Stop Replacing Agents — Start Empowering Them Austin Reece 6 minute read #Best Practices For too long, AI in customer service has been shorthand for cutting costs and headcount. At Gladly, we see a better way. One where AI empowers agents to be indispensable, not invisible. Agents rarely meet AI initiatives with cheers — a sign that decisions about their roles are being made without them. Their managers drop new technology into their workflow (often with little context), complicating an already tangled mess of tools. All of this is happening while customer expectations hit all-time highs. It’s no wonder agents feel overlooked. The real challenge for CX leaders isn’t just ‘bringing AI in.’ It’s bringing it in thoughtfully. Yes, there’s room to automate repetitive tasks. But the moment AI is positioned as a super-agent that can ‘do it all,’ you’ve lost. The goal isn’t to make agents obsolete. It’s to make them indispensable. To elevate them as the consequential heroes of your brand. Learn More About the Leading Customer Service AI Conference of the Year GLADLY CONNECT LIVE The Cost of Cutting Corners with AI How often do executives ask, ‘Can AI help us cut 40% of our support team?’ More often than they should. It’s a misguided mindset that reduces AI to a blunt cost-cutting tool. Too many companies frame AI as a way to eliminate headcount, but this approach comes at a cost to the customer experience. AI deployed solely to slash costs ends up slashing something more vital: customer trust. When companies prioritize deflection over connection, they trade short-term savings for long-term losses in loyalty. AI-driven deflection tactics push customers away from human support, leaving them frustrated and disengaged. Worse, some companies aim to replace entire contact centers, ignoring the value of high-impact, revenue-driving conversations that skilled agents are uniquely equipped to handle. It’s no surprise that agents view AI with skepticism. They’ve seen how these decisions play out. And they’re right to be wary. Broken AI Tools Are Holding Agents Back It’s no secret that agents often view AI with skepticism. And for good reason. Beyond the fear of job loss, too many AI tools fail to deliver on their promises, leaving agents frustrated, overwhelmed, and less effective. Here’s what’s holding them back. Overemphasis on automation. Many AI tools prioritize deflection and automation above all else, reducing customer interactions to transactional exchanges. This approach sacrifices the empathy and trust customers expect, leaving agents to deal with the fallout. One-size-fits-all systems. Generic AI solutions are rarely adaptable to the unique needs of brands or their customers. These tools fail to align with specific operational workflows or brand voices, resulting in impersonal, robotic interactions. Siloed systems. AI solutions that aren’t fully integrated into existing workflows create disjointed processes. Agents are forced to toggle between tools, wasting time and energy that could be spent on resolving customer issues. Lack of continuous learning. Static AI systems don’t evolve based on real-world interactions. Without ongoing learning and adaptation, these tools quickly become irrelevant, forcing agents to compensate for their shortcomings. Data siloes and poor context sharing. Many AI tools fail to unify customer data across platforms, leaving agents without the full context they need. Customers end up answering the same questions repeatedly, damaging trust and increasing frustration. Short-sighted metrics. Companies often optimize for speed or ticket closure rates at the expense of long term loyalty and satisfaction. This focus on short-term efficiency ignores the bigger picture of creating lasting customer relationships. These failures underscore the need for a better approach — one that prioritizes integration, adaptability, and alignment with human workflows. At Gladly, we believe that AI should serve as a true partner to agents, eliminating friction and enabling them to focus on what they do best: solving complex problems, building trust, and creating lifelong customers in the process. With the right tools, we can turn these challenges into opportunities and redefine the customer experience. BLOG AI vs. Customer Service Agents — When Human Touch Is a Must-Have Read now Your AI Should Work for Agents — Not the Other Way Around Ask yourself this: Is your use of AI empowering your agents, or just adding to their workload? The answer shapes whether your customer service team thrives, or merely survives. AI, when integrated thoughtfully, can drive both customer loyalty and agent engagement. By automating routine tasks and providing agents with the full customer context, AI becomes a true partner in delivering seamless support. Here’s how: Surface context. AI should surface a customer’s complete history in a single, lifelong thread, providing agents with a comprehensive view of past conversations. This eliminates the need for repetitive questions and ensures customers feel understood from the start. Recommend actions. AI should anticipate agent needs by suggesting actionable next steps based on real-time analysis of the conversation. This streamlines the resolution process and minimizes manual effort, enabling agents to resolve issues faster. Edit tone and style. AI should enhance agent communication by automatically refining messages to match the brand’s voice and tone. Whether it’s making messages more professional, concise, or approachable, this allows agents to focus on solving problems, rather than crafting the perfect response. Give agents guidance. AI should provide real-time recommendations for responses, empowering agents to deliver clear and effective solutions without overthinking their phrasing. This ensures efficiency and consistency in customer interactions. Support reactively. Acting as a co-pilot of sorts, AI should integrate seamlessly into a unified customer view, helping agents locate answers within the company’s knowledge base. This reduces time spent searching for information, allowing agents to resolve complex issues quickly and confidently. Empowered by these features, agents can focus on what they do best: solving complex problems, connecting with customers, and creating loyal customers of your brand. BLOG The 5 Customer Service AI Trends Shaping 2025 — Industry Leaders Weigh In Read now Empathy Scales When Humans and AI Work Together AI is a powerful enabler, but empathy is still a human art. Customers will always turn to people for understanding, reassurance, and connection. That is where your customer experience advantage lies. Gladly reimagines the AI-agent dynamic, where AI handles the repetitive, routine tasks that don’t require human ingenuity — freeing agents to focus on what they do best: solving complex problems, building trust, and fostering loyalty. It’s a partnership that turns support conversations into brand-defining moments. It’s not about replacing one with the other. It’s about enhancing both to create something greater. When agents lead with context and empathy, backed by AI’s precision and speed, your brand becomes unforgettable. DEMO Have Your Cake and Eat It Too — Get Exceptional CX While Saving Money Book a demo Share
