Most of us know by now that we’ve left the “AI is a buzzword” phase behind. We’re in the midst of a seismic shift, and AI is reshaping customer service from the ground up. But here’s the catch: many enterprises are still stuck in the past, clinging to outdated knowledge management (KM) practices that can’t keep up with the reality of rising customer expectations. Manual updates, rigid taxonomies, and aging content? That’s yesterday’s playbook.

The Gartner® Market Guide for Customer Service Knowledge Management Systems makes it clear: AI-powered knowledge management isn’t optional anymore. It’s the foundation of modern customer service.

At Upland Software, we’re proud to have RightAnswers named as a Representative Vendor in this report. With nearly 25 years of KM expertise, we’ve seen firsthand how the shift from manual processes to AI-powered automation is revolutionizing agent productivity and customer experiences.

By 2028, 40% of large enterprises will adopt AI-powered customer service knowledge automation solutions, up from less than 5% in 2025.

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Key Findings

• AI is rewriting the KM rulebook; manual tasks are being automated.
• Modern KM is needed for GenAI; trash in, trash out.
• Search is being reinvented; gone are the endless link lists. Clean, accurate answers are now here.
• KM is now a competitive differentiator.
• To us, RightAnswers’ recognition highlights how we help enterprises deliver trusted, AI-ready knowledge.

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The Problem with Legacy Knowledge Management

Legacy knowledge management is like running a marathon in flip flops; you’ll get there eventually, but it’s going to hurt. Manual taxonomies take forever to update, content reviews lag real time changes, and legacy systems bury agents in outdated and repetitive information.

This all creates one big mess of inconsistent answers, compliance risks, wasted agent time, and frustrated customers. If your team spends more time searching for information than actually solving problems, it’s not an AI issue, it’s a knowledge management issue.

The AI-Powered Shift

This Gartner report highlights how AI is rewriting the rules of knowledge management. The playbook is simple: automate the boring grunt work, let real humans do the thinking.

Content creation and curation processes are also changing. Human-in-the-loop AI can generate draft articles or summaries from customer interactions, while subject matter experts can confirm and refine them for accuracy and compliance.

The bottom line is that knowledge stays fresh, useful and instantly available. No more digging through a stale, 42-page article to find one usable sentence.

Why KM is the Foundation for GenAI

One of the biggest insights from the Gartner report is that knowledge management is no longer just a support function. It’s the foundation of successful AI adoption.

Without structured, well-governed knowledge, GenAI can confidently serve the wrong answer. But with automation and governance in place, KM turns GenAI into a powerful driver of CX and agent productivity.

Where the Market’s Headed

The KM world is moving fast. Gartner notes a growing convergence between contact center as a service (CCaaS) and customer engagement center (CEC) vendors, with KM now standing out as a key competitive differentiator.

One of the clearest shifts is in search. Instead of keyword dumps that spit out a laundry list of links, enterprises are moving to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and intelligent search. The result is less friction for customers and employees, while sensitive data stays secure.

In short, KM is no longer just support tech. It’s the secret weapon for CX wins.

RightAnswers Featured in the Gartner Market Guide

We’re thrilled Gartner recognized Upland Software’s RightAnswers in this year’s Market Guide. For us, it reaffirms our main philosophy: Knowledge with Trust, AI with Purpose.

What makes us different? At RightAnswers, we’re redefining knowledge management as the trusted knowledge layer; the connective tissue that powers AI systems across the enterprise. Think of it as headless knowledge management: separating knowledge from any one application so it can flow directly into the tools your teams and customers already use.

With RightAnswers, knowledge isn’t stuck in silos—it’s a living two-way link. Answers move seamlessly into conversations, workspaces, AI agents and the next wave of customer channels. Every interaction feeds back into the system, tightening accuracy, closing gaps, and ensuring your enterprise knowledge is always evolving with customer needs.

That’s why we’re honored to be recognized by Gartner. Our AI-powered taxonomy, Generative Answers for trusted, concise responses, and configurable workflows that keep content compliant and reliable are what make RightAnswers the go-to solution for the future of knowledge management.

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What KM Leaders Should Do Next

1. Prioritize knowledge automation as essential for customer service
2. Monitor KM KPIs like corpus health and utilization
3. Skip “search-only” AI tools, and look for full lifecycle KM automation
4. Test solutions with your own content to see the real impact

And from us? Make governance and structure non-negotiable. AI is only as good as the knowledge it’s built on.

Conclusion: KM is the Foundation for AI Success

AI is changing customer service fast, but the takeaway is clear: the enterprises that succeed won’t be the ones chasing the AI hype; they’ll be the ones modernizing their knowledge at its core.

By embracing automation, strong governance, and structured knowledge, organizations can break free from outdated KM and give AI what it needs to deliver trusted, consistent service at scale.

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Gartner, Market Guide for Customer Service Knowledge Management Systems, By Pri Rathnayake, Drew Kraus, Jennifer MacIntosh, 18 June 2025

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