#013 Strategic CSM: How AI Frees Humans for the Hard Problems with Chandan Maruti, Founder & CEO, Twig.so

“Most titles will remain. What will change is what people do within those titles.”In this episode of Human Work After AI, Chris Fanchi talks with Chandan Maruti (CEO of Twig.so) about using agentic AI to scale customer support and success without sacrificing empathy. Twig acts like a coworker for support agents, handling instant answers and triage so humans can focus on pattern-finding, prevention, and relationships.We cover:- Why CS/S roles won’t disappear, but will become far more strategic as AI takes the repetitive load.- The “thousand CSMs” idea: sensing problems earlier across every user interaction.- Agentic support: AI handles, escalates, and routes while humans oversee and tackle the hard cases.- Measuring value with a 7-dimension evaluation to avoid AI oversell/undersell traps.- What a “perfect AI–human hybrid” support team looks like in the next 2–4 years.Chapters00:00 — Opening highlight (roles change, not titles)00:48 — Intro: Twig as an AI coworker for support agents03:04 — Chandan’s path: engineering → Lambda School → CS leadership05:44 — The CS pain: high cost, limited bandwidth, slow signal flow10:17 — “A thousand CSMs”: using AI to listen, sense, escalate early12:21 — Retention by rigor: the 7-metric outcome framework16:12 — Humans stay: AI does the repetitive, people do prevention & relationships19:23 — Next step: from data deluge to actionable signals for CSMs23:54 — Agentic tools and distributable expertise (runnable knowledge)36:34 — The ideal AI–human hybrid support org (instant response, smart triage)38:01 — Where to find Twig + outcomes-first mindsetResourcesTwig.so — outcomes-first AI for support & success: https://www.twig.soSteward your people through the AI transition with Chris Fanchi's Big North Network — https://bignorthnetwork.comManaging AI: Humans, Agents, and the Future of Work (out now!)If this episode helped you reframe human + agent workflows, dive deeper in Chris Fanchi's new book, Managing AI - a pragmatic playbook for leaders on trust, metrics, and org design in the agentic era. Order your copy today: https://bignorthnetwork.com/managing-ai