In this episode of The Ticket, Ruth O'Brien, Senior Director of Automated and Proactive Support at Intercom, joins Bobby Stapleton, Senior Director of Human Support at Intercom, to break down key insights from Intercom’s 2025 Customer Service Transformation Report and unpack how AI is reshaping support teams, driving efficiency, and elevating customer experiences. They explore why AI adoption is accelerating, the rise of new AI-powered roles, and how businesses can navigate this shift. Read the ...
Feb 27, 2025•31 min•Ep. 465
Anthropic has successfully implemented AI-first strategies to manage customer support more efficiently, allowing human reps to refocus their efforts on higher value work, all while enhancing service quality. On today's episode we're joined by Emily Lampert, Head of Product Support at Anthropic, to unpack the real-world impact of AI-first support. They discuss why Anthropic—one of the world’s leading AI labs—chose to partner with Intercom, how they balance AI automation with human expertis...
Feb 20, 2025•38 min•Ep. 464
We spoke with Constantina Samara, Head of Customer Support at Synthesia, about how AI is reshaping customer service. She tells Declan Ivory, Intercom’s VP of Customer Support, how her background in psychology informs her approach to AI-driven customer service, the biggest opportunities and challenges she’s encountered, and how Synthesia is leveraging AI to enhance both support efficiency and the customer experience. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-dQX9ov5UeE?si=PZjeFoNEhG0p...
Feb 06, 2025•28 min•Ep. 460
We spoke with Natalie Hurst, Director of Customer Success at Nuuly, about her experience adopting AI in customer service. She tells Intercom’s Senior Director of Human Support, Bobby Stapleton, about the immense impact it’s had for both Nuuly’s support team and customers, implementation challenges she encountered – and overcame – and her vision for the future of AI-first customer service. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7jcu9JEVG5s?si=CH0OrL3cM6_Z8r24 😁 Follow the people: https:...
Jan 30, 2025•30 min•Ep. 462
In this episode of The Ticket, Customer Support Operations Analyst at Intercom, Kevin Furlong discusses his critical role, focusing on the balance between proactive and reactive work, the importance of data-driven decision-making, and the ongoing need for optimization in customer support tools. Kevin shares insights with Bobby Stapleton, Snr. Director, Human Support, Intercom on change management, cross-functional collaboration with product teams, and the impact of AI on customer support. Watch ...
Jan 23, 2025•29 min•Ep. 463
This week we're sharing a conversation with Angelo Livanos, who leads support at Lightspeed Commerce, who joined us at Pioneer, our AI customer service summit. Lightspeed's one-stop commerce platform allows merchants to provide the best experiences across every channel. Having spent most of his career supporting, building, and guiding teams across leading technologies, he's currently leaning into the AI revolution and helping shape the future of customer support. Angelo shares his insights with ...
Jan 16, 2025•29 min•Ep. 461
In this episode of The Ticket, CXChronicles founder Adrian Brady-Cesana joins us to talk about the four pillars of customer experience: team, tools, process, and feedback. Adrian tells Intercom Snr. Director of Human Support Bobby Stapleton about the evolving state of customer experience teams, the impact of technology and software, and the necessity of living playbooks. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcEkxwag2h8 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b...
Jan 09, 2025•28 min•Ep. 459
Welcome to a very special, limited-time only episode of Off Script , where two of the world's most compelling cultural voices – musical pioneer, visual artist, and activist Brian Eno and award-winning actor, author, and comedian Stephen Fry – come together to unpack the profound transformation AI is bringing to our world. Fry and Eno joined us at Pioneer, Intercom's first-ever AI customer service summit, where they explored AI's vast potential while interrogating its implications. These two lege...
Dec 12, 2024•20 min•Ep. 458
In this episode of The Ticket, Harry Spence, Director of Customer Support at ScreenCloud, joins us to discuss the critical aspects of selecting and implementing AI agents. In conversation with Intercom's Senior Director of Human Support, Bobby Stapleton, he explores ScreenCloud's customer support strategy, the importance of technology integration, and the need for a proactive support approach. 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystapleton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-spe...
Nov 28, 2024•24 min•Ep. 457
In this episode of The Ticket, Nick Clark from the Boston Consulting Group joins us to discuss the transformative impact of AI on customer service. He talks with Intercom VP of Customer Service Declan Ivory about how generative AI is reshaping customer interactions, the emergence of new roles within customer service teams, and the importance of professionalizing career paths in this evolving landscape. 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/decivory/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nichol...
Nov 22, 2024•34 min•Ep. 456
John Rossman, an early Amazon executive who played a key role in launching the Amazon marketplace business in 2002, joins Bobby Stapleton, Our Senior Director of Human Support, to discuss the concept of "Big Bet Leadership". This involves emphasizing the importance of making bold, high-stakes decisions in business. They also explore how customer service leaders can leverage AI to enhance customer experiences while navigating risks and uncertainties. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.b...
Nov 07, 2024•28 min•Ep. 452
Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe breaks down how AI is about to disrupt customer service on a scale we’ve never seen before. From bots talking to bots to AI surpassing human expertise, things are just getting started. The race to build and ship the future is on. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WIBibfv3SKk Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoghanmccabe/ https://x.com/eoghan Follow Intercom: Twitter: https://x.com/intercom LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intercom/...
Oct 30, 2024•21 min•Ep. 455
Last week, we hosted Pioneer, our first ever AI customer service summit where we brought together industry leaders and experts to explore how AI is revolutionizing customer service. In this episode, we bring you highlights from the event, including insights from Intercom Co-founder and CEO Eoghan McCabe, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Des Traynor, Chief Product Officer Paul Adams, and renowned industry analyst Benedict Evans. We also hear from Intercom customers Natalie Hurst from Nuuly, ...
Oct 17, 2024•29 min•Ep. 454
Meet the world's most advanced AI agent for customer service: Fin 2. This latest generation of Fin AI Agent combines our highest resolution rates with powerful new capabilities to deliver human-quality service to your customers. Learn all about it here: https://www.intercom.com/support-for-customers/ai-agent Watch this episode along with other Pioneer conversations here: https://events.intercom.com/pioneer-2024/ Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauladams/ Newsletters: Sign up for T...
Oct 10, 2024•43 min•Ep. 453
Robert Richman, author of The Culture Blueprint, chats with Bobby Stapleton, Intercom's Senior Director, Human Support, about the importance of aligning company culture with customer service. They discuss how a strong culture can help navigate change and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction as well as exploring the role of AI in customer service. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pQNqb6pyNQI?si=3ZqQaRDLNVLdSpiH 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystaplet...
Oct 03, 2024•28 min•Ep. 451
Robert Spector, author of The Century-Old Startup , joins Intercom's VP of Customer Support Declan Ivory to discuss the principles that have made US luxury department store chain Nordstrom a leader in customer service for more than 100 years. They explore how Nordstrom maintains a startup mentality, the importance of flexibility and transformation, and how the company's culture and values contribute to its success. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9hRfKgS8AU 😁 Fol...
Sep 25, 2024•29 min•Ep. 450
This week on The Ticket, we're joined by Fred Walton, a conversation designer at Intercom, to discuss the role of conversation designers in crafting engaging dialogue flows for chatbots and automated support channels. Fred shares tips for designing conversations that make AI agents and chatbots more helpful and natural, and discusses the balance between automation and human interaction in customer support. Fred is in conversation with Senior Knowledge Manager Beth-Ann Sher. 😁 Follow the people:...
Sep 19, 2024•31 min•Ep. 449
This week Intercom’s Senior Director of Product Marketing Kyle Rocco and Senior Product Marketing Manager OIivIa Singarella share some exciting news about new AI features in our customer service platform. Watch our latest Built For You Episode here: https://youtu.be/B7pjcm4u8mM 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-witte-singarella-66458b33/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylerocco/ Newsletters: Sign up for The Ticket: A twice-monthly newsletter bursting with all the insights, tr...
Sep 12, 2024•13 min•Ep. 448
In this episode of The Ticket podcast, Ruth O'Brien, Senior Director, Automated and Proactive Support at Intercom sits down for a conversation with Blake Morgan, a customer experience futurist and author of 'The Eight Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership'. Blake discusses the importance of customer experience and the role of leaders in creating a customer-centric culture, the impact of AI on customer interactions and the need to balance automation with the human touch as well as the significance ...
Sep 09, 2024•22 min•Ep. 447
In this episode of The Ticket podcast, Fred Walton, Conversation Designer at Intercom sits down to chat with Beth-Ann Sher, Senior Knowledge Manager at Intercom, about the role of a knowledge manager in an AI-driven customer service landscape. Beth shares her journey from being a product marketing manager to becoming a knowledge manager and discusses the daily responsibilities of her role. She explains how AI has reshaped the knowledge management role and the insights she gathers from AI tools t...
Aug 22, 2024•21 min•Ep. 446
In this episode of The Ticket podcast, we explore the research conducted by Intercom on providing a remarkable customer experience with Senior Product Researcher Lynsey Duncan. Joining Lynsey are Bobby Stapleton, Senior Director, Human Support and Declan Ivory, VP, Customer Support to discuss the key findings including the importance of problem ownership, where customers value companies that take ownership of their issues and work towards resolving them. The conversation also touches on the role...
Aug 15, 2024•21 min•Ep. 443
Intercom president Archana Agrawal discusses how AI is transforming customer service by challenging the traditional trade-offs between quality, speed, and cost. Tracing the evolution from personal, local interactions to global call centers and digital channels, she explains how AI can handle simpler queries swiftly, freeing human agents for complex issues. AI has the potential to revolutionize service economics, enabling businesses to provide high-quality, cost-effective support – hinting at a f...
Aug 08, 2024•21 min•Ep. 445
Providing great customer experiences requires deep knowledge about your customers. In this episode of The Ticket, Serena Chan, Research Advocate of Customer Experience at Dovetail, discusses how to conduct the right type of research and apply it to your CX. She talks about leveraging data effectively, balancing intuition with customer knowledge, and how to make sense of customer insights. 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystapleton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/serenaschan/ N...
Aug 01, 2024•27 min•Ep. 444
Intercom's Senior Director of Human Support Bobby Stapleton and VP of Customer Support Declan Ivory discuss the different strategies for getting buy-in from your execs when adopting AI-first customer service. We also hear the experiences of Constantina Samara, Head of Support at Synthesia, and Pat Barlow, Support Lead at Dovetail. Watch this episode on YouTube: 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystapleton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/decivory/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cons...
Jul 25, 2024•21 min•Ep. 442
Intercom's Senior Director of Human Support Bobby Stapleton and VP of Customer Support Declan Ivory explore strategies for getting AI buy-in from CS teams. We also hear the experiences of Ben Peak, Director of Technical Support at Robin; Elli Neeld, Product Education Content Creator at HoneyBook; and Carl Olsen, General Manager of Operations at Sharesies. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H_TL2PAXg3k?si=0_hpqfKvuXZ-y626 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystaplet...
Jul 18, 2024•24 min•Ep. 441
In this episode of The Ticket, we explore how AI can maximize team efficiency in customer support with Ruth O'Brien, Senior Director of Automated & Proactive Support, and Leanne Harte, Senior Manager of Customer Support. They'll share valuable insights on effective AI implementation, the impact on support teams, and actionable advice for leaders looking to boost team performance. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97F1WQWSM3U 😁 Follow the people: https://www.link...
Jul 04, 2024•26 min•Ep. 440
This week Intercom’s Senior Director of Human Support Bobby Stapleton, Senior Product Marketing Manager OIivIa Singerlla and Staff Product Manager Alissa Tyrangiel discuss some exciting news in AI-first customer service. Watch our latest Built For You Episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTAzvif5fzw 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystapleton/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-witte-singarella-66458b33/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alissatyrangiel/ Newsletters: Sign...
Jun 27, 2024•20 min•Ep. 439
Great brands that endure always leap on new opportunities. To understand the new AI opportunity, you must understand the underlying technology. Our VP of AI, Fergal Reid, is the perfect person to explain that technology, and how it will transform the way you provide customer service. Fergal has been working on applying machine learning to customer service for many years, and has been leading our efforts in building generative AI into the core of the Intercom platform. You can watch t...
Jun 20, 2024•27 min•Ep. 438
This week on The Ticket podcast, Intercom’s Senior Director of Human Support Bobby Stapleton and Director of Customer Support Operations Anthony Lopez unpack how customer support leaders can confidently guide their teams into this new strategic future being driven by AI. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAHX07s8eDU 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anlopezm/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbystapleton/ Follow our podcast: 🍏 Apple Podcasts https://pod...
Jun 13, 2024•17 min•Ep. 437
Renowned customer service and CX expert Shep Hyken joins Declan Ivory, VP of Customer Support at Intercom, to discuss highlights from his Achieving Customer Amazement Study and wants to help you create an amazing customer experience.and emerging trends shaping the future of customer experience. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOIYgZ2rRrk 😁 Follow the people: https://www.linkedin.com/in/decivory/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/ Newsletters: Sign up for The T...
Jun 06, 2024•38 min•Ep. 436
