When it comes to new technology, there’s nothing more instantly (and widely) adopted than AI. According to Gartner, companies deploying AI as a business tool are projected to surpass 60% by the end of 2024. And it makes sense: AI is a paradigm shift, because it allows teams to do more with less. Customer success (CS) leaders can offer the same personalized customer experience, without growing Customer Success Manager (CSM) headcount or risking CSM burnout. BUT, dialing in the right AI technology and strategy is still a work in progress at most organizations. As our AI needs grow, customer success professionals need solutions that deliver AI designed around their CS-specific needs.
That’s why Gainsight, already the leader in AI for and by CS professionals, is joining forces with Staircase AI. Together, Gainsight and Staircase AI will deliver AI that eliminates surprises and removes grunt work for CS teams with real-time, unbiased conversational sentiment analysis and insights. Nick Mehta, CEO, Gainsight, Chuck Ganapathi, President & Chief Operating Officer, Gainsight, and Ori Entis, Founder & CEO, Staircase AI, recently hosted a webinar to illustrate their Human-First AI vision as customer success enters it’s next evolution. Here are our top five takeaways.
1. A Human-First AI Approach
Human-First AI is not just a buzzword; it is the core ethos driving our innovation. Customer success is inherently human-centric, requiring a delicate balance of empathy and strategic acumen. Our Human-First AI playbook ensures that AI serves to augment human capabilities rather than replace them, reducing surprises and alleviating grunt work.
Gainsight’s Human-First AI approach means you’re never caught off guard. By automating mundane tasks, AI frees up CSMs to focus on high-value activities like building relationships and driving customer outcomes. This was a major talking point during the webinar where Mehta and Entis delved into how AI can be a true partner in your customer success strategy.
2. Eliminating Blind Spots: The #1 Use Case for AI
One of the most compelling use cases for AI in customer success is eliminating blind spots by better identifying at-risk customers. In fact, in our 2024 State of AI in CS survey, it was the top-rated activity to automate with AI (73%). Even the most sophisticated metrics and dashboards can miss the subtle cues that signal potential issues or opportunities. Traditional data sources—surveys, usage statistics, etc.—while valuable, often leave gaps. To truly understand customer health, we need to glean insights from day-to-day interactions.
Staircase AI excels in filling these gaps by diving deeper into the context-rich data from communications. Imagine identifying a risk simply because the time between customer responses is gradually increasing—a subtlety that traditional metrics may overlook. By analyzing email threads, support tickets, and recorded calls, the platform detects early warning signs that might elude the human eye. This proactive approach allows you to address issues before they escalate, ensuring your customer’s journey remains smooth.
How does this all actually work? Entis says, “The way we architectured it is we connect directly to all of the channels of communication … from emails and tickets and conversations … then what we do is we pull all of this data, including historical data.” Entis continues, “Once the data is clean, we can then push it into various AI models, including Generative AI, to provide real-time insights.”
3. Sentiment and Engagement Analysis: Your Risk Radar
Blind spot detection is not just about quantitative data; qualitative insights are equally crucial. Our platform’s advanced sentiment analysis capabilities evaluate both engagement levels and emotional states. This dual-layer analysis helps you understand not only what customers are saying, but also the sentiments driving their communications.
To draw a parallel with health monitoring, think of traditional health metrics like surveys and usage data as your annual check-up—they’re crucial but often provide a retrospective view. In contrast, real-time conversational analysis is like continuously monitoring a patient’s vitals. With day-to-day assessment of customer sentiment and engagement through Staircase, you gain immediate insights into emerging risks and opportunities. This constant vigilance means you can instantly detect negative events and swiftly take corrective actions. With the power of AI, these insights are surfaced faster and disseminated to relevant teams through Slack alerts to executives and beyond, enabling more proactive and informed decision-making.
4. Seamless Integration and Fast Time-to-Value
In today’s economy, the pressure to show immediate results is immense. Gainsight understands this urgency, which is why the integration of Staircase AI into your existing stack is both seamless and swift. Whether you integrate all channels out of the gate—like email, support tickets, or recorded calls—or start with just a few, Staircase can be up and running in as little as 60 minutes.
During Gainsight’s own proof of concept (POC) phase with Staircase, we achieved operational readiness in just two hours—underscoring the platform’s ease of integration and rapid deployment capabilities. This means your team can quickly leverage AI-driven insights without cumbersome setup processes or extensive data cleaning, accelerating your time-to-value.
5. Security: A Non-Negotiable Pillar
Security, especially in the realm of AI, is a top concern for enterprise executives, and rightfully so. Stakeholder trust hinges on the assurance that their data is handled with the utmost care and compliance. Staircase AI was designed with security as a foundational element, achieving SOC 2 compliance from day one.
The platform also scales securely, managing data from thousands of customer accounts, while maintaining rigorous compliance standards. We work closely with your InfoSec teams to ensure data security measures instill confidence and uphold best practices in data governance.
Building the Future of Customer Success
Here’s the bottom line: Customer success is evolving, and so must our strategies. Gainsight and Staircase AI are at the forefront of this evolution, offering the insights, integrations, and security you need to stay ahead. Mehta says, “We can do a lot better as an industry, at Gainsight and otherwise.” Citing our recent State of AI in Customer Success report, Mehta continues, “The #1 ask for people in the CS world from AI is to identify risk.”
With Gainsight and Staircase AI, customer success professionals can gain unparalleled insights into customer health risks, and so much more. Together, we are eliminating blind spots, enhancing engagement, and setting new standards for customer success.
Ultimately, the future of customer success is bright. Are you ready to join us on this transformative journey? Let’s build the next era of customer success, one insightful interaction at a time.
Learn More
Want the full scoop? Watch the on-demand webinar, Gainsight + Staircase AI: Accelerating Human-First AI in Customer Success.
