer those questions immediately and convert those customers." —Zoe Kahn, former VP of Retention & CX, Audien Hearing
AI in customer support still raises eyebrows. Some brands worry about losing the human touch, while others fear AI will replace agents rather than support them.
Even Zoe Kahn was initially skeptical about AI’s role in customer experience:
"I wasn't fully convinced at first—I wanted humans talking to my customers. But as soon as I saw it working well, and just as great as some of my agents, if not even better because of faster responses, and we're having agents train it... it's much easier now with a bunch of wins.”
What changed? Seeing AI in action—handling repetitive, time-consuming tasks like order tracking and FAQs, while human agents focused on complex cases, upselling, and retention.
For Kevin Gould, AI wasn’t brought in to cut costs but to help the CX team work smarter, not harder:
“We try to think a lot about how to work smarter, not harder. On one end of the spectrum, there's a lot of tedious, repetitive emails that can be automated right off the jump. Then as you move up the stack, from servicing up to generating revenue, it starts to get really interesting. If our ultimate goal is to provide customers with the best experience possible, then why not free up our agents from tedious tasks and double down on the things that push us towards that goal?”
The key takeaway? AI isn’t automation just for the sake of automation. It’s for scaling smarter and freeing up CX teams to have the right conversations at the right time.
Related reading: How to automate half of your CX tasks
AI in ecommerce customer support started as a cost-saving tool and is now proving to be a revenue driver. Looking ahead to 2025, AI’s role in personalization, proactive selling, and marketing integration will only grow.
For Zoe Kahn, the future of AI involves building stronger customer relationships:
"Take time to create community with your customers. Have the ability to think not only about revenue driving but also customer retention. Every time you have an opportunity to talk to a customer, take it. If teams don't have that time that could be freed up from training an AI agent, we see them rushing through replies that could really ruin their relationships with customers."
This shift toward AI-powered personalization is something Kevin Gould is already seeing in action. He predicts AI will become a key player in conversational selling, guiding customers to the right products at the right time:
"Eventually, we'll get to a place where AI is going to become a great recommendation engine. If we sell press-on nails, and a consumer has bought a few different styles in the past, AI can quickly pivot into conversational selling."
Beyond support, Kevin also believes that AI is blurring the lines between CX and marketing. As brands gain deeper insights into customer behavior, AI-powered support will help fuel marketing campaigns, drive retention, and create highly personalized experiences:
"If I asked [my support agent] how she sees her job, she’d say it started four years ago as customer service, then evolved into customer experience. Over time, different layers of customer experience emerged to the point where it's now an integrated marketing role.
She's collaborating closely with marketing specialists—growth marketing, brand marketing, and more. At this point, this role is almost like an extension of the marketing team...It requires a balanced mindset that blends marketing expertise with a deep understanding of customer experience to be successful."
Related reading: 6 ways to increase conversions by 6%+ with onsite campaigns
In 2025, AI will go beyond responding to customers. It will anticipate their needs, personalize their journey, and turn support into a revenue-generating powerhouse.
As Kevin Gould and Zoe Kahn shared, brands that embrace AI free up their teams to focus on high-impact conversations that build loyalty and boost sales.
From Glamnetic reducing 15,000+ manual responses to Audien Hearing’s AI-powered revenue wins, the results speak for themselves. AI helps brands personalize support, engage customers in real-time, and even drive conversational selling.
Ready to see how many routine tickets you could automate? Book a demo to see AI Agent in action.
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