Building CX teams for the future of work.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 80% of customer service tasks will be fully automated. But this isn't about technology replacing humans — it's about redefining support, ownership, and essential roles.
Most traditional customer support roles will disappear in the next 5 years.
Customer support is being disrupted, and most companies are wildly unprepared. They either dismiss AI as hype or go too far with job cuts.
Klarna is an example of the latter. In August 2024, they famously went "all in" with AI, announcing dramatic workforce reductions, only to reverse course in 2025 when they realised their AI-first approach compromised quality.
While they eventually rolled back their expectations for how much support volume they could delegate to AI, Klarna provides an excellent case study: AI can enhance CX, but humans remain essential.
This post explores what it means to set up an AI-first CX team.
The shifting CX landscape
You’ve likely seen new jobs for “AI PMs,” “AI engineers,” and “GTM engineers”—all roles that involve functional experts (in product, engineering and growth) using AI to scale themselves.
Customer support is experiencing this same shift, moving beyond traditional efficiency metrics toward something bigger.
For years, support was defined by responsiveness: quick replies, fast resolution times, and high satisfaction scores. But this model is becoming obsolete. AI now handles the bulk of simple queries, raising a critical question:
Do we still need humans in customer support?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Yes, but these roles look very different from today's CS roles.
We believe a foundational point will inform the future: humans like feeling understood. Neuroscientific research provides direct evidence that not feeling understood activates brain regions associated with negative affect and social pain1.
This is precisely the feeling after a bad support experience, one we’ve all encountered.
Feeling “understood” requires a human. Not every support conversation will need a human, but every flow will need one to validate that customers feel understood.
Companies that are overly focused on efficiency risk repeating Klarna's mistakes, damaging trust and customer loyalty.
This is what typically happens when you remove humans but leave behind the chaos:
Bad automation → User not understood → Frustrated user → Broken trust.
A customer’s trust is the most precious thing a company can protect. It’s earned slowly but easily destroyed.
Many AI startups are following the playbook of putting AI in front of a customer before being confident it can deliver. Unsurprisingly, this leads to churn.
The future of customer experience is one where a support ticket doesn’t need to be triggered in the first place; the magic will be in AI anticipating an issue before it becomes one. And when an issue does happen, systems should prioritise customer understanding by clearly defining:
Who decides which issues get deflected and which get escalated?
Who designs the conversation logic between humans and AI?
Who defines what "good" looks like?
What roles are essential in this new CX ecosystem?
Future CX job titles
We like to think of future CX teams like successful restaurants. Profitability and efficiency matter, but the customer’s overall experience is equally vital.
This is more than a fun comparison—just like in hospitality, delivering great customer experiences depends on thoughtful systems and attention to detail.
Here are some future-proof CX roles, with restaurant analogies included:
In a great restaurant, the behind-the-scenes roles — architects, chefs, designers, maître d’s — make the magic feel effortless to the customer.
In a world where every product clumsily puts AI at every customer touchpoint, this “magic” becomes the premium experience.
Continuing with the food analogy:
AI is processed fast food, and human support is the new “organic food”.
With the right people in place—people who understand systems, signal, and build with intention—support becomes an engine for growth. It’s no longer simply a reactive function. Instead, it helps shape the product and informs direction.
This transformation is more urgent than it seems. AI is already reinventing support as we know it, and without these roles, teams risk duct-taping automation onto broken systems.
Are you hiring? If you need help finding these future-proof CX candidates, comment below, and we’ll reach out.
Are you looking for a job? Submit your resume here, and we’ll contact you about job opportunities we find.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4249470/
 | A guest post by
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