Conversational AI spending is going to skyrocket this year – here’s why
Enterprise spending on conversational AI is growing, and it’s all down to the new industry trend


The growth in the use of conversational AI shows no sign of slowing, according to new research, driven by enterprise spending on agentic AI for services.
Analysis from Juniper Research shows that global revenue from conversational AI services is set to grow from $14.6 billion in 2025 to more than $23 billion by 2027.
Behind much of this growth, Juniper noted, is attributed to organizations cottoning on to the benefits to services of implementing agentic AI - a subset of AI which enables solutions to act independently to reach a pre-set objective.
In practice, this allows for the automation of tasks such as service enquiries and appointment scheduling over conversational channels, reducing reliance on intervention from human agents.
In the report, Juniper encouraged conversational AI vendors to capitalize on this trend by integrating agentic AI into their communications technology stack to create solutions that automate customer interactions across messaging channels.
However, to allow agentic AI to manage these interactions right across the customer journey, Juniper warned there will need to be tight integration with the business support systems where customer data is stored.
There should also be careful consideration of the level of autonomy that's given to agentic AI, the report warned, with human oversight of the AI's actions highly necessary during the early stages of implementations.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
"Conversational AI vendors must carefully moderate the outputs of agentic AI models during early-stage implementations. Issues around liability arising from hallucinations or erroneous communications must be avoided before enterprises’ trust in agentic AI can be established," said research author Molly Gatford.
"This will best position conversational AI vendors to capitalise on this substantial revenue growth over the next three years."
Agentic AI adoption is surging, but challenges lay ahead
While interest in agentic AI is surging globally, a report last month warned there are challenges ahead for early enterprise adopters.
Research from Pegasystems found that while six-in-ten workers in the US and UK are using AI agents on a daily basis, many don't trust their reliability or quality.
A third told researchers they were worried about the quality of work produced by agents, with a similar number pointing to a lack of human intuition and emotional intelligence.
Notably, three-in-ten said they didn’t trust the accuracy of AI-generated responses, with accuracy and reliability cited as the top priority for improvement in agentic AI tools.
Agentic AI has its dark side too, with researchers from Malwarebytes warning this month of the threat posed by malicious AI agents that can reason, plan, and use tools autonomously.
"With the expected near-term advances in AI, we could soon live in a world where well-funded ransomware gangs use AI agents to attack multiple targets at the same time," the researchers warned.
MORE FROM ITPRO
Emma Woollacott is a freelance journalist writing for publications including the BBC, Private Eye, Forbes, Raconteur and specialist technology titles.
-
‘LaMDA was ChatGPT before ChatGPT’: Microsoft’s AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman claims Google nearly pipped OpenAI to launch its own chatbot – and it could’ve completely changed the course of the generative AI ‘boom’
News In a recent podcast appearance, Mustafa Suleyman revealed Google was nearing the launch of its own ChatGPT equivalent in the months before OpenAI stole the show.
-
Microsoft is doubling down on multilingual large language models – and Europe stands to benefit the most
News The tech giant wants to ramp up development of LLMs for a range of European languages
-
Everything you need to know about OpenAI’s new agent for ChatGPT – including how to access it and what it can do
News ChatGPT agent will bridge "research and action" – but OpenAI is keen to stress it's still a work in progress
-
‘Humans must remain at the center of the story’: Marc Benioff isn’t convinced about the threat of AI job losses – and Salesforce’s adoption journey might just prove his point
News Marc Benioff thinks fears over widespread AI job losses may be overblown and that Salesforce's own approach to the technology shows adoption can be achieved without huge cuts.
-
IT leaders don’t trust AI agents yet – and they’re missing out on huge financial gains
News While the hype around agentic AI is building, trust in fully autonomous agents is proving to be a major stumbling block for enterprise IT leaders.
-
AI adoption is finally driving ROI for B2B teams in the UK and EU
News Early AI adopters across the UK and EU are transforming their response processes, with many finding first-year ROI success
-
‘The latest example of FOMO investing’: Why the Builder.ai collapse should be a turning point in the age of AI hype
News Builder.ai was among one of the most promising startups capitalizing on the generative AI boom – until it all came crashing down
-
Is ChatGPT making us dumber? A new MIT study claims using AI tools causes cognitive issues, and it’s not the first – Microsoft has already warned about ‘diminished independent problem-solving’
News A recent study from MIT suggests that using AI tools impacts brain activity, with frequent users underperforming compared to their counterparts.