EverAfter’s 2025 Digital Customer Success Benchmark reveals a striking AI implementation crisis: while 72% of CS teams call AI “critical” by 2026, only 32% run even a single live use case, with just 3% achieving extensive deployment. Based on a survey of CS professionals from April–May 2025—61% in leadership or operations roles across North America and EMEA—the study identifies data quality as the top barrier (27%), outranking budget and skills combined.
Pilot Paralysis Grips the Industry
Nearly half the market remains stuck in “pilot paralysis”—31% exploring AI solutions and 31% running pilots, unable to move to production deployment. This represents a fundamental roadblock where data quality concerns create barriers that budget allocation alone cannot solve.
Operational Scaling Challenges Persist
Beyond AI adoption, the research reveals persistent operational hurdles. CSM bandwidth remains the #1 scaling obstacle (36%), with onboarding consuming 27% of CS time—the highest single activity. Despite digital transformation efforts, 68% of teams still drive outreach from CRM lists or spreadsheets.
Early-stage CSMs manage 28 manual touches weekly versus just four automated ones, highlighting the manual burden. Mid-market teams suffer most from routine follow-ups (38% cite as biggest time sink).
The Personalization Confidence Gap
A confidence crisis emerges around personalization: 52% of teams feel confident in their capabilities, yet only 33% deliver personalized journeys to more than half their customers, revealing the industry’s struggle to scale high-touch practices.
What’s Actually Working
Organizations successfully moving to production focus on practical workflow enhancements: AI-drafted QBR summaries (19%), auto-generated next-best-action tasks (17%), and predictive churn flags (14%).
“AI cut our quarterly renewals reporting by 30+ hours—freeing us for more strategic work,” said Jeremy Donaldson, CS leader at LifeLoop.
“We’re investing in tools like EverAfter—embedding them in our customer interface to drive traffic there first,” said Joshua K. Pritchett, Director of Scaled CS at Okta.
Industry Impact
“Teams are bullish: 72% say AI will be ‘critical’ to CS by 2026. Yet today only 32% run even a single live use-case. Data quality is destiny,” said Noa Danon, CEO of EverAfter.