What's the Real Value of Higher AI Accuracy in Product Support? | November 25th at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT | Register Here

Book a Demo
AI
Artificial Intelligence
Product Support
Knowledge Management

What Will Change in Product Support and Knowledge Management in 2025?

2025 will see AI Product Support and AI Knowledge Management prioritize expertise and depth over breadth to drive customer loyalty, improve accuracy and performance, and reduce the high costs of AI.

Tim LaBarge
Tim LaBarge
Dec 26, 2024

2025 will redefine how companies deliver exceptional product support, with expertise, efficiency, and sustainability driving the agenda. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Expertise Will Drive Net Promoter Scores (NPS)

AI-powered support solutions will shift the focus from more generic customer satisfaction metrics - like NPS or NES - to more outcome-focused metrics and results. With well-architected AI systems, you can deliver expert advice directly through customer self-service or empower human support reps with deep product knowledge. In 2025, customers will measure your success by your ability to solve their problems with AI on the first attempt. Expertise is the new currency of customer loyalty.

2. Structured Data Will Make a Comeback

Over the past two years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have wowed us with their ability to handle unstructured data—whether as generalists or within Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. But this success comes with trade-offs: escalating costs, slower performance, and the persistent hallucinations.

2025 will see a renewed emphasis on structured data, enabling LLMs to evolve from generalists into true specialists in your product and problem domain. Structured data doesn’t just reduce errors; it transforms AI into a precise, domain-specific tool that delivers consistent results.

3. Compute Costs Will Drive Strategy

The AI land grab led by OpenAI, Anthropic, and others feels reminiscent of the Dot-com boom: rapid growth at all costs, fueled by immense spending. While we don’t foresee an immediate bubble burst, rising hardware and energy costs will drive LLM providers to escalate prices.

This will make compute efficiency not just a technology concern but a strategic imperative. Organizations relying on AI-powered support will need to optimize their usage or risk unsustainable cost structures.

4. Power Constraints Will Demand Smarter AI

Energy consumption will become a critical bottleneck for AI development in 2025. Reports of nuclear facilities like Three Mile Island being considered for recommissioning to support AI data centers underscore the urgency.

The solution? Smarter, targeted AI models. By focusing LLMs on solving specific, structured problems within a well-defined product knowledge framework, companies can reduce both energy costs and environmental impact while maintaining cutting-edge support.

5. Expertise Over Process Automation

In 2024, AI-driven process automation dominated the conversation in product support. The question leaders addressed was: How can your human experts work more efficiently? By 2025, the focus will shift: expertise will surpass efficiency as the ultimate outcome.

AI will not only empower your support reps to resolve customer issues on the first try but will also turn your customers into experts in your product. Expert customers are happier customers. Expert support are happier employees. This virtuous cycle will deliver faster, better solutions.

In short, AI in product support is shifting from automation to acceleration—from second gear to fifth gear and beyond —as organizations unlock the full value of expertise-driven support.

Why It Matters: The Impact of AI Product Support and Knowledge Management in 2025

For Technical Leaders - Building Systems That Scale

The advancements in product support by 2025 aren't just abstract trends—they address real challenges in scaling, efficiency, and precision. Here's why these shifts are critical:

  1. Reducing Technical Debt with Structured Data
    Transitioning back to structured data minimizes hallucinations in LLMs and reduces debugging and iteration cycles. This isn’t just about better answers; equally important, t’s about building systems that operate with predictable, repeatable accuracy. For engineers and data architects, this marks a turning point in designing AI pipelines that deliver ROI without inflating compute costs.

  2. Optimizing Compute Efficiency in an Era of Constraints
    As AI models grow, so do the resources they require. By focusing on targeted, domain-specific AI, technical teams can reduce the load on GPUs and data centers, balancing performance with cost-effectiveness. This optimization translates to smoother deployments and more agile systems that adapt to evolving hardware and energy constraints.

  3. Shaping Future-Ready AI Systems
    Smart, specialized AI models represent the future of sustainable product support. Engineers will play a pivotal role in architecting these systems, ensuring they not only solve immediate customer issues but also align with long-term operational and environmental goals. The focus will be on creating scalable frameworks that prioritize expertise without bloating energy or financial overheads.

For Business Leaders: Driving Value and Differentiation

The impact of these changes isn’t limited to technical execution; they offer significant strategic advantages for businesses looking to lead in a competitive market. Here’s why this evolution matters:

  1. Long-Term Growth Through Expertise-Driven Products
    Turning customers into experts and enabling support reps with cutting-edge AI tools not only enhances customer satisfaction but also reduces customer churn. As product ecosystems grow more complex, businesses that make expertise the cornerstone of their support strategy will unlock longer-term relationships and recurring revenue streams.

  2. Customer Retention Through Expertise
    In an age where customer loyalty is fickle, first-contact resolutions driven by AI-enhanced expertise will differentiate the leaders from the laggards. Expert-driven support isn’t just about solving problems; it’s about building trust. Companies that excel here will see improved NPS, higher retention rates, and stronger customer advocacy.

  3. Cost Efficiency Without Sacrificing Quality
    Rising compute and energy costs could become a budgetary sinkhole. Businesses that prioritize compute-efficient AI strategies will protect their margins while maintaining high-quality support. This balance between operational cost and customer satisfaction is critical to staying competitive in 2025.

  4. AI Sustainability as a Brand Value
    With global attention on reducing carbon footprints, AI strategies that emphasize energy efficiency will resonate with customers and investors. A leaner AI approach doesn’t just save costs—it strengthens the company’s position as a responsible and forward-thinking brand.

2025: The Year Expertise Redefines AI Product Support and Knowledge Management

The changes ahead are clear: structured data, compute efficiency, and expertise-driven AI are the pillars of the next evolution in AI product support. Companies that adopt these principles will not only save costs but also delight customers, delivering results that drive loyalty and long-term growth.