Authors
The field notes are written by a small group of people who work in and around customer service: operators, advisors, and founders. Here is who they are.
Priya Raman
Operator and advisor · Support operations and measurement
Priya spent a decade in contact-centre operations, latterly running support measurement for a subscription business through a hard scale-up. She advises customer-service teams on instrumenting AI deployments honestly, and writes here on the metrics that flatter the dashboard while customers leave.
5 field notes
- A high AI deflection rate doesn't mean your customers got help
- Why your support ticket volume didn't fall after you added AI
- Four metrics that tell you more than your deflection rate
- Does outsourcing customer service still make sense once AI handles the routine work?
- When not to automate a customer follow-up
Daniel Okafor
Architect and co-founder · AI systems and data architecture
Daniel is a data engineer turned architect. He has built the data foundations behind two AI customer-service rollouts, co-founded a data-tooling startup that did not outlast its market, and now consults on getting customer data ready for AI agents. He writes on why deployments stall on data, not models.
5 field notes
- Why Salesforce's contact center AI won't work until you fix your data
- The AI security gap in your contact centre is probably already open
- What it costs to take an AI customer service pilot to production
- Microsoft is shipping AI agents inside Dynamics 365 Contact Center
- Your AI agent can't see the customer's shadow workflow
Claire Bessette
Advisor · Customer success strategy
Claire led customer success at a B2B software company through its growth years and its acquisition. She advises Series A and B founders on building a customer-success function from scratch, and writes on what AI changes, and does not change, about the work.
Marcus Bell
Advisor and board member · AI governance and safety
Marcus came up through risk and compliance before moving into AI governance. He sits on the advisory board of a contact-centre software vendor and helps regulated companies set guardrails for customer-facing AI. He writes on accountability when an AI follows every rule and still does harm.
Sofia Lindqvist
Researcher and co-founder · Customer experience and customer behaviour
Sofia trained as a behavioural researcher and spent years studying how customers react to service. She co-founded a small CX research practice, and writes here on why customers trust, or quietly stop trusting, the AI in front of them.
Tomas Reuter
Operator and advisor · AI operations and reliability
Tomas ran site reliability for a SaaS platform, then moved into AI operations when his company put support agents into production. He advises teams on keeping AI agents reliable once they are live, and writes on the slow ways an agent gets worse after launch.
Naomi Tan
Co-founder and advisor · Conversational and voice AI
Naomi has worked on conversational AI since the early chatbot era, on both the building and the buying side. She co-founded a voice-AI startup, and now advises companies choosing a conversational AI vendor on what to test beyond the demo.
Gregory Fenn
Advisor · AI economics and ROI
Gregory is a former finance lead who spent his career pricing operations. He advises boards and operators on the economics of AI in customer service, and writes on why the returns so often go missing, and what the business case usually leaves out.
5 field notes
- Agree how you will measure AI success before you spend the budget
- How to build the business case for bringing human agents back
- What to do when a better AI platform launches mid-contract
- The operating change that makes AI customer service actually pay off
- Intercom renamed itself Fin: what it means if you buy the product
Hannah Vogel
Advisor · Customer trust and AI ethics
Hannah worked in customer advocacy and consumer protection before turning to AI ethics. She advises companies on deploying AI without eroding customer trust, and writes on the hidden costs that land on customers and frontline staff.
Andre Costa
Operator and advisor · Contact centre workforce and operations
Andre spent fifteen years in contact centres, including running operations for an outsourcer through its first wave of automation. He advises in-house teams and BPOs on the workforce side of AI adoption, and writes on the jobs question without the hype.