No time to waste: 5 AI tactics to scale customer service without adding headcount

Customer engagement rates are about to explode, surging fivefold as customers increasingly reach out over digital channels. And the stakes have never been higher—CX organizations are predicted to become even more strategically crucial, managing skyrocketing customer expectations and driving revenue-generating interactions. Yet, two-thirds of CX leaders anticipate leaner teams, making it more critical than ever for them to scale smarter and faster.

Organizations are tackling these demands head-on by combining AI, automation, and self-service to increase capacity while reducing costs. For example, when Grubhub faced a 100 percent surge in ticket volume, it implemented automated workflows enabling diners to change orders and get refunds via self-service, cutting contacts per order by 37 percent. Our AI and automation customers are setting the bar, achieving a self-service ratio 2.4 times higher than their peers. And now is the time to act—CX leaders must scale self-service quickly or risk falling behind.

5 AI-driven steps you can take today for smarter, more efficient customer service

Drawing from the success of our AI customers, here are 5 simple, actionable steps you can take today to harness AI to scale your self-service and stay ahead of increasing demands.

1. Use data to pinpoint inquiries overwhelming agents

CX leaders can scale smarter by embracing a data-driven approach—a critical first step to get AI-powered self-service right. AI insights eliminate guesswork by identifying the inquiries overwhelming your agents, allowing you to deflect them to self-service and clear your queue. Start with AI-powered content cues that surface your most common customer questions—and let your ticket data guide your self-service strategy.

2. Harness your agents’ knowledge

Our most successful customers scale knowledge management by tapping into their greatest asset: their existing team. Your agents know your customers better than anyone—don’t waste that insight. Use generative AI to empower agents to create self-service resources more efficiently, giving them an opportunity to learn new AI tools while sharing their knowledge with your customers at scale.

Take sports technology company Catapult. Its agents use AI to quickly expand help center content and ensure a consistent brand voice, helping to boost its CSAT score to an impressive 97 percent.

3. Turn your knowledge into a dynamic, searchable resource

Self-service only succeeds if it’s intuitive for customers. Forward-thinking CX leaders are shifting to a knowledge-centered approach, regularly updating and optimizing their knowledge base to make it easy for customers to find and use. And as autonomous service models become the norm, this strategy is more crucial than ever—AI-powered knowledge base tools pave the way for a more autonomous future, allowing customers to resolve issues without contacting support. Start with AI-powered search to enhance knowledge accessibility and AI insights to keep content fresh.

4. Connect AI agents to your knowledge

Once you have a robust knowledge base, you can connect it to an AI agent to provide instant, 24/7 support across channels. And with 67 percent of customers already eager to offload customer service tasks to AI assistants, there’s no better time to act.

Your AI agent learns from your knowledge, empowering you to start automating support in minutes. Just look at startup Vagaro; by combining a Zendesk AI agent with its knowledge base, it saw deflection go from 4 percent to 47 percent in the first day.

5. Integrate your knowledge to build a team of super agents

Our AI customers build super-agent teams by integrating knowledge directly into their workspace, enabling agents to resolve issues faster and more effectively. They use two simple features that bring quick value: generative AI-powered search to help agents find relevant information fast, and agent copilots that proactively suggest responses to customer requests based on your knowledge resources.

And they’re seeing real business impact. Ninety percent of CX Trendsetters—CX leaders who’ve fully embraced AI—report positive ROI on AI tools for agents.

There’s no time to waste

CX leaders that are quick to adopt AI are gaining a competitive edge—early adopters are 128 percent more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX. To stay ahead, businesses need to act fast in implementing AI, and AI-powered self-service is the easiest and quickest way to start. Zendesk has the tools and expertise to lead you on this AI journey, ensuring your success in the next evolution of CX.

Get started today.