Can AI Make Customer Service Great Again? - Brian Kenny

Customer service is a tricky one. It's ripe for an AI takeover, but 20 million people worldwide work in the industry, so what are the trade-offs?95% of the industry is salaries. There is a lot of collateral damage there. Millions of jobs will vanish and not everyone can be re-trained. And yet, as anyone who has experienced customer service in 2025 can testify: it's pretty lousy. Frustrating. Annoying. Expensive. And how often do your queries, questions and complaints actually get answered?In this episode of Thinking on Paper, Brian Kenny, MOMNTUM’s co-founder, explains why today’s support systems are broken, and how building from first principles with AI can actually make customer service feel human again. And the results are staggering: MOMNTUM’s AI customer service agent Laila solves 86% of cases without handoff to a humans. Early signals also flash a potential 4,000% ROI. The future of more human and successful customer service is less humans and more AI. But at what cost?You'll Learn:Why slapping bots on old workflows makes service worseHow Laila spans phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, and MessengerWhere AI can be trusted now and where it shouldn’t beWhat metrics really matter (hint: it’s not CSAT)The new rules of trust, disclosure, and human escalationPlease enjoy the show. --CHAPTERS(00:00) Why customer service is broken(03:30) What a modern support platform should look like(06:35) Using AI to make service feel personal(09:29) The data + privacy question(11:26) The only success metrics that really matter(15:09) Can machines create an emotional connection?(18:16) The real limits of today’s systems (and what Laila can’t do yet)(22:39) Where customer experience is headed next(34:22) What should humans be?-- Other ways to connect with us:⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: [email protected] more on Momntum and Laila--Thank you. We love you. Stay peaceful.