Practical tips to sell your team and execs on AI

Hi folks,

I’m still coming down from the excitement of Pioneer – our first-ever AI customer service summit. There’s nothing like feeling inspired, and when you’re surrounded by hundreds of other support leaders and tech enthusiasts in-person and online who feel the same way, well, that takes it to a whole other level.

The conversations that we had with our customers are what inspired me most, largely because they threw into the spotlight the real ways that support teams are getting value from AI.

Many CS leaders have asked me for advice on pitching this “value” and justifying the ROI of AI. Faced with different pressures from execs and team members, it can be difficult to come up with a convincing story that gets the greenlight across the board.

This is where evidence of other teams’ success can help. As we hear more about the impact AI is having on customer service, it’s clear that this technology is freeing up human teammates to perform more high-value work in an incredibly cost-efficient way.

Using this as your hook, here’s how to make an effective case for bringing AI on board.

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Calculate the bandwidth benefits

AI is changing how CS teams operate because it’s taking over a large percentage of manual tasks and creating more time for humans to focus on more complex, meaningful work.?

Map out your current query volume and categorize tickets by complexity. You’ll quickly see how many simple, repetitive tasks AI can take over.?

When communicating this with execs, focus on the volume AI will enable you to tackle and the speed at which you can provide great customer service at scale. Share numbers that demonstrate AI’s capabilities – like Lightspeed Commerce achieving resolution rates of up to 65% with Fin AI Agent .?

With your team, emphasize that AI will help them do more of what they love – really helping people. With more time available, they can focus on developing stronger relationships and making progress on things that create a better customer experience. What they spend their energy on is precious, and AI will help them make the most of this.

Demonstrate how cost efficiency can benefit everyone

AI is changing the efficiency equation for support teams – from both a people and cost perspective.?

Estimate the potential reduction in cost per interaction by comparing your current metrics with examples you can find from other companies. This LinkedIn post from Robb Clarke, Head of Technical Operations at RB2B, is gold. He shares exactly how much implementing Fin cost and how much money and time it’s subsequently saved his team over the last six months. (Spoiler alert: $35k and 924 hours!)?

When pitching to your execs, focus on how more can be done with money that’s on hand. When talking to your team, reassure them that slowing down future hiring doesn’t mean anything negative for existing roles. In fact, like Natalie Hurst from Nuuly shared at Pioneer , removing the pressure to hire people quickly to meet demand allows you to stay more connected to your team and focus on maintaining your culture.

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Emphasize human potential

There is no one or the other – AI and humans are the future of customer support.

Making this clear is really important to help everyone get on board with a new way of doing things. By demonstrating how effective AI is at resolving frontline customer queries, you can establish the range of higher-value responsibilities that team members can take on when freed from routine tasks. This includes things like managing the knowledge content which feeds AI and exploring more proactive support opportunities.

This will help your exec team see how you’re planning to deepen the value your team provides – think switching the perception of CS from cost center to value driver – and make it clear to your team that their career growth is a priority for you.

We’ve reached a point with AI where businesses that have adopted it for customer service are pulling ahead, while those that have yet to are getting left behind. It’s a pivotal moment, and getting onboard early will benefit your team in the long run.

Our team has loads more content planned on this very important topic, so keep an eye out. You can also let me know on LinkedIn what you’d like to hear more about.

Here’s to unlocking value!

Ruth

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