AI Won't Replace Customer Success
- It Will Reveal It

AI Won’t Replace Customer Success — It Will Reveal It

If you have been around long enough, like me, you recognize the familiar pattern in business whenever a new technology wave hits. The hype rolls in first, the budgets follow quickly, and then the strategy comes last — if and only if it shows up at all.

And yep, right now, we are living that cycle again with AI. Everyone is scrambling to “implement AI.” The problem is that few stop to ask what problem we are trying to solve. And in Customer Success or CX, that’s especially dangerous. Because AI, done wrong, doesn’t just disappoint, it undermines trust.

Automation Isn’t New, Our Expectations Are

Truly experienced client managers know automation in Customer Success isn’t new. We’ve been building alerting models, health scores, and task automations for decades. (Yes, decades, if you worked in Investment Servicing, you know what I’m talking about).

As my recent guest, Alon Ahronberg, VP of Customer Success at Atera, said when we spoke recently: “We always tried to build alerting models and health scores — AI just makes it faster.” Alon has a great perspective on this…AI doesn’t magically “transform” your work, but it can accelerate what you are trying to do. The significant risk here is that in our rush to “implement AI”, we forget the actual purpose — to enhance the customer experience. Efficiency matters, but so does intent. If you don’t know what outcome you’re solving for, AI might just make the chaos happen faster!

The Real Role of AI in Customer Success

Customer Success should be a relationship-driven business, not a transaction model. CSMs usually sit in the middle of a whole lotta complexity, desperately trying to connect what the customer needs with what the company can deliver.

And yes, AI can help, but only when we see it as a multiplier of human capability, not a replacement for it.

As Alon put it:

“For the CSMs, our job is fundamentally different. It’s about creativity. I see AI as a multiplier to what we do.”

That is the line that truly hit the mark with me. Because if you’ve ever worked directly with clients, you know the real work isn’t in the data, it’s in the nuance — the human judgment, the ability to read between the lines, the understanding that a “green” health score doesn’t always mean a healthy customer.

And AI can’t replicate that. But what it can do is free up time to focus on it.

From Efficiency to Empowerment

There’s a big difference between saving time and creating value. Too many leaders still see AI through the old operational lens, drooling over fewer hours, lower costs, and faster output. And worse, some with the goal of eliminating positions. Sure, that’s OK if you’re automating billing tickets. But seasoned CSMs know Customer Success is not an assembly line.

The wise know that the true opportunity with AI isn’t cost-cutting, it’s capacity building. Imagine if every CSM had an extra 20% of their week back — not to do more admin, but to think, plan, and talk to customers. That’s the sweet spot where AI can truly shine: reducing friction, not replacing function.

The Missing “Cockpit” Problem

Unfortunately, there is a paradox: the more tools you add, the harder it gets to manage the work. CSMs today live across multiple systems — including CRM, product analytics, internal platforms, communication tools, and now AI platforms that often don’t integrate with each other. Alon called this the missing piece the “CSM cockpit.” We all want a single workspace where insights, prompts, and customer data converge. However, the tech stack is fragmented, and security concerns exacerbate the challenge. Until we solve that, the best “AI strategy” is to simplify, not add more complexity.

Hey Gary, “So Where Do We Start?”

If you’re a CX or CS leader, here’s where I think the conversation needs to go next:

Define the outcome first. What customer problem are you trying to solve?

Are you solving for faster onboarding? Better adoption? Deeper relationships? AI should serve that strategy, not define it.

Automate the noise, not the nuance.

Use AI to clear the clutter — meeting summaries, repetitive reporting, data pulls, but please don’t hand over customer empathy to an algorithm!

Treat AI as a skill, not a system.

The future CSM isn’t replaced by AI; they’re empowered by it. Knowing how to use these tools responsibly will be as essential as knowing how to run a QBR. We don’t need Customer Success to become more robotic. We need it to become more human with help from smarter systems that let people do what people do best: listen, think, communicate, and build trust.

As I’ve said on the podcast many times, technology should enhance relationships, not replace them.

If you want to hear more of Alon’s and my perspective — including how he’s building his six-pillar AI framework at Atera — the full conversation is now live on Your Customer, Your Success (Episode 31).

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