Zendesk on the Rise of the Agent System and the New Roles Reshaping Customer Service

In this CX Today interview, Rob Wilkinson speaks with Hannah Deveney, Senior Director, Product Management at Zendesk, about the rise of the agent system and why service leaders need to redesign operations around humans and AI agents working together.The conversation explores how customer service is shifting from traditional team structures to coordinated systems where multiple agents can resolve work end to end. Deveney explains why the next phase of AI is not about bolting on another assistant, but about rethinking workflows, knowledge, routing, and orchestration across the entire service environment.The interview also examines the new roles emerging to support this shift, from AI managers to knowledge and service design specialists, and what these changes mean for organizations trying to scale automation without losing control of quality or customer outcomes.For customer service and contact center leaders, this discussion offers a practical look at what it takes to build a service model designed for human and AI collaboration.