A Support Leader's Blueprint for AI-Driven Teams Built on Empathy

*The views and opinions expressed are those of James Elsner and do not represent the official policy or position of any organization.

As companies integrate AI, they face a strategic crossroads in customer support. The technology can be used to replace human agents for potential short-term gains, or it can be used to empower them, suggesting a path toward long-term, sustainable success. The choice often reveals a company's core priorities and its philosophy on the value of customer interaction itself.

We spoke with James Elsner,* a customer support professional with a decade of experience and a former Customer Support Team Lead and Subject Matter Expert at Tapcheck. He honed his expertise in process optimization managing projects at Mayer, where he handled contracts worth upwards of a million dollars, and in early leadership roles at Amazon. For Elsner, the nature of support has moved from local operations to a global stage.

Here, one of automation's key strengths is analyzing and parsing large sections of data that can overwhelm human agents, clearing the way for them to focus on connection and resolution. "Automation tools and AI are very good at doing what humans can struggle at, which is analyzing and parsing large sections of data. If applied properly, this can allow for an agent to jump in on a user's issue and have the AI do the grunt work of identifying the issue and suggesting a solution for the agent to implement."

• Beyond the Band-Aid: By clearing procedural grunt work, AI can create space for agents to focus on deep, diagnostic problem-solving. True resolution, Elsner says, comes from understanding the root cause of an issue. Success here depends on agents being equipped with more than just a script. "A superficial suggestion is a 'Band-Aid fix' that doesn't solve the root cause. Proper SOPs are crucial, showing agents how the system should work so they can identify the core issue through speaking with the customer," he stresses.

But even the best SOPs are just part of the equation. This entire model depends on empathy—the one thing Elsner argues can't be automated. Speaking from his personal philosophy, not official company policy, he defines empathy as the fundamental ability to see yourself in the customer's position. It's a principle reflected in the actionable mindset he imparts on his teams. "It might be the twentieth call you've gotten that day, but it's the first and only call they're going to make. My goal is to make any customer I speak with feel like they are the only person I'm going to speak with that day. And that's the kind of support ethic I try to impart on anyone I work with," he advises.

• A tale of two metrics: As AI handles simple queries in seconds, traditional metrics like "time to resolution" can be misleading. Elsner proposes a holistic, two-tiered framework. The "immediate" metrics can track short-term results. But the "long-term" metrics are designed to measure the sustainable success that comes from true, root-cause resolution. "When it comes to metrics, we need both immediate and long-term perspectives. Immediate tracks if the customer was happy and the issue resolved. Long-term asks: Does the issue resurface? Does the customer continue to have a good experience? Measuring both helps us constantly improve and give customers a gold-star experience," he outlines.

• The corporate immune system: This long-term view is what transforms the support function into a strategic asset. In his vision, support acts as the company's early warning system, where AI parsing data is the sensory organ and the human agent performing root-cause analysis provides the targeted immune response. "Support is a company's immune system. It's the first to detect problems like system issues or new feature glitches. This direct insight is why corporations are shifting to view support as a competitive advantage, not a sunk cost, offering immediate feedback without surveys," he says.

But for such a strategy to be sustainable, the goal is to avoid agent burnout. Placing such a high emotional and diagnostic burden on agents raises the question of internal culture. Elsner says that organizational support for the agent is a prerequisite for delivering exceptional customer care. "Speaking from personal experience, my best support experiences have been where I feel supported and seen by my team. The support agent's job is to support the customer, and leadership's role is to support the agent. It's critical to recognize exceptional work from agents and acknowledge their successes."

For Elsner, the choice of how to deploy AI isn't just tactical, but a reflection of a company's core philosophy. "We see the stories of companies slashing support dramatically and replacing them with automation. I don't think of AI as a tool to replace the human element. The industries that succeed the most are the ones that will focus on leveraging these new tools to support their agents instead of trying to replace them." In the end, the most durable strategy isn't a choice between technology and humanity, but a fusion of the two, using automation to amplify the essential human element of empathy.