You might have caught the recent buzz around Tobi Lütke’s Shopify memo that took over social media last week. The one where AI became a “fundamental expectation” for all employees.
I actually laughed when I read it.
Why? Because at Trilogy, we’ve been living this reality since early 2023. Our AI mandate dropped more than two years ago while everyone else was still figuring out if ChatGPT was just another tech fad.
Remember that mix of excitement and total confusion we all felt back then? That “okay but seriously, where do we even start?” moment?
We knew we needed to cut through the hype and find actual places where this stuff would move the needle. No fluffy pilots or innovation theater – just real problems that AI could solve better than humans.
The difference between companies talking about AI and companies transforming with AI comes down to one thing: finding that first concrete problem worth solving.
Building Atlas: Our AI Layer for Customer Support
We initially built a custom AI customer support layer on top of Zendesk, which we dubbed “Atlas.” This proprietary AI layer allowed us to enhance the customer experience by automating resolutions and intelligently assisting our agents.
The success of Atlas and Hermes made us look at what was already in our portfolio. Right under our noses was Kayako, an enterprise, level customer support platform we had owned for five years but hadn’t fully leveraged. By integrating our AI layer into Kayako, we gained complete control over our support operations.
Fast forward a year, and we’ve fully migrated off Zendesk onto Kayako powered by our Atlas. This move saved the company an additional $300,000 annually while achieving a consistent AI resolution rate exceeding 60%. Our human L2 and L3 support teams now focus exclusively on complex cases, working more efficiently and effectively.
We continue to evolve Atlas by adding new AI driven capabilities. For example, Atlas can now provision licenses automatically without human intervention, further streamlining our operations and accelerating response times.
Breaking Through the Overwhelm
I know you’re thinking, “It’s still overwhelming; I don’t know where to start.” Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Next week I am hosting a webinar where we’ll explore these strategies in more depth. This will be your chance to learn how to apply these techniques to your business and start feeling more in control. Whether you’re looking to improve your customer support operations, enhance your product offerings with AI, or simply find ways to reduce costs, we’ll show you how to get started with practical steps.
Join me and my favorite Irish customer support leader, Colin Guilfoyle, as we share our journey from zero knowledge to becoming world-class experts in AI-enabled customer support. We’ll walk through how we went from not knowing where to begin to building a system that’s fundamentally transforming how we serve our customers.
Best,
Kathy