I used to think the best customer service was fast, friendly, and easy. Now I’m not so sure.
In the past year, I’ve seen a different kind of gold standard quietly emerging.
No service at all.
Your refund gets issued before you ask. Your order re-routes before you notice a delay. Your problem gets fixed while you sleep.
This isn’t some new idea. Jeff Bezos called it out years ago:
“The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.”
Amazon has been the gold standard of customer experience for decades. They track your order and constantly notify you of its whereabouts, so you don’t have to call asking, “Where’s my order?”
Bill Price – Amazon’s first SVP of Customer Service – nailed the concept in the title of his 2008 book: The Best Service is No Service
Making this a reality outside of billion-dollar businesses like Amazon has been a struggle, but with the exponential improvement of AI, it’s no longer some distant future I’m envisioning.
It’s live.
Fast, cheap, and widely available AI means smaller organizations with a strong vision and a bit of ingenuity can do it. You can put AI agents to work across your business, sniffing out CX snafus before they happen.
No “contact us” button. No angry emails. Just silence. Because it was handled.
To get this done, you can’t just slap AI on top of existing systems. As Fish explains, the infrastructure must be built (or rebuilt) first so AI can operate natively from day one.
We’re entering a phase of autonomous CX. Systems that predict, correct, and close the loop without you even knowing.
But where do you start?
You need to build your systems on AI first. Our short eBook, The AI First Contact Center, charts the course. It shows how you can use AI across your entire contact center operation, to drive efficiency, of course, but also to open a window into what’s really going on.
Every call you get is a bug report that could help you focus and target your autonomous CX efforts.
This new era of CX is a real challenge for teams accustomed to measuring success by how well they respond. The new bar is how many customers never needed you at all.
Damian
…Wait, what? Where did Kerry go? In case you missed it, we explained the transition in last week’s email. He’s kindly still sending this out for me while we work through the challenges of moving the Teaching Robots to Talk audience over to The Last Mile. Hang in there, and enjoy the insights while we wrangle the tech.
PS: If you’re new here, this newsletter brings you the best from Waterfield Tech experts at the frontier of AI, CX, and IT. Also, Kerry posts weekly at The Dualist, and Fish and Dan share their thoughts every other week at Outside Shot and Daichotome.
Here’s what went down this week.
Bleeding Edge
Early signals you should keep on your radar.
Tech hiring grows because of AI. 69% of tech leaders say GenAI means hiring more (!) not less. Deloitte’s new survey shows most are adding roles to build and manage AI, not cutting headcount.
To fill a 200k worker gap, Australia is now recruiting UK talent to scale AI, fintech, and cyber. First step: training pipelines and skilled visas. The world still needs more great people in tech.
Leading Edge
Proven moves you can copy today.
Goldman Sachs has introduced the GS AI Assistant, an AI tool designed to assist employees with tasks like summarizing documents and analyzing data. The big guys are laser-focused on getting agentic AI right – fast.
Verizon rolls out Gemini AI for customer service. Their new virtual assistant now lives in the My Verizon app, handling billing, upgrades, and support. It’s trained on Google’s Gemini and hands off to humans when stuck.
Off the Ledge
Hype and headaches we’re steering clear of.
WhatsApp AI shared a user’s private number. Meta’s chatbot gave out a real person’s phone number when asked for a train company’s contact. Then it lied about it.
Hinge CEO slams AI friends as ‘junk food.’ Justin McLeod criticized Meta’s push for AI companions, warning they offer empty connections that could worsen loneliness. Yeah, he’s probably right.