Opinion
McDermott: AI can automate 80-100% of text support, but voice is unready
“If it's an easy landscape and we can cover the API estate with what we have, you could really get to 80 or a hundred percent depending on where you want to go. So as of today, it's all there. I think voice isn't quite there, and that's it.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
McDermott: Production-ready mass-market voice AI is roughly a year away
“Well, I think it's almost, it's basically ready now, so we're only kind of a yearish away, but I think to get it mass market, mass scale, and always get the latency and reliability that we want, probably still, probably, you know, that's coming online in the n…”
Insight
McDermott: Automating Support Drives Increased Human Escalations
“One of the things that we say is automation drives escalation. You know, as I automate something, more and more people, the Alex's of the world are pressing zero and asking to talk to the operator. And that isn't coming away.”
Insight
McDermott: Lack of backend APIs is the primary blocker for AI agents taking action
“I think if you don't have an API on that system, we can't swivel chair yet. With an AI agent effectively or, you know, reliably. And, you know, we can vibe code and build the integration for them, but the API has to be there. And so mostly the blocker, like wh…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
McDermott: Coding models will drive support automation more than computer-use agents
“I actually think what's really going to make a difference more likely than computer use models, computer using models is just the improvements in coding models. And that's a little bit basing the future on the immediate past. Coding models have gotten gotten s…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
McDermott: True AI Memory May Require Tech Beyond Current LLMs
“We might not get there with the exact technology that we're using for large language models at the moment, but it feels like some way that we want to get to with sort of frontier level at AI.”
Insight
McDermott: Autonomous continual learning creates an unverifiable black box for enterprise support
“When we're changing the machine and we're writing new articles and we're building new macros, it's sort of easy for the humans who own that machine to understand what's going on. Like the head of support technology can be like, yep, yep, that is the correct wo…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McDermott: 54% of Zendesk support-contacting users drove 95% of 2024 revenue
“If we look at our own company data, 54% of our customers contacted us for support in 2024, but they represented 95% of revenue.”
Insight
McDermott: Traditional customer support metrics are obsolete in an AI era
“Customer service is this human powered factory, right? The metrics are ones of throughput and effort. It's like tickets today, per day, time to first response. You know, all of these things where you're measuring productivity, average handle time. In an AI wor…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
McDermott: Generative Search Handles 30% to 40% of Support Inquiries
“They're deploying generative search and they're seeing, You know, upwards of 30, 40% of inquiries being handled by generative search.”
Opinion
McDermott: Direct-Answer Search Is Now Table Stakes in Customer Support
“Users who spend, you know, probably two human generations learning to type into a box and process 10 blue links have suddenly pivoted, and they just want the answer and the results, and I think that's table stakes for customer support at this point.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Zendesk: 47% of Customer Service Inquiries Stem From Business Failures
“We kind of looked at, we took a sample of. Fifteen million or more customer service conversations across send us customers. And we actually use chat GPT to classify the contact reasons or the intents and just kind of group them into cohorts. And you get someth…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
McDermott: Customer Support Will Add Dedicated LLM Channels
“And so I think, yes, we will, you know, if you think about, you know, you have a chat channel and a voice channel, and you have, you know, a messaging channel and an email channel, you're going to have an LLM channel. Where the LLM will kind of be the initiato…”
Disclosure
Zendesk uses Claude to evaluate support conversations for resolution-based pricing
“We have an agent that listens to every conversation that is automated and said, you know, cause we run a resolution platform and we charge for actual resolutions, not just conversations. And so we need to know that the customer's problem was resolved. And so w…”
Insight
McDermott: Enterprise AI Simulates Memory via Context Window Summaries
“I think we're experiencing memory through putting really good summaries into the context window, right, or into the prompt.”
Assertion Supported
McDermott: Zendesk has 20,000 customers using AI features
“Like Xendesk has 20,000 people using some kind, 20,000 customers using some kind of AI.”
Assertion Supported
McDermott: Anthropic's MCP and agent protocols are becoming industry standards
“There's a couple of standards out there. MCP, which was developed by Anthropic, and Agent to Agent, and a few other things, and they're becoming fairly standard”
