What Does Life After Tier 1 Look Like?

We’re all on a one-way journey to a place where automation, integrations and Agentic AI have eliminated nearly all Tier 1 requests. Now, Tier 2 human agents can handle the remaining few in their spare time. The implications are broad and far-reaching, but today, we’ll focus on how this can change your organization’s staff levels. Ask yourself:

• How does that impact your labor requirements from numbers to sourcing to training?
• How does that impact your organizational structure?

Like a therapist, I don’t necessarily have the answers for you specifically, but with a combination of insight, experience and questions, we’ll find the answers together.

How to understand AI and Tier 1 erosion

Self-service technology has already kicked off the slow demise of human-first Tier 1 service, but AI has thrown gas on the fire. Agent Assist, for example, listens to conversations, analyzes issues, recognizes questions in real-time and proactively serves answers and advice before human agents can even move their mouse.

When used to its full potential, Agent Assist alone turns Tier 1 service from human-first to “human in the loop” or a kind of “human assisted self-service.”

High volume low complexity use cases are the first to go. Once those have been deployed, typically with up to 90% automation rates, most of the calls and chats tormenting your agents will be gone forever. Take a look:

• A global healthcare company increased their containment rate in chat from 3% to 40% within one month of deploying an AI Agent.
• An ecommerce company serving 7 million customers automated 88% of return label requests and 52% of “where is my order” requests end-to-end on the phone within three months, verifying 70% callers automatically and cutting 30 seconds of their AHT.
• A Middle Eastern mobile company decreased response time to an average of 6 seconds.
• A U.S. airline’s AI Agent handles > 800,000 conversations per month starting with only a few use cases.

Recognize the organizational impact

With existing technology and the current pace of AI innovation, there’s simply no future in which Tier 1 still exists. It’s time to examine your current hiring requirements, including both quantity and quality of agents. Your human workforce isn’t something that can turn on a dime or be changed by pushing a new update.

Begin by looking at your Tier 2 agents' skill sets. As Tier 1 requests evaporate, Tier 2 agents typically will face more complex, nuanced issues. The skill profile of these agents will shift toward problem-solving, critical thinking and emotional intelligence. This means that scripting should killed off entirely. After all, when AI Agents sound more empathetic and natural than your human agents, you’re doing something wrong.

Re-think your labor sourcing model

In a future without Tier 1, your organizational structure will likely streamline, with clearer differentiation between frontline specialists (formerly Tier 2), product experts and strategic customer experience roles. Experts will become increasingly important in handling the sophisticated inquiries that automation can’t or simply should not manage.

Consider how your sourcing strategy might evolve. The dramatic impact of AI Agents may well shift decisions toward insourcing highly specialized customer-facing roles. Outsourced providers may still play a role, but their services will need to adapt to complement a higher-skilled internal team, focusing on specialized expertise rather than volume-driven or seasonal support.

Additionally, forecasting future headcount and FTE dimensioning must account for somewhat reduced numbers, but also increased specialization. Your workforce planning will need to pivot toward higher-skilled, flexible teams that can manage technology, customer complexities and strategic objectives simultaneously. Do not replace CX experts with IT folks.

At the same time, moving into this new AI world with a focus on “headcount first” is letting past limitations blind you before you’ve even seen what’s possible. Headcount has been so critical, along with its associated costs, efficiency and forecasting because thus far, contact centers have been human-first, trying to scale manually. But that is a failing strategy.

For all intents and purposes, you have an unlimited AI army of skilled agents available 24/7 who won’t rage quit, be rude, sleep, take breaks or not show up for a shift. When you’re thinking about a post Tier 1 landscape, dream big, start strategic and envision a customer experience unburdened by yesterday's constraints.