Almost 80% of Americans Prefer Human Agents, but Why Is AI Growing in Customer Service?

Agentic AI has officially graduated from basic decision trees to unscripted autonomous agents, turning customer service into a massive $15 billion market. Startups like Decagon AI are pulling in a $4.5B valuation because of high enterprise demand. Hertz is already routing 50% of its phone interactions through AI voice, dropping its per-call costs by more than half. And the car rental giant is hardly alone. Companies are fast adopting AI customer service agents. However, about 80% of consumers still crave a human on the other line, and 40% of us would literally pay a premium just to bypass the bot. Fortune’s AI Editor Jeremy Kahn takes us behind the scenes to break down the delicate balance between instant resolutions and human connection.