Ask Achan: AI for customer support, a gimmick or godsend?

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the sixth edition of Ask Achan. Who’s Achan, you ask? He’s our in-house HubSpot expert in addition to his role as Chief Growth Officer.

Each month, we’ll dive into your HubSpot questions with simple, actionable tips to help you get the most out of the platform. We're passionate about helping B2B companies like yours grow with HubSpot. If you’re struggling with personalisation or engagement, I’m here to guide you through it.

Got a question? Send it my way.

We came across this question recently: 

Dear Achan, I'm drowning in customer support tickets, and my team is barely keeping their heads above water. I keep hearing about AI-powered help desks—chatbots, auto-routing, reply suggestions, and all that jazz. But is any of it actually useful, or just more tech hype? Should I be handing my customers over to the robots?

Customer Service Ops Manager

Here's what Achan says:

Dear Customer Service Ops Manager,

Ah, the siren song of AI: promising instant replies, endless scalability, and freedom from the tyranny of repetitive questions. But as with all tech, it’s less about the tool and more about how (and why) you use it.

Let’s cut to the chase: yes, AI can absolutely help, if you pick the right tool and set it up with care.

AI that’s worth the hype

When it comes to AI-powered customer support, not all solutions are created equal. It's no secret I'm a major HubSpot fan so it only makes sense that HubSpot stands out.  This is because it combines powerful AI features with a user-friendly, fully integrated CRM platform trusted by businesses worldwide. This means your support team doesn’t just get isolated AI tools, they get smart automation that’s connected to every customer interaction, giving them context, insights, and the ability to personalise at scale.

HubSpot’s AI is designed to assist your team, not replace them.  It helps by handling routine tasks, improving response times, and freeing your people to focus on what really matters: solving complex problems and creating great customer experiences. Here’s how HubSpot’s AI features deliver real value in the wild:

Chatbots that know their place
The best AI chatbots don’t pretend to be human.  They’re upfront about being bots, fast at fetching FAQs, and smart enough to hand off to a human when things get complicated. HubSpot’s chatbot tool does this well, especially when paired with a solid Knowledge Base and intent-driven flows. It’s not ChatGPT-in-a-cape, but it takes the sting out of “How do I login?” 27 times a day.

Plus, HubSpot’s AI-powered chatbots integrate seamlessly with the CRM, giving your team instant context about the customer’s history and preferences. This means your bots aren’t just answering questions—they’re having smarter, personalised conversations that can actually help close the loop faster.

Draft reply suggestions
HubSpot’s AI Assistant can draft email replies in your shared inbox, giving your team a solid starting point. It’s not Shakespeare, but it usually gets the tone right (and mercifully avoids “Hi [First Name]!” gaffes if you’ve set up your tokens properly). This speeds up response times and ensures consistent messaging across your team, which HubSpot users report leads to better customer satisfaction.

Auto-routing that actually thinks
If your tickets or chats flow into a shared inbox, conversation-based workflows can auto-assign based on keywords, customer info, ticket priority, or even chatbot responses. Combined with team availability and SLA tracking, this creates a support engine that hums smoothly.

What to avoid:

• Bots that try to replace humans
  Customers aren’t fooled. If your bot doesn’t have a quick “talk to a person” escape hatch, you’ll lose trust fast.

• “Plug and pray” AI
  You do need to train it. An outdated Knowledge Base or vague ticket categories mean even the smartest system gets dumb fast.

- Achan Bedi, Chief Growth Officer

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