This blog is a recap of, “Building AI-Enabled Support Teams,” TheLoops fireside chat featuring Kenji Hayward, Senior Director of Customer Support at Front, and Mariena Quintanilla, Founder, Mellonhead.
Today’s companies need to do more with less. Headcount is tight, customer demands are skyrocketing, and support teams are stretched to their breaking point.
Enter AI agents for CX: the strategic solution that’s transforming how organizations maintain quality, ensure personalization with each interaction, and improve agent efficiency.
AI agents represent a sophisticated ecosystem of intelligent systems capable of understanding context, learning from interactions, and dramatically improving support efficiency.
Gartner’s AI research on customer experience even predicts that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through AI agents.
From the moment we saw Kenji writing about the promise of AI-enabled teams on Linkedin, we knew we had to interview him for this very Fireside chat. And here’s a fun fact he shared during the session: he has is own AI Agent, Kenji-PT.
To help you and your team adopt AI agents with buy-in and success, we also included AI expert and trainer Mariena Quitanilla for her perspective as well. Read below for a few of their top takeaways.
From Chatbots to Coworkers: Redefining What AI Agents and Human Agents Can Do
According to Kenji, one of the first guidelines to building AI enabled teams is helping your team expand their definitions and understanding of AI.
We have shifted from AI being synonymous with rule-based automation and chatbots to it now encompassing a variety of different types. Getting your team to “buy-in” is no longer technical—it’s now cultural.
As Kenji explained, you may notice apprehension coming from more tenured leaders first, especially if they’ve been burned by chatbots or inaccurate assist tools in the past but stick to your vision of AI’s promise: eliminating monotonous work and showing quick wins.
As part of this cultural shift, change management will also be a key focal point. To that extent, Mariena suggests that CX leaders prepare now by redefining headcount planning, rewriting JD’s and reassessing the needs of your org.
“As generative AI capabilities mature, organizations are being forced to completely redesign their job descriptions and team structures, moving beyond traditional maintenance mode to rethink roles, hiring practices, and team composition. The result is a fundamental shift in how leaders approach organizational design, with a growing emphasis on Support ops roles and even potentially, knowledge generation.”
Watch this clip below for more context.
On Getting Your Team To Embrace AI As A Digital Assistant
To help prepare his team for embracing AI as their new digital coworker while overcoming skepticism, Kenji started modeling AI adoption first. To supplement his knowledge, he took a course on AI models. As part of his OKRs, he’s also having his agents complete the “AI For Everyone” by DeepLearning class on Coursera.
“As a leader, I recognize the importance of not just talking about AI, but actively using it daily, demonstrating to my team that I’m committed to learning and integrating these tools into our work.”
Pro Tip: If a course isn’t in your cards just yet, you can learn about AI through Allie K. Miller on Linkedin or by attending TheLoops recurring Fireside chat events.
On Integrating AI Agents Into CX: Metrics, Use Cases, and Techniques
We’ve heard for some time now how support metrics are changing and now, even more so with AI Agents available.
CX leaders are receiving top down mandates from their boards to report on usage and training AI as well.
During our “AI in Action Event”, Kartik Yagneshwar from Gainsight also confirmed this firsthand. Read more about it here.
Now, in this AI-enabled world, CX teams may also start tracking:
- Weekly time invested in training AI agents and providing feedback so they can improve
- Cross-departmental insights generated
- CSAT separated out between BOTS and agents
Pro Tip: If you’re still blending CSAT, look into AutoQA to separate this out across bots and human agents once and for all.
Final Steps To Successfully Implement AI Agents for CX
Both Kenji and Mariena agree, AI agent implementation isn’t about massive, complex deployments. It’s about strategic, incremental adoption. For example, Kenji and the team at Front started their own journey with AI tagging. Hear more below.
Pro Tip: Start small. Involve your entire team in identifying initial use cases. The most innovative solutions often emerge from frontline team insights.
The Human-AI Partnership: Progress Over Perfection
Here’s one last insight from this session: AI doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to amplify your team’s strengths, giving them room to do what humans do best—solve complex problems with empathy, creativity, and nuanced understanding.
Mariena elaborated on this just a bit further.
She also issued one final wake-up call for CX leaders: “And if you’re not already testing AI Agents, you’re not just behind—you’re risking becoming irrelevant.”
Ready to learn more about TheLoops AI Agents? Schedule a call with our team here. Or, sign up for our next Fireside chat with Mohan Achar, “AI At The Intersection.”
