Hey folks,
We get a lot of questions about navigating change management when introducing AI and I wish I could tell you I have the magic formula. I don’t. But what I can share are some practical solutions that have been tried and tested by the broader community.
These ideas came from some really interesting discussions with CS leaders from around the world who attended a webinar I recently hosted on change management and team strategies for adopting AI.
We discovered pretty quickly that the challenges we’re facing – like managing customer skepticism and addressing team members' anxieties about their future roles – are universal, so sharing what works and learning from each other is our best path forward.
Here are some key tactics teams are using to help make the transition to AI-first support smoother.
1) Share your vision early and honestly
During our discussions, we heard of a few cases where unclear messaging around AI adoption led to some teams feeling anxious about what would happen to their jobs.
Uncertainty is daunting, so you need to be upfront about your AI strategy as early as possible and let people know what to expect. Are you planning to maintain headcount and redirect your team to more complex work? Maybe you’re hoping to improve SLAs with the time saved? Be transparent from the get-go about these decisions.
Open communication makes for the most stable work environment because it gives your team the clarity and direction they need to do their best work.
2) Reimagine your team's roles and responsibilities
With AI taking over more tasks, there’s a need to rethink how teams operate. For many of us, this has been an exciting opportunity to look at what our teams do with fresh eyes and find new ways to provide more consultative or success-oriented support.
A few interesting things that teams are exploring include:
- Revising KPIs and targets: At Intercom, we’ve decreased our expected ticket targets with Fin taking over more tasks. Our team now focuses on solving more challenging problems that require deeper thinking, so it’s only right that our measurement system reflects that.
- New channels and skills: Some teams are moving away from providing only text-based chat and email support to incorporating video calls and other more personal interactions. When customers specifically request a human, they're looking for a genuine partner to help solve their problem. Connecting with them in a more hands-on way is the best way to do this.
- Creating AI specialist roles: Multiple leaders are creating roles dedicated to AI management. Team members stepping into these roles own things like reviewing AI interactions, training the system, and improving knowledge base content – all of which open up exciting new opportunities.
3) Prioritize people and their career development
Planning for people’s long-term, fulfilling support careers should be a top priority for every team as we roll out new ways of working with AI. All of us want to see our team members get the most out of this very exciting opportunity we have ahead of us, and as leaders, it's on us to pave the way.
Show your team that you’re invested in their success by progressing these things early on:
- Your hiring process: At Intercom, we're reworking our technical screening to focus more on curiosity, autonomy, and problem-solving. With AI changing things so quickly, it's important that team members are comfortable facing complex issues and confident enough to try and figure things out.
- Promotion pathways: As AI shifts team members’ workloads toward more complex, consultative support interactions, you’ll need to create additional career ladders to ensure people can see a long-term future with you. If you want your top performers to keep providing value for you, you need to show them how you'll reciprocate.
- Compensation: If your team is taking on different types of work, their compensation needs to reflect that. Have you sufficiently benchmarked for these evolved roles? Don’t be afraid to lean on your HR and finance teams for help.
What I’ve shared here is really just the tip of the iceberg – there’s so much more to explore. If you'd like to chat more about any of these things, hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm always interested to learn about other teams' experiences.
