Customer service teams need to redesign their operations around a coordinated system of human and AI agents, not just add AI into existing workflows, according to Hannah Deveney, Senior Director of Product Management at Zendesk. In a CX Today interview, Deveney explained that the next phase of AI adoption requires rethinking the entire service environment, from knowledge management to routing and orchestration. The shift is about creating an agent system where multiple agents-human and artificial-resolve work end-to-end.
Rethinking workflows, not just adding another assistant
"The next phase of AI is not about bolting on another assistant, but about rethinking workflows, knowledge, routing, and orchestration across the entire service environment," Deveney said. This approach moves beyond traditional team structures and treats the service operation as a unified system. It forces service leaders to examine how work gets routed, how knowledge is shared, and how decisions are made between human and AI agents. This broader shift in AI for Customer Support means automation is woven into the fabric of operations, not layered on top.
New roles for a new operational model
Building and maintaining these agent systems demands new roles that didn't exist in traditional contact centers. Deveney pointed to AI managers who oversee the performance of automated agents, and knowledge and service design specialists who structure information and workflows for both human and AI consumption. These roles focus on scaling automation while controlling quality and customer outcomes. Organizations that ignore them risk deploying AI that fails to integrate with the human team.
Why this matters for customer support teams
For customer support leaders, the interview offers a practical roadmap: don't just deploy a chatbot. Instead, audit your entire service environment-how knowledge is stored, how cases are routed, and how agents collaborate. The goal is to build a system where AI agents can handle complete resolutions, not just deflect tickets. For supervisors, understanding how to orchestrate both human and AI agents is becoming a critical skill. Resources like the AI Learning Path for Call Center Supervisors provide structured guidance on managing this new hybrid workforce. The teams that design for collaboration from the ground up will be the ones that scale successfully without sacrificing quality.
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