Hey there,

There’s been a lot of talk about the future of customer service roles, and whether AI will replace humans, or as we believe, open up new opportunities, skill sets, and even entirely new career paths.

At Intercom, we’ve recently welcomed our first ever Conversation Designer, Fred Walton, to the Support team. We chatted to Fred about what exactly he’s here to do, his thoughts on the impact of AI on human support reps, and much more. Here are some of the insights he shared.

Do you have a background in customer service, or is it something that you came to via a different avenue?
I come from a consulting background, working on different projects for various clients, a lot of whom were in the financial services. Although it wasn't directly in the customer service world, there was quite a lot of overlap between customer service and the work we were doing – how digital transformation would affect the customers of the clients, but also the clients’ customer service teams. We had to figure out how we could improve customer experiences through advancements in technology.

Could you talk me through your role as Conversation Designer with the Intercom Customer Support team?
Generally, I focus on the end-to-end self-serve capabilities that we offer to our customers, managing those from the perspective of Fin, our AI chatbot, and our workflows/bots. It means keeping up-to-date with everything new in the AI space and how we can build that into what we've got at the moment.

I review Fin and Workflow conversations that haven’t ended in a resolution, categorize them into different buckets and analyze how they can be improved, what the stumbling block might be, or how we can capitalize on the technology around us to improve the customer experience.

I also handle the workflows that kick in after Fin. If a customer does want to speak to a human, I manage and design any new or existing flows to acknowledge the specific utterance and help guide the customer to the right support teammate in the most efficient way possible. I monitor what’s being shipped and figure out if we need to incorporate new releases into our existing workflows to further streamline experiences both for customers and our own teammates.

I would imagine that you need to stay ahead of any trends, in the industry and the product itself, because the Customer Support team are going to be the first ones to notice them. Is that something you enjoy?
Yes, definitely. Things that can directly impact my world are released every week, and there's a lot of documentation to read to understand how this actually impacts our team, or how we can leverage something new to improve our customers’ experiences. You have to be extremely cognizant of what's going on in the company and further afield, so it keeps me on my toes and I am continuously learning.

Do you think there will always be a need for humans in customer support?
I am of the mindset that we will always need people, and being a customer myself for lots of different companies, I'd quite like there to always be people.

It's great to leverage AI, but you can use it to your advantage in different ways. For example, AI can be leveraged to help handle the manual and repetitive FAQ/similar type queries. While on the other hand, AI can help your teammate respond quickly using AI prompts but also allowing the support teams to focus on and strengthen their skillset in areas that AI currently can’t resolve such as customer queries that require investigative work for very bespoke setups and niche edge cases.

As you can see, AI is creating gaps in customer service teams that we couldn’t have foreseen a year ago. Fred’s role as conversation designer is just one example of the new, exciting opportunities that AI is opening up in the customer service industry.

The times they are AI-changin’,

Niamh OConnor Editor Intercom Content team

What’s been happening

Des Traynor on AI-powered UI (aka “Return of the Chat”) →

AI is already transforming software that has relied on text input and chat, but it’s time to start imagining how LLMs are going to revolutionize powerful tools with complex UIs. Here, our Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor explores how Chat UI can lead to a huge democratization of access to software.

The father of customer journey mapping, Chip Bell, on creating real customer partnerships →

Creating an atmosphere where customers see themselves as partners allows you to unlock their participation in new and innovative ways. We chatted to Chip about how co-creation partnerships with customers can tap into a well of creativity that will drive your business forward.

CX strategist Lynn Hunsaker on putting the customer at the heart of innovation →

One aspect of business is often overlooked in conversations about innovation: the customer experience. Here, Lynn Hunsaker discusses customer centricity as a motor of innovation – and how understanding customer needs and preferences paves the way for businesses to flourish.

Response Time: Vol. 11

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, their book recommendations, and the emoji they couldn't do without.

Read on to find out more about the strangest thing a customer has asked Kinga Superson, Customer Support Team Lead at Growbots.

What's going on in customer service?

Amazon looks to boost the customer reviews experience with generative AI: Amazon is using AI to reveal overarching themes across thousands of customer reviews, making it easier for customers to choose the right products.
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Twilio's Kathryn Murphy on using AI to boost customer experience: James Maguire of eWeek sits down with Twilio's SVP of Product and Design, Kathryn Murphy, to explore the ways her company is incorporating AI in the work they do.