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Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks have been a driving force behind the S&P 500 's impressive performance recently. The benchmark index has climbed over 21% year to date and gained more than 34% in the past 12 months.

Companies that were once reliant on call centers to address customer queries now have a variety of alternatives, from self-service portals and social-media-based customer service to omnichannel support and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions.