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The best service teams won't be bigger. They'll be better designed.

High-performing service organizations used to be measured by the talent they hired. Tomorrow, they'll be measured by how effectively specialized AI teammates and human experts work together as one coordinated workforce.

Paulette Chafe

Paulette Chafe

Senior Director, Brand Strategy & Content at Zendesk

Dernière mise à jour 28 septembre 2026

Graphic with the text better org design

That's because customer problems aren't solved in isolation anymore. Human experts apply judgment. Business systems provide context. Specialized AI teammates carry forward routine, repeatable, and highly specialized work. Together, they contribute to a single customer outcome.

This is the future we're building toward at Zendesk. As Chief Product Officer Shashi Upadhyay describes it, we're moving "from software that helps teams manage the work, to an Autonomous Service Workforce that can actually do the work."

High-performing teams are intentionally designed

The best teams have never been built by asking everyone to do everything. They've been built by bringing together teammates with different strengths, clear responsibilities, and a shared goal. As AI becomes another teammate, the same principle applies.

Building a high-performing service organization is no longer just about hiring talented people or giving them better tools. It's about intentionally designing how specialized AI teammates and human experts work together.

“We're moving "from software that helps teams manage the work, to an Autonomous Service Workforce that can actually do the work.” Shashi Upadhyay, President, Products, Engineering and AI at Zendesk 

Who should own the work? Where should human judgment make the difference? When should AI act independently? How should work move between teammates without losing context or momentum? Those aren't technology questions. They're organizational questions. The organizations that answer them thoughtfully will create stronger operating models for AI-powered service. Building this kind of workforce starts with three design principles:

1. Design work around strengths, not job titles

The Autonomous Service Workforce introduces a new division of labor. Specialized AI teammates independently carry forward routine, repeatable, and highly specialized work, while human experts focus on the moments that require judgment, creativity, and empathy. Every teammate contributes where they create the most value. We call it a workforce because these agents are not merely tools that assist employees. Every teammate has a defined role, operating within clear goals, permissions, and guardrails. Together, they contribute their strengths toward a shared outcome.

This changes what makes an organization high-performing. Success depends less on exceptional individual contributors and more on how effectively work, context, and responsibility move across the workforce.

2. Design for coordination, not handoffs

 The strongest organizations don't lose momentum when work changes hands. In the Autonomous Service Workforce, work moves to the teammate best equipped for the next step. Context moves with it. Responsibility moves with it. Every teammate builds on the work that came before, moving the customer closer to an outcome.

Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy with more than 10,000 employees across 20 countries, demonstrates what this looks like in practice. The company recognized that improving employee service wasn't just about making IT more efficient. It was about helping employees spend less time dealing with technology issues and more time serving clients. Rather than simply adding AI to employee service, Thoughtworks redesigned how work was shared between AI and IT specialists. Using Zendesk AI, the company built Buddy, an AI-powered employee service agent that answers employee questions instantly while freeing IT specialists to focus on more complex requests.

Success depends less on exceptional individual contributors and more on how effectively work, context, and responsibility move across the workforce.

3. Build organizations that improve over time

High-performing teams don't just work well together. They continuously improve.

Every interaction gathers new information about customer needs, business processes, knowledge gaps, and operational bottlenecks. These signals are fed back into the Autonomous Service Workforce, forming a self–improving loop. This ensures the team learns from every interaction by refining instructions, strengthening knowledge, improving policies, and optimizing future actions. As the business evolves, the workforce evolves with it.

Birdy Grey, an online bridesmaid apparel retailer, demonstrates what a self-improving workforce looks like in practice. Analysis of support interactions revealed repeated demand for expedited shipping. The team acted on that insight by introducing the new offering and deploying a supporting AI workflow in just one day.

Better teams deliver better service

Customers don't care how many teammates contributed behind the scenes. They care that their problem gets solved.

When specialized AI teammates, human experts, and business systems each contribute where they create the most value, service becomes faster, more consistent, and more resilient. Human experts spend more time applying judgment and empathy. AI independently carries forward the work it is purpose-built to do.

The future of service won't be built by asking every teammate to do more. It'll be built by designing teams where every teammate contributes their strengths toward the same outcome.

The best service teams won't be bigger. They'll be better designed.

Paulette Chafe

Paulette Chafe

Senior Director, Brand Strategy & Content at Zendesk

Paulette Chafe is Senior Director, Brand Strategy & Content at Zendesk, where she shapes the company’s brand, customer insights, thought leadership, and executive content—helping drive brand reputation and pipeline growth. Her team identifies emerging developments and research-based insights relevant to customer experience, service and IT leaders, including through Zendesk’s annual flagship report, CX Trends.

Paulette is known for building high-performing teams and tackling complex challenges with focus and clarity. Passionate about technology, especially AI, she explores how it can amplify human work, make strategies smarter and more efficient, and help shape the future of contact center work.

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