AI for Customer Support: Deflection, Assist, and the Handoff

Support automation is sold and measured on deflection, a metric that cannot tell a solved problem from an abandoned customer. This cursus starts by replacing it, covers which contacts automate well, and why grounding is a legal requirement here rather than a quality preference. Then agent assist, which usually pays better at lower risk, including the suggestion-acceptance trap and what happens to new agents learning the job. Then running it: curating a corpus from ticket history, escalation that triggers early, and the volume mix that hardens once the easy contacts leave.