AI isn’t the real test for support leaders—what leaders choose to optimize with it is.
AI is already embedded in how customers get help and how support teams operate.
And the divergence is already visible.
Some companies are using AI to elevate support’s strategic relevance—freeing human expertise to improve adoption, surface friction patterns, and protect revenue.
Others are using it to automate activity and cut costs—scaling deflection while still measuring the same transactional metrics that have kept support reactive for years.
Both will describe themselves as “AI-enabled.”
Only one approach makes support indispensable, and the difference isn’t the technology.
It’s leadership intent—and what leaders choose to optimize AI for.