Hey there,

Generative AI is transforming the customer service industry, that much is clear. But as we’ve discovered when we started building Fin, our AI chatbot, generative AI is also dramatically changing the process of building product.

Developing a new type of chatbot for customer service built on GPT-4 is certainly thrilling, but it’s also quite nerve-wracking – there are so many open-ended questions with no obviously right answers, few completely wrong answers, and an infinite number of “let’s try it and see” answers.

In the newest episode of the Intercom podcast, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor discusses all this with two of our product leaders, Rati Zvirawa and Brian Donohue. It’s a funny and frank chat about making progress in the face of massive uncertainty.

For one thing, how do you work out the right product-market fit when the technology is developing daily – how do you figure out a direction forward when the ground keeps shifting and the market expectations keep moving? It‘s a balancing act that requires decisiveness, tenacity, and above all, teamwork.

Check out the episode to discover:

What we’ve learned so far about building an AI product.
How we ran the Fin beta, and what we sought to learn.
Our sense of current market dynamics around AI chatbots.
Our boldest predictions for the future of AI (take with a pinch of salt).

Keep on learning, keep on moving,

What we’ve been doing

beth mcentee

What will the future of customer service look like? We asked 400 CS professionals to find out

We recently shared some early insights from our research into the effects of AI on customer service. Given how fast the industry is changing, we wanted to share more of the learnings that we’ve gotten from over 400 support leaders in North America to help support teams take advantage of this immense opportunity.

We’ll be publishing the full report in the coming weeks, but some of the key insights include:

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of support leaders believe they’re already seeing value from their automation efforts.
Some 58% say that they expect to reduce support costs over the next five years by adopting AI.
Almost three-quarters (74%) of support leaders say they expect AI to transform customer support careers in the next five years.

Response Time: Vol. 7

This week, we caught up with another support leader for our Response Time series, where we chat with customer service leaders to find out what they think about support, book recommendations, and whether or not a burger is a sandwich (yes, really!).

Read on to find out why Maartje Daems, Customer Support Manager at Plug&Pay, considers an early start her best productivity hack.

Meet Fin, a breakthrough AI bot powered by GPT-4. Join the waitlist.

What's going on in customer service?

Sometimes Customers Are Just Having a Bad Day: Occasionally, you'll encounter customers who just can't be pleased – it might be your fault, but as "friend of the Intercom pod" Shep Hyken points out, some customers "are very nice people just having a bad day".
Small Improvements, Big Impact: 8 Simple Tips to Improve Customer Service: A group of successful entrepreneurs describe eight of the most simple yet effective strategies they've encountered to improve customer service.
Inside Tencent’s weirdly secretive customer service center: Fascinating account by Zeyi Yang of his bid to get his old social media account unlocked, involving a trip to Shenzhen to make his case in person.