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Will AI replace customer success managers? Here are sound arguments from both sides.
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Yet when OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, released its large language model (LLM) to the public, the tone changed. Suddenly, the rise of AI seemed to be more science than fiction, leading to a vigorous debate as to whether or not technology will replace human labor.
At our most recent BIG RYG conference, we posed a version of this question in an Oxford-style debate between four customer success leaders, ultimately decided by an audience vote. The question: Will AI replace most of your Customer Success team by 2030? Now, you can watch the debate here – and read on to explore the arguments for and against.
Making the argument that AI will replace customer success teams were:
- Kathy Isaac, vice president of customer success at Carbide; and
- Allastair Meffen, vice president of customer experience at Definitive Healthcare.
On the other side, making the case that AI will not replace customer success:
- Maranda Dziekonski, senior vice president of customer success at Datasembly; and
- David Verhaag, chief customer officer at Arist.
The discussion was moderated by ChurnZero CEO You Mon Tsang, while the audience contributec questions and ultimately decided who “won” the debate through a poll, which we will share at the end of this post.
The argument that AI will replace customer success.
The top arguments for AI were built on classic arguments for technology and automation, such as scale and efficiency. AI provides humans with the scale to do more with the same resources. Meanwhile, efficiency enables people to accomplish things in less time.
“It’s important to recognize that this assertion is not a speculative notion,” said Kathy. “It’s a reality, and it’s actively being driven today by technology and evolving customer expectations.”
She noted that customer success teams spend a significant amount of time on routine tasks. These include things such as managing meetings, researching customers, and responding to basic inquiries, which could all “be seamlessly handed over to machines.”
This would free up an individual contributor’s time to focus on “more complex and high-impact activities,” such as relationship building and identifying expansion opportunities.
As evidence of the potential of AI, Kathy pointed to research by McKinsey predicting that generative AI “will perform at a median level of human performance by the end of this decade.” The same research suggests AI-powered automation will yield productivity gains of up to 50% by 2025.
“That means AI can do half the work of your customer success staff, which essentially doubles their output,” she added. “Scalability isn’t just about handling increasing workloads efficiently. It’s also about being adaptable as you grow.”
In other words, AI will help businesses to better serve their customers—and customer experience is becoming increasingly important in competitive markets. A survey by Salesforce, for example, shows that 88% of customers say the experience a company delivers is just as important as the product or service they are buying.
AI frees up the time customer success needs to focus on strategic tasks, noted Allastair, Kathy’s teammate for the debate. The savings that are gleaned from efficiencies gained can be invested back into the customer success team.
The argument that AI will not replace customer success.
When the opposing side had their turn to debate, the team first went after the limitations of AI. Generative AI tools, for example, are unnecessarily verbose, repetitive and prone to making up answers to questions they’re unfamiliar with (i.e. hallucinations).
Miranda pointed to the typical experience of chatbots. “How many of you had the best experience of your life, and you want to give that business more and more of your money?” she asked the audience rhetorically [knowing laughs were audible].
AI is effective on rule-based tasks, she noted, but it struggles with nuance, detail and higher-level problem-solving. While the technology is likely to improve over time, she doesn’t think it will happen by 2030.
“Six years is like tomorrow,” she pointed out. “I am not convinced that we will be there in six years.”
The team pointed to three broad reasons they believe AI is not capable of replacing customer success by 2023:
- AI trails human performance in critical thinking. AI is highly effective at identifying patterns—yet humans still outperform AI when it comes to detailed problem-solving.
- Regulations are coming. A number of governments around the world are considering safety rules, which the debaters say will slow down future development.
- Humans desire human interaction. Humans are social creatures and people want to do business with other people they know, like and trust. Technology simply isn’t capable of fulfilling our innate need for human interaction.
“A big part of what people do is build trust and develop long-term partnerships with our customers,” said Maranda. “While AI can help us gather data and insights, it’s humans that maintain genuine connections.”
Maranda’s debate partner David added, “AI provides great productivity gains, but it can’t replace human interaction.”
Consensus view: AI will augment human performance, not replace it.
The session was largely structured to elicit sound arguments for and against AI. Most members of the audience that started the debate with strong views one way or another—remained unpersuaded.
The one cohort of people who did change their minds were those who were undecided when the debate began. Indeed, 15% of respondents polled in the beginning were “unsure,” but that number shrank to just 6% when the survey was conducted again at the end. All of those “votes” joined the side that thinks AI is incapable of replacing customer success.
If there was common ground found in the debate it was this: Customer success teams won’t be replaced by AI, but they could well be replaced by customer success teams that embrace AI.
For the record, that’s where ChurnZero currently stands too. The AI tools we’ve brought to market, like AI-powered customer briefs, are designed to augment customer success and help our tribe drive stronger business results.