Gartner: Customers Are 3x More Likely to Use ChatGPT Than Your Brand Chatbot for Customer Service

Consumers are turning to third-party AI tools like ChatGPT for customer service at three times the rate of brand-owned chatbots — and that gap is widening fast, according to new Gartner research.

A Gartner survey of more than 3,500 B2B and B2C customers found that usage of third-party AI tools has doubled in the past year alone. Meanwhile, company-provided chatbot usage has not statistically increased since 2022. The divergence is a clear signal for CX leaders rethinking their digital service strategies.

Key Takeaways

• Customers are 3x more likely to use a third-party generative AI tool (like ChatGPT or Claude) than a brand-owned chatbot for customer service, per Gartner's survey of 3,500+ B2B and B2C customers
• 58% of customers have used generative AI to complete a task — B2B customers lead at nearly 75% — but most brands' chatbots redirect users elsewhere to transact instead of completing tasks directly, a "missed opportunity" according to Gartner analyst Eric Keller
• Two-thirds of consumers now use generative AI in their personal lives, work, or both — familiarity and trust with third-party tools is driving preference away from brand-owned alternatives

The more forward-thinking approach, according to Keller, is to design digital experiences as a single "intelligent front door" — not a chatbot widget in the corner of a webpage, but a conversational interface built into the entire customer experience. Companies that adopt this model are better positioned to capture engagement rather than cede it to ChatGPT and Claude.

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