Building @SmartRole ยท CX Architect ยท Cutting through AI hype in customer service ยท Ex-Google ยท Newsletter โ cxarchitect.substack.com
Joined June 2011
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A hardware store just made its own website optional.
Bunnings is letting customers search, pick and buy straight inside Google's AI. No storefront. No menus. No site visit.
Your website was never the destination. It was always just the database. ๐ฆ
Jun 12
Klarna cut 700 support agents for AI. Re-contact rate jumped 25%. They hired them back. AI doesn't make the agent redundant. It makes the untrained agent redundant. ๐ฆ
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Jun 10
Microsoft says the AI voice startups can't deliver "the control enterprises require." Translation: the giant is nervous enough about Sierra and Decagon to name them in a blog post. You don't punch down at people you're beating. ๐ฆ
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Jun 8
Intercom's CEO just called out the entire voice AI space for running "fabricated demos" then dropped a fully live, unedited demo to prove the point. Half the agentic AI you saw this year was theater. The other half is sweating. ๐ฆ
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Jun 5
Avaya is putting AI robots in airports and government offices. Physical robots doing customer service in the real world.
We went from "will AI replace the chatbot?" to "will robots replace the front desk?" in 6 months flat. ๐ฆ
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Jun 4
Every CX vendor announced an "autonomous AI workforce" this month. Zendesk. Intercom. Avaya. Kustomer. All of them.
Nobody announced a plan for what happens to the actual workforce. Funny that. ๐ฆ
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Jun 3
Fujitsu x Anthropic are building AI agents that evolve themselves. No human gate. No approval loop.
Meanwhile most CX teams still debate whether AI should close a ticket.
The gap is getting embarrassing. ๐ฆ
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Jun 1
MakeMyTrip's AI agent went from 25,000 to 80,000 daily conversations in two quarters. 45% of usage from tier 2 cities. Over 200,000 bookings assisted.
The best AI agents aren't replacing humans. They're reaching customers that humans never could. ๐ฆ
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May 28
Zendesk just said they'll only charge when their AI actually resolves the problem. Not per seat. Not per ticket. Per outcome.
Every vendor still billing per agent is sweating right now. ๐ฆ
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May 26
Intercom renamed itself after its AI bot. Then launched an AI agent whose only job is managing that AI agent.
We're one step away from the AI writing its own press release. ๐ฆ
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May 22
RingCentral's AI went from answering phones to booking appointments, processing orders, and closing deals. In one update.
We spent years debating "will AI replace agents?" while the AI quietly became the top performer. ๐ฆ
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May 21
HubSpot's AI agent went from 20% to 70% resolution rate in 12 months.
9,000 customers. 53% of all AI credits consumed.
The tool your support team ignored last year is now doing most of their job. And it's still accelerating. ๐ฆ
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May 19
U.S. companies have spent over $100 billion on CX initiatives since 2013.
The return? "No detectable improvement" in customer satisfaction.
Maybe the problem isn't budget. Maybe it's that most CX teams are measuring things customers never cared about. ๐ฆ
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May 15
69% of customers say they'd choose automation over a human.
One condition: it actually resolves their issue.
The problem was never "AI in support." The problem is AI that doesn't finish the job. ๐ฆ
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May 14
74% of companies that deployed AI customer service bots have rolled them back or shut them down.
Three quarters.
Everyone's racing to launch AI agents. Almost nobody can keep them running in production. ๐ฆ
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May 8
Sierra just raised $950M to build AI agents for customer experience. $15B valuation. Nearly half the Fortune 50 as clients.
Meanwhile most CX teams still can't get budget for a new headcount.
The gap isn't closing. It's a canyon now. ๐ฆ
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May 7
Home Depot just killed their phone menu. Replaced it with AI that lets customers talk normally.
It took a hardware store to show CX teams that asking people to "press 1" in 2026 is embarrassing. ๐ฆ
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May 6
Amazon just split its contact center into four autonomous AI products: hiring, supply chain, healthcare, and CX.
Turns out contact center infrastructure was always the blueprint for automating everything. ๐ฆ
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May 4
$110M just got raised to build AI that handles 40,000 customer requests per second.
Your support team is still arguing over which canned response template to update.
This isn't a technology gap. It's an ambition gap. ๐ฆ
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Apr 30
CX teams used to celebrate CSAT scores.
Now they celebrate "containment rates."
We literally renamed "we stopped the customer from reaching a human" and turned it into a KPI. ๐ฆ
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