L’Oréal slashes customer service time by 64 percent with AI

L’Oréal has dramatically improved its customer service efficiency using AI tools, reducing average case handling time by 64% across 25 North American brands. Advisers now close cases in about 2.5 minutes instead of seven, thanks to AI-generated drafts and automated processes. The company’s AI agent platform, Agentforce by Salesforce, summarizes conversations, drafts responses in each brand’s voice, and verifies the logged reasons before closing a case.

On the YSL Beauty and Kiehl’s websites, an AI agent now handles order status requests independently, authenticating shoppers, retrieving live tracking data, and resolving inquiries without human intervention. L’Oréal aims to automate 60% of order status requests, though shoppers remain cautious about AI handling payments, with only 24% willing to let an agent complete transactions.

The AI’s capabilities are carefully controlled, using only preapproved language and transferring complex or medical-related questions to human advisers. The system is designed to augment, not replace, customer service representatives, as stated by Alberto Rodrigues, assistant vice president of consumer care innovation and intelligence for L’Oréal USA. The next phase of implementation includes expanding the AI tools to Europe and adding Lancôme web chat and voice services.