Summary：Third‑Party Generative AI Surpasses Brand Chatbots in Customer Service Consumers are turning to ind

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Third‑Party Generative AI Surpasses Brand Chatbots in Customer Service

Consumers are turning to independent generative‑AI tools for help with purchases, troubleshooting and advice at a rate that has doubled over the last twelve months, while the uptake of company‑branded chatbots has flatlined since 2022, according to a fresh Gartner survey. The divergence signals a shifting balance of power in the customer‑service arena, where third‑party platforms are beginning to outperform the proprietary assistants that brands have invested heavily in over the past few years.

**Key Developments**
The Gartner study, which polled more than 4,500 online shoppers in North America and Europe, found that 38 % of respondents now use a third‑party generative‑AI assistant—such as those embedded in popular search engines or standalone apps—at least once a week for service‑related queries. That figure represents a 100 % increase from the 19 % recorded in the same period a year earlier. In contrast, only 22 % of shoppers reported interacting with a brand‑owned chatbot on a weekly basis, a proportion that has remained statistically unchanged since 2022. Analysts note that the growth is driven by the perceived versatility of third‑party models, which can pull information from multiple sources, handle nuanced follow‑up questions, and adapt tone without the constraints of a corporate knowledge base.

**Industry Analysis**
Industry observers attribute the stagnation of branded chatbots to