Queue the Drama: I built the case for AI. Now my best agent is paying for it. | The place for Zendesk users to come together and share
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Sheyla
SheylaCommunity Manager
Community Manager
July 22, 2026
Queue the Drama

Queue the Drama: I built the case for AI. Now my best agent is paying for it.

  • July 22, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 816 views

Customer experience has always been a deeply human field. You're hired for your empathy, your judgment, your ability to read a room, and then you're dropped into an industry that keeps changing the rules on you. New tools, new pressures, new expectations. Big feelings come with the territory.

Sometimes you just need to say it out loud.

Queue the Drama is a space for the stories worth sharing, even when you're not sure how they end. Messy decisions, uncomfortable situations, moments where you did your best and still aren't sure it was right. Bring them here. You might get validation. You might get challenged. Either way, this community will show up.

Drop your scenario here. The queue is open.
 

I implemented an AI agent to handle tier 1 requests (simple billing questions, cancellations, password resets). It's working as intended. Deflection is up, first reply rate, etc.

The problem is my top performer's productivity metrics tanked since the rollout and they think it's the AI's fault for absorbing all their ‘easiest’ tickets. They were handling a huge volume of those but I can't justify rolling back or limiting an implementation that's benefiting the entire operation to protect one person's numbers.

I haven't adjusted their performance targets yet because honestly I'm still figuring out what they should looks because of this new system.

Are they the drama in the queue — or am I?

Queue's open.

      3 replies

      Vancouver
      Vancouver
      Community Expert
      July 29, 2026

      What do the options mean?
       

      Cleared the queue

      Created the queue

      Still in queue

        Sheyla
        SheylaCommunity ManagerAuthor
        Community Manager
        July 29, 2026

        What do the options mean?
         

        Cleared the queue

        Created the queue

        Still in queue

        Good question! ​@Brandon Tidd I know you were curious as well! 

        Cleared the queue: Operational genius. The agent just needs to adapt

        Created the queue: Total leadership fail. They are 100% the drama.

        Still in queue: It’s complicated. The jury is still out

         

        M
        marcusbear
        August 1, 2026

        The metric is the drama, not the agent.

         

        Ticket volume worked as a proxy for contribution when tier 1 was a real part of the job. Once deflection takes that away, volume measures how much low-value work is left, which is backwards. Your top performer is right that their number fell, and you are right that the rollout should stay.

         

        What worked for us was changing what the view counts. We split the queue by what the AI could not close: escalations, anything reopened once, and tickets where the customer pushed back on the first answer. That became the primary view for senior agents, and the target moved to resolution on that view instead of total touches.

         

        Their number recovered because the work being counted was the work they were good at. We also got a cleaner signal on where the AI was confidently wrong: a reopened ticket after an automated reply is a specific failure you can go read.

        I build support workflow automation at Runbear — https://runbear.io/?utm_source=zendesk_bobb&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=community-profile&utm_content=profile
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