Zendesk recently hosted its exclusive AI Summit in New York City, an apply-to-attend event showcasing its latest in AI-powered customer service technology. The restricted list of attendees provided a valuable mix of existing and potentially new Zendesk customers to talk to. Some big hitters took the stage. Here’s our top takeaways from the event.
Being a Good AI Citizen is a Shared Responsibility
Kara Swisher, a tech journalism heavyweight and the event keynote speaker, stressed the need for a shared approach to AI ethics, involving governments, corporations, and consumers. She highlighted AI’s environmental impact, such as its substantial energy consumption — 26% of San Francisco’s energy, according to Swisher. So, AI and environmental innovation go hand-in-hand — we need to rethink data center designs and accelerate investments in clean energy sources.
Further, a 2024 Deloitte survey of nearly 23,000 Gen Z and millennial workers across 44 countries revealed that approximately 20% have actually changed jobs or industries due to environmental concerns. Businesses with more of a conscience are going to be the companies of the future.
Zendesk stood up and was counted by just having Swisher along. However, the company is holding its own given it:
- is committed to a 1.5-degree future. This target is central to the Paris Agreement, an international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the most severe impacts of climate change.
- had already delivered a carbon neutral product to customers and helped staff achieve carbon neutral travel by 2022.
- has purchased 100% renewable energy in global offices Since 2019.
Zendesk is doing the right things to be on the list of employers for the most capable new workforce. And as we all know, it’s the people — their creativity, passion, and dedication — that truly define and drive a company’s success.
A Platform AI Approach is Better than Use Cases
I started taking AI-related inquiries at Gartner in 2018 and since that time we’ve talked about identifying the right AI ‘use cases.’ This supports niche providers who align the narrative to the specific use cases that they support. Back then I’d talk bots having a single purpose that supported narrow intents you’d build on — there were four key use cases in customer service:
Since that time a lot has changed. Most notably, the shift to platform-based AI thinking that works across multiple company entities. Adrian McDermott, Zendesk’s CTO, said that the company’s philosophy is that, “AI should be tightly integrated into the work that you’re already doing”. So, powering a world of work that’s easier, faster and yet better is the goal. Perhaps, the secret to the success of leading AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic is having the same goal.
McDermott emphasized the critical need to “use AI to gain insights across operations, uncover trends, and detect anomalies in workflows.” This approach, one of three “parallel paths” he outlined to achieve ROI and break free from AI Proof of Concept (POC) purgatory, tackles a fundamental challenge: AI can’t fix customer experiences built on flawed processes. Unlike fragmented AI add-ons, Zendesk’s deeply integrated platform focuses on enhancing workflows holistically, ensuring sustainable improvements across the board.
Not All Workflows are Equal
A key topic at the summit was the challenge of fragmented workflows. The proliferation of cloud-powered applications layered alongside legacy systems, as part of a bimodal design, has created a fragmented ecosystem. Further, backend systems operating in silos make data sharing and process integration difficult. Trying to deliver effortless customer experiences is a bigger challenge than ever before.
AI’s potential is transformative, but its true power lies in how it’s embedded within workflows that work across organizational entities. Zendesk is doing two key things in terms of AI infused workflow:
- It adds an additional layer of intelligence to support more complicated processes across business entities to be automated.
- It detects anomalies in processes or spots trends to streamline operations to ensure that each touchpoint within a customer’s journey is more connected.
Improved workflows across organizational entities enables Zendesk’s AI-powered agents to better connect to backend systems like e-commerce platforms and order management tools. These agents do a much better job of resolving customer queries by driving actionable outcomes, such as processing refunds, delivering real-time order updates, and using purchase histories to make more accurate personalized recommendations. I believe this is an important differentiation being provided by CRM Customer Engagement Center vendors — the ability to connect entities is built into these apps.
Even more important still, Zendesk is enabling businesses to drive better customer lifetime value experiences. I’m pretty passionate about British Airways knowing when I became a customer, why I continue to be and reflecting on that when I engage with them on any one-off challenge I might have. I want to be treated accordingly based on my customer lifetime journey. So, Zendesk is addressing this much bigger customer experience ambition.
AI is Introducing the Opportunity to have your Operational Cost and Efficiency, and Revenue Growth Cake and Eat It
Historically we’ve seen the “customer base” strategy change based on the current economic climate — in a downturn market businesses target cost efficiency, while in a growing economy money is invested in ambitious goals. AI is enabling the ability to do both, regardless of climate. One Zendesk contact center customer told me, “The cost and time saving benefits mean I can offer headcount to other parts of the business.” Unsurprisingly, she’s getting more support for AI investments despite demands to reduce cost.
Whilst many will talk about containment and deflection as cost efficiencies, we see more real-world value — both in terms of savings and revenue growth — when thinking across the organisation. Maria Vargas, VP of Customer Service, Rue Gilt Groupe — a customer panel member — said when leveraging AI that, “It was more how can we help humans get a better dialog, get a cleaner dialog, get to problem solving faster. Versus hiding from our customers.” Vargas, said we must remember to, “keep the customer in customer service,” and is using AI to mine data to get more predictive in interactions and more consultative to make engagements more enjoyable, “If you purchased something and it was too small, did that turn you off? Because who wants to go up a size, right?”
Of course, containment done well is incredibly valuable. Brian Pliskow, GM and VP of Customer Support, Upwork, said, “We’ve seen a ton of success — we have an 80% self-service rate.” As a Zendesk user, it’s not just the interaction itself that’s being automated, of course, it’s related processes right through to back-end, too. Zendesk’s new AI capabilities have become the cornerstone of multiple customer panel members retention strategy — improving the customer experience and helping to mitigate the high costs of customer churn — providing essential ROI.
Getting Started with AI
All of the panellists agreed that the only real hurdle is to just get going. Michael Pace, Vice President Member Services, Personify Health, said, “It’s important to get over Artificial Intimidation”. Which I thought was a nice play on words. He laboured the point others had around the data, spending the time and energy on getting that ready, but then actually brought that to life talking about his own company challenges, “We do Benefits Administration, it’s really complex. I don’t understand my own benefits. And I work for a benefits company. It’s hard.” Being able to use an AI tool to assist his companies’ agents has got him thinking about a new flavor of containment that’s not so contained — and automated AI involvement, “like if someone is on hold for too long.”
Maria Vargas, VP of Customer Service, Rue Gilt Groupe framed things perfectly by saying, “In your network there are a lot of companies promising a lot of things with AI — they’re not all going to be able to deliver. And so do your research.” She continued, “Talk to existing vendors, like Zendesk, your partners, and see what they are doing. Get in on the early adapter programs as much as you can, and just see what’s out there. Because you don’t want to get into a position where you contract with somebody and they’re not going to deliver what you want.”
The Future of AI in Customer Service
In terms of future vision all of the panel talked about different things, which was refreshing. One member said, “I do have this vision, and I think we’ve started to implement it in some part, in which that line between AI and human agents becomes so much more blurred.” This is a little controversial in my mind. Humans excel at empathy, nuanced decision making and handling ambiguity while AI thrives in processing large datasets and performing repetitive tasks, crudely. Should we be trying to humanize AI over just playing to each of these agent types, strengths?
Earlier Brian Pliskow talked about AI being a force multiplier and I really like this term as well as the benefit he was describing around the speed of onboarding agents. He claimed the terms translates to,“The workforce that you’re bringing on to support your customers have a much shorter runway to become really successful with what they’re doing. They can then turn what used to be more tactical into more strategic. What’s exciting, is the capabilities that help our own agents in supporting our customers.”
Final Thoughts
It’s clear the customer service leaders who attended the event are not afraid to push the boundaries of what’s possible with Zendesk’s support. There’s still a relentless focus on enabling the human agent but they’re poised for how much further they can take the benefits of AI agents. The road to AI success is paved with innovation and responsibility — and Zendesk seems well on its way.
