The future of Customer Support departments is rapidly approaching. So, what changes can we expect in 2023 and beyond? What skills will support agents need to keep up? And what key performance indicators should we be tracking when proactive support becomes the norm?
In this episode, our host Anika Zubair chats with Declan Ivory, VP of Customer Support at Intercom about how AI is transforming the Customer Support department.
Declan Ivory is an experienced senior leader with a passion for building and developing high-performing teams and applying digital technologies to support organizations through major business transformation. Over the last 10 years, Declan has held senior support leadership roles with Amazon Web Services, Tableau Software and Google Cloud. He’s now sharing his operational expertise and strong leadership to support the growth of Intercom’s Customer Support team.
In the past, support departments were just perceived as ticket responders. But at Intercom, that wasn’t enough, so Declan and his team worked hard to introduce a Customer Milestone Framework, which helped them shift from reactive to proactive support.
AI and machine learning are already revolutionizing support services. However, it's crucial to remember that the goal is to assist and empower the team, not to replace them.
Listen now to the full conversation with Declan and Anika to learn more about how AI is transforming the customer support department.
VP of Customer Support
Intercom
Declan is a senior customer experience leader with over 25 years of experience scaling global support operations across telecom, SaaS, and cloud platforms. He currently serves as VP of Customer Support at Intercom, where he’s shaping the future of AI-powered support at scale. Prior to Intercom, he led technical support across EMEA at Google, Tableau, and AWS—where he built and ran multi-region teams supporting enterprise customers. With a deep background in operational excellence and service design, Declan combines strategic vision with hands-on leadership to deliver high-impact, customer-centric transformation.
Founder & CEO
The Customer Success Pro
Anika is a customer success executive and founder with over 10 years of experience helping SaaS teams drive retention, revenue, and confidence at scale. She is the Founder & CEO of The Customer Success Pro, a coaching consultancy for CS professionals, and most recently served as Head of Customer Success at Griffin. Anika has held CS leadership roles at Karbon, inSided, and ZAP, and is known for her practical approach to commercial impact, strategic storytelling, and community-driven growth.
