Accelerate your CX in 2025: A 5-step AI readiness checklist

The organizations set to surge ahead in 2025 are those that took bold, early action to prepare for AI. Consumers are already noticing the gap—70 percent report a clear divide between companies leveraging AI in customer service and those lagging behind. Yet, many teams are still unsure how to assess their AI readiness or where to start.

Preparing for AI begins with strategic operational planning. With 73 percent of CX leaders stating that scaling AI is critical to staying competitive over the next five years, it’s clear AI isn’t a one-time fix—it’s a continuous, transformative effort. Success requires rethinking your entire CX ecosystem, from systems to workflows.

Based on our experience working with thousands of CX leaders, we’ve identified five essential steps to get your operations AI-ready—and future-proof your organization for scalable success.

Get AI-ready – 5 critical steps for CX leaders

1. Start with a focused use case

Identify a specific, straightforward use case to begin with. Our most successful customers start with agent-facing tools like AI copilots or customer-facing AI agents. A focused pilot helps secure stakeholder buy-in, provides early insights to fine-tune your strategy, and lays the groundwork for tackling more complex use cases over time.

NEXT is a great example—the company began modernizing its CX operations for AI with a targeted proof of concept, giving agents AI tools for email support. The results? A 4-point increase in service quality and an 11 percent reduction in average handle time. This early success earned the CX team “AI credibility” across the business, paving the way for a broader rollout.

Related read: Zendesk AI customers are building teams of super agents: 3 ways you can too

2. Optimize your knowledge base for AI

Our customers instantly automate over 10 percent of all their support interactions by connecting an AI agent to their knowledge base. Use generative AI tools to get your knowledge base AI agent-ready—these tools offer AI-powered insights to keep content fresh and writing assistance to make articles clear, concise, and effective.

Create FAQ-style content that addresses your top customer queries first and organize it for easy searchability. This allows your AI to provide 24/7 support across channels and swiftly automate recurring issues without human involvement, even during peak times.

Related read: No time to waste: 5 AI tactics to scale customer service without adding headcount

3. Set up an advanced triage and routing strategy

AI does more than deflect tickets—it ensures customers reach the right human agent when it matters most. Use AI-powered routing to escalate critical cases, like sensitive issues, VIP churn risks, or policy exceptions, while letting AI resolve routine interactions that slow your queue. Start by setting clear business rules so AI can distinguish between scenarios and enable smooth hand-offs to human agents. This approach helps you focus your team where they can have the greatest impact and ensures customers get the right support at the right time.

For example, Liberty London leverages AI to classify and direct conversations to agents based on their skillset and customer intent, removing operational bottlenecks. Now, issues are automatically routed to the right place and get resolved faster, leading to a 73 percent drop in first reply time and a 9 percent boost in customer satisfaction.

4. Connect AI to key business systems

Make sure your middleware is ready to scale with your automation goals. This critical “software glue” connects AI tools to your business systems and key datasets, enabling AI to do more for your customers. That includes processing returns, authenticating users, or delivering hyper-personalized support. With AI handling a wider swath of customer interactions, your team gains time back to focus on high-impact, strategic work—like building stronger customer relationships.

Involve your security and legal teams early when integrating datasets and selecting middleware. Delaying their input can lead to compliance setbacks—or worse, compromise customer data.

5. Implement QA tools to measure and improve performance

Being AI-ready means having the tools to measure ROI, monitor quality, and consistently enhance performance. Continue to grow your AI capabilities for greater impact with AI-powered quality assurance (QA) tools—CX leaders can automate more than half of all support interactions this way. These tools provide real-time insights to identify gaps, highlight improvement areas, and uncover new automation opportunities.

Analyze both AI-resolved and human-assisted issues for a clear picture of overall performance. Track key metrics like automated resolution rates, human escalation frequency, and customer satisfaction over time to drive ongoing success.

Are you AI-ready?

The CX teams that will continue to lead in the new year are those laying the groundwork for AI today–early AI adapters are 128 percent more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX. True transformation takes time, and success begins with preparation now.

This blog series is your guide to becoming AI-ready, and we’re just getting started. Stay ahead in the world of AI-powered CX by signing up for Zendesk Insights, our LinkedIn newsletter. Be the first to access the next blog in this series and get the latest tips delivered straight to your inbox.