Short Answer: No. AI is genuinely useful for lead scoring, data organization, and repetitive tasks at scale, but research shows most customers still prefer talking to a real person, and AI still struggles with reading tone, building trust, and adapting mid-conversation. At CALLMARK Solutions, AI supports the telemarketing team. It doesn’t replace the actual conversation.
What AI Actually Does Well
AI tools are effective at dialing efficiently, sorting and scoring leads based on data patterns, and handling simple, repetitive questions at a scale no human team could match. For high-volume, low-complexity tasks, AI genuinely saves time and reduces manual work. Gartner’s October 2025 survey of 321 customer service and support leaders found that 91% feel pressure from leadership to implement AI, and Gartner forecasts that agentic AI could autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service requests by 2029, potentially cutting operational costs by around 30%.
Where AI Still Falls Short
Reading tone, adjusting to an unexpected objection, and building genuine trust in real time are still areas where AI lags behind a trained human agent. A conversation that needs to adapt based on subtle cues, hesitation in someone’s voice, a change in mood, an unscripted question, is still better handled by a person. Gartner itself frames this as a partnership rather than a replacement: as Kim Hedlin, Director of Research at Gartner’s Customer Service and Support practice, put it, service organizations are entering a period where AI and human expertise must work in tandem, with technology enhancing the experience while people provide context, empathy, and judgment.
What Customers Actually Want
Many people still prefer speaking to an actual human, particularly for anything involving a real financial decision or a personal service. A December 2025 SurveyMonkey study of over 2,000 Americans found that 79% strongly prefer speaking with a human instead of an AI agent, and 84% believe human agents provide more accurate support than AI. Trust builds differently in a genuine back-and-forth conversation than it does through an automated system, even a well-designed one.
Where AI Helps Behind the Scenes
CALLMARK Solutions uses AI-assisted tools for lead scoring and data organization, which speeds up the work agents do before and after a call. The conversation itself, however, stays human. This is less about AI replacing telemarketers and more about AI removing repetitive work so agents can focus on the calls that actually need a person.
Our Take
AI isn’t replacing telemarketers. It’s becoming a tool that makes human agents faster and more focused, handling the repetitive groundwork so people can spend their time on conversations that genuinely need a human touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will AI eventually replace telemarketing jobs entirely? Based on current research, this looks unlikely in the near term. Gartner forecasts agentic AI resolving a majority of simple service requests by 2029, but consistently frames this as AI and humans working together rather than AI replacing people outright, especially for anything requiring trust, empathy, or judgment.
Does CALLMARK Solutions use AI in its telemarketing services? Yes, for supporting tasks like lead scoring and data organization. Live conversations with prospects and customers are still handled by trained human agents.
Is AI voice technology used for customer service calls? AI voice bots can handle simple, high-volume inquiries effectively. For more nuanced conversations, especially sales and relationship-building calls, human agents remain more effective.
Curious how CALLMARK Solutions blends smart tools with real human conversations? Reach out to us to learn more.
Gartner. (2026, February 18). Gartner survey finds 91% of customer service leaders under pressure to implement AI in 2026 [Press release]. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-02-18-gartner-survey-finds-ninety-one-percent-of-customer-service-leaders-under-pressure-to-implement-ai-in-2026
Gartner. (2025, March 5). Gartner predicts agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention by 2029 [Press release]. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-03-05-gartner-predicts-agentic-ai-will-autonomously-resolve-80-percent-of-common-customer-service-issues-without-human-intervention-by-20290
SurveyMonkey. (2025, December). AI versus human customer service preference survey. SurveyMonkey.
