Four Ways AI Will Change Customer Success—and One Way It Won’t

The breakthrough of ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is causing a step change in how industries will run now, and in the future. Leaders across industries are assessing how AI will affect them, their workers, and their bottom line. There’s a real fear that many people will lose their jobs as machines can process more information quickly and work more efficiently, 24/7, while never getting sick (computer bugs aside). Seen through a different lens, there’s a strong likelihood that AI can serve as a tireless assistant that takes on manual or rote tasks and analysis, leaving space for humans to do work that only humans can do.

So how might AI change the world of Customer Success? Here are four possibilities.

1. Write (better) personalized emails. Customer Success Management platforms already enable some personalization, and emails can be triggered. But each email is the same format, with dynamic fields for specific information elements. In reality, it’s a glorified form letter. AI will be able to scan a customer’s data, combined with the Customer Success Manager (CSM)’s call to action, to create a truly personalized and personable note. Imagine that you’ve had a call with a customer and they mentioned they were taking a vacation on Paris. You take a note in their file, and when you reach out again a month later, AI auto-generates a note that opens with a question about how their trip went, before communicating other critical information you want the customer to know.? Voilà- a tech touch initiative comes across as truly high-touch.
2. Take and synthesize call notes. Part of the mental load of a CSM is fully engaging with the customer while also taking copious notes- and then adding them to the customer’s profile. An AI informed by a Large Language Model (LLM) can understand human speech patterns and process this information so that the CSM can focus entirely on their interaction with the customer, and not on notetaking. It will be like having a trusted assistant by your side as you foster the human connection with your customer.
3. Surface key talking points and how to frame them. CSM platform dashboards and data tools like Tableau and Looker surface critical information to a CSM about a customer’s health, adoption, usage, customer support contacts, and more, but it still takes time and brain space for a CSM to interpret all of that data and manipulate it into pithy talking points for conversations with customers. AI will be able to do this seamlessly, synthesizing key data- which varies from customer to customer- and, importantly, take into account the customer’s concerns as expressed in their emails and CSM notes. The result will be talking points that a CSM can easily leverage, saving them time to focus on what is most critical- providing world class service to their customer.
4. Serve as a bridge between Product and Customer Success. One of the biggest pain points between these two critical teams is operational readiness; Product frequently releases new features, runs tests, and fixes bugs, and it can be challenging to keep up with the speed of product changes. AI can serve as a bridge between Product and Customer Success by summarizing changes and how they affect each individual customer—and it keep track of whether those features or bug fixes were requested by that customer. On the other side of the equation, AI can help synthesize customer feedback, and proactively identify for Product if bugs or issues reported by one customer are affecting others. This would help Success get ahead of product issues while also communicating important information to Product about what needs to be addressed and, if relevant, how severe a bug is.

What won’t AI do?

I don’t believe AI will replace Customer Success Managers. What distinguishes Customer Success as a discipline is its humanity, that a trusted advocate is available to provide advice and address concerns. In the end, we all crave connection, and sometimes we just want to talk to a human. AI should be viewed as a complement to a human, making the work of CSMs more impactful. CSMs may be able to take on larger Books of Business as a result, meaning SaaS companies will be able to maximize the efficiency of their Success teams.

What are other ways you believe AI will affect Customer Success?