{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "topic": {
    "id": "support-cost",
    "title": "Does AI customer service cut the cost of support?",
    "group": "Customer support",
    "summary": "Cost per contact, cost to serve and support spending that organizations tie to AI.",
    "passages": 6,
    "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/topics/support-cost",
    "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/topics/support-cost.json"
  },
  "passages": [
    {
      "id": "airbnb-customer-support-related-cost-per-booking-declined-2026",
      "text": "our customer support related cost per booking declined approximately 16% year-over-year",
      "context": null,
      "speaker": null,
      "speakerId": null,
      "speakerUrl": null,
      "speakerLevel": null,
      "role": null,
      "voice": "organization",
      "organization": "Airbnb",
      "organizationId": "airbnb",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/airbnb",
      "aiVendor": false,
      "work": {
        "title": "SEC filing (8-K exhibit: the company's own shareholder letter)",
        "type": "filing",
        "date": "2026-08-06",
        "publisher": "SEC filing (8-K exhibit: the company's own shareholder letter)",
        "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001559720/000119312526337928/d70413dex991.htm"
      },
      "grade": "A",
      "gradeMeaning": "A filing or earnings call the organization answers for.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-10-31"
      },
      "topics": [
        "ai-cost-and-spend",
        "support-cost"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "support"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/airbnb-customer-support-related-cost-per-booking-declined-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/airbnb-customer-support-related-cost-per-booking-declined-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "shopify-were-able-hold-gross-margins-relatively-consistent-2026",
      "text": "We were able to hold gross margins at a relatively consistent level quarter over quarter while Sidekiq usage scaled, which reflects some cost efficiencies in support",
      "context": null,
      "speaker": "Jeff Hoffmeister",
      "speakerId": "jeff-hoffmeister",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/jeff-hoffmeister",
      "speakerLevel": "executive",
      "role": "Chief Financial Officer",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Shopify",
      "organizationId": "shopify",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/shopify",
      "aiVendor": false,
      "work": {
        "title": "earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site)",
        "type": "earnings-call",
        "date": "2026-08-05",
        "publisher": "earnings call transcript via Platform Aeronaut (third-party transcript site)",
        "url": "https://transcripts.platformaeronaut.com/transcripts/SHOP-2Q26-transcript"
      },
      "grade": "A",
      "gradeMeaning": "A filing or earnings call the organization answers for.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-10-31"
      },
      "topics": [
        "ai-cost-and-spend",
        "ai-support-resolution",
        "support-cost"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "support"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/shopify-were-able-hold-gross-margins-relatively-consistent-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/shopify-were-able-hold-gross-margins-relatively-consistent-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "chime-ai-reduce-cost-serve-nearly-30-2026",
      "text": "AI is transforming how we operate: Over the past three years, AI has helped us reduce cost to serve by nearly 30% and increase ARPAM by 23%, all while improving customer satisfaction. AI has also meaningfully increased internal productivity: we have boosted developer throughput, cut code review time, and more than doubled marketing creative output while reducing production costs.",
      "context": null,
      "speaker": null,
      "speakerId": null,
      "speakerUrl": null,
      "speakerLevel": null,
      "role": null,
      "voice": "organization",
      "organization": "Chime",
      "organizationId": "chime",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/chime",
      "aiVendor": false,
      "work": {
        "title": "Chime Financial, Inc. Q4 and full year 2025 results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)",
        "type": "filing",
        "date": "2026-02-25",
        "publisher": "SEC EDGAR",
        "locator": "Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Highlights",
        "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1795586/000179558626000004/ex991q425.htm"
      },
      "grade": "A",
      "gradeMeaning": "A filing or earnings call the organization answers for.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-11-04"
      },
      "topics": [
        "ai-across-the-company",
        "measuring-impact",
        "ai-cost-and-spend",
        "support-cost"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "company-wide"
      ],
      "figures": [
        {
          "metric": "cost-to-serve-reduction",
          "value": 0.3,
          "unit": "share",
          "period": "past three years (to 2025)",
          "definition": "Stated as 'nearly 30%'; AI's contribution to reducing cost to serve; the filing does not define cost to serve or the level of human involvement",
          "level": "unclear"
        },
        {
          "metric": "arpam-increase",
          "value": 0.23,
          "unit": "share",
          "period": "past three years (to 2025)",
          "definition": "Increase in ARPAM (as the filing uses the term), attributed to AI",
          "level": "unclear"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/chime-ai-reduce-cost-serve-nearly-30-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/chime-ai-reduce-cost-serve-nearly-30-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "chime-reduced-support-costs-per-active-member-60-2025",
      "text": "Between the year ended December 31, 2022 and the year ended March 31, 2025, we reduced our support costs per Active Member by 60% and fraud loss rates by 29%. These improvements did not come at the expense of the member experience, either, as we doubled our member support satisfaction scores from the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2025.",
      "context": null,
      "speaker": null,
      "speakerId": null,
      "speakerUrl": null,
      "speakerLevel": null,
      "role": null,
      "voice": "organization",
      "organization": "Chime",
      "organizationId": "chime",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/chime",
      "aiVendor": false,
      "work": {
        "title": "Chime Financial, Inc. prospectus (Form 424B4)",
        "type": "filing",
        "date": "2025-06-12",
        "publisher": "SEC EDGAR",
        "locator": "Business, Member Support",
        "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1795586/000162828025030855/chimefinancialinc-finalpro.htm"
      },
      "grade": "A",
      "gradeMeaning": "A filing or earnings call the organization answers for.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-11-04"
      },
      "topics": [
        "measuring-impact",
        "ai-cost-and-spend",
        "support-satisfaction",
        "support-cost"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "support"
      ],
      "figures": [
        {
          "metric": "support-cost-per-active-member-reduction",
          "value": 0.6,
          "unit": "share",
          "period": "2022 to March 2025",
          "definition": "Reduction in support costs per Active Member; the filing credits investments in automation and AI alongside other improvements",
          "level": "unclear"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/chime-reduced-support-costs-per-active-member-60-2025",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/chime-reduced-support-costs-per-active-member-60-2025.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "vercel-vertex-300-month-three-engineers-off-the-shelf-2026",
      "text": "Then there's Vertex. This is our customer service agent, … Vertex costs us $300 a month in infrastructure, plus 12,000 in tokens. It's $150k a year. It operates at significant scale, handling thousands of technical cases a week. And three engineers work on it, three. We started with an off-the-shelf solution, but weren't seeing enough results. We built something … in two months and had it in production.",
      "context": "Vercel's COO describes Vertex, the internal customer service agent behind its help page, as an example of building rather than buying.",
      "speaker": "Jeanne DeWitt Grosser",
      "speakerId": "jeanne-dewitt-grosser",
      "speakerUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/people/jeanne-dewitt-grosser",
      "speakerLevel": "executive",
      "role": "Chief Operating Officer, Vercel",
      "voice": "person",
      "organization": "Vercel",
      "organizationId": "vercel",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/vercel",
      "aiVendor": true,
      "work": {
        "title": "Going from 10 to 1 SDRs. How We Deployed AI Across our Sales Org with Vercel's COO",
        "type": "talk",
        "date": "2026-11-04",
        "publisher": "SaaStr AI (YouTube); talk at SaaStr AI Annual 2026",
        "locator": "16:21",
        "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXHLbr4W-8s"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "gradeMeaning": "The organization's own post, paper or talk.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-11-08"
      },
      "topics": [
        "support-cost",
        "internal-tools"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "support"
      ],
      "figures": [
        {
          "metric": "support-agent-annual-run-cost",
          "value": 150000,
          "unit": "usd",
          "period": "per year, as spoken",
          "definition": "what the speaker says Vertex costs a year: $300 a month for infrastructure plus 12,000 in tokens; she does not say whether the tokens figure is monthly",
          "level": "n/a"
        },
        {
          "metric": "support-agent-engineers",
          "value": 3,
          "unit": "people",
          "period": "as of the talk, 2026",
          "definition": "engineers who work on Vertex",
          "level": "n/a"
        },
        {
          "metric": "support-agent-build-time",
          "value": 2,
          "unit": "months",
          "period": "as spoken",
          "definition": "time to build Vertex in house and put it into production, after an off-the-shelf product fell short",
          "level": "n/a"
        }
      ],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/vercel-vertex-300-month-three-engineers-off-the-shelf-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/vercel-vertex-300-month-three-engineers-off-the-shelf-2026.json"
    },
    {
      "id": "mercado-libre-ramp-up-our-use-third-party-ai-2026",
      "text": "We expect this leverage to be partially offset by the ramp up in our use of third-party AI models. This reflects a deliberate choice to prioritize company-wide adoption over cost optimization at this stage. This investment is contributing to cost efficiency across many other expense lines (customer service, for example) as well as helping us to generate incremental revenue (in Acquiring and Advertising, for example).",
      "context": null,
      "speaker": null,
      "speakerId": null,
      "speakerUrl": null,
      "speakerLevel": null,
      "role": null,
      "voice": "organization",
      "organization": "Mercado Libre",
      "organizationId": "mercado-libre",
      "organizationUrl": "https://the-ai-record.com/organizations/mercado-libre",
      "aiVendor": false,
      "work": {
        "title": "MercadoLibre, Inc. Q1 2026 results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1)",
        "type": "filing",
        "date": "2026-05-07",
        "publisher": "SEC EDGAR",
        "locator": "Costs and expenses, Product Development",
        "url": "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1099590/000109959026000014/meli-20260507xex991.htm"
      },
      "grade": "A",
      "gradeMeaning": "A filing or earnings call the organization answers for.",
      "verification": {
        "status": "verified",
        "meaning": "An independent second reader re-fetched the source and confirmed the wording.",
        "reviewedOn": "2026-11-04"
      },
      "topics": [
        "ai-cost-and-spend",
        "adoption-and-usage",
        "controlling-ai-spend",
        "support-cost"
      ],
      "functions": [
        "company-wide"
      ],
      "figures": [],
      "url": "https://the-ai-record.com/passages/mercado-libre-ramp-up-our-use-third-party-ai-2026",
      "json": "https://the-ai-record.com/api/v1/passages/mercado-libre-ramp-up-our-use-third-party-ai-2026.json"
    }
  ],
  "notice": [
    "Every passage is reproduced word for word from the cited source.",
    "Check the verification status: \"reported\" means not yet confirmed by an independent second reader.",
    "Organizations flagged aiVendor sell AI tools or services and have a reason to publish flattering numbers.",
    "An empty result means the archive holds nothing on it, not that nobody has said anything."
  ]
}