# Gary in the Loop

> Brad went AI-first. Gary still gets every ticket.

Season 1 · a cartoon by the VARIA team. The AI says “done”, the ticket lands on Gary anyway, and nobody counts what that costs.

This is the Markdown version of https://garyintheloop.com/ (updated 2026-10-30). The HTML page adds an office you can poke and a live calculator.

## Why Gary drowns: Where tickets go once AI joins the queue

1. **The AI:** “Resolved ✅” The AI answers first and marks the ticket resolved. The dashboard counts it as handled.
2. **Gary:** “forwarded to me. again.” 28 tickets in 100 still reach an agent. The customer writes back, or a reply needs a person's OK before it goes out. *VARIA demo support flow: 27.5% reach a person, 1.09 touches each (modelled).*
3. **Brad:** “Why is this on my desk?” The routing model puts some in the wrong queue first. Someone reads them and passes them on, and the customer waits. *Wrong routes: $0.42 a ticket (modelled).*
4. **Gary:** “Fifteen thousand touches. A month.” At 50,000 tickets a month that is 13,750 tickets for your team. The AI bill says $52. The hours cost about $45k. *$3 a touch: people $0.90 a ticket, machines $0.0010 (modelled).*

**The cat:** “Count it first.” VARIA counts this bill for your own flow before you change it: who still touches the tickets, the wrong routes, the wait, and where to cut. The small version runs on your numbers right here.

## Your Gary bill: How many tickets still land on your Gary?

Brad counts the AI bill. This one counts Gary's. Move a knob and watch him.

With the VARIA demo's numbers (50,000 tickets a month, 27.5% reach a person, $3 a touch): Gary gets 13,750 tickets a month, the people bill is $45,086 a month, the AI bill $52, so Gary costs 870× the AI. All modelled.

Try your own numbers at https://garyintheloop.com/#bill; share the result as a card (https://garyintheloop.com/bill?t=50000&s=27.5&p=3).

How we counted:

- Gary's tickets = tickets a month × the share that still reaches a person.
- People bill = Gary's tickets × 1.09 touches × one human touch. Some tickets need a second touch (a refund reply held for review), so the VARIA demo counts 1.09 touches per ticket that reaches a person (modelled): $0.90 a ticket, the same as on heyvaria.com.
- AI bill = tickets a month × $0.0010, what the machines cost per ticket in the VARIA demo support flow (modelled). Your model and prompts will differ.
- Not counted here: wrong routes. In the VARIA demo they cost $0.42 a ticket (modelled).

## Tell Gary your AI horror story

The bot said “resolved.” It was not resolved. Tell us what yours did. The best ones may become a clip, with names changed. Send it at https://garyintheloop.com/tell-gary.

## Two humans, one robot, one cat.

- **Gary**: Support. Gets every ticket. Every ticket the AI “solves” ends up on his desk. Says little. Holds the same mug in every clip. Says: “forwarded to me. again.”
- **Brad**: Founder. AI-first. Believes. Replaced support with AI before lunch. Reads the AI bill, never the people bill. Owns more AI FIRST shirts than employees. Says: “Our AI costs two cents a ticket!”
- **The AI**: Helpful. Expensive. Always “done”. Solves every ticket by handing it to Gary. Marks everything done. Says “happy to help” and means it. Says: “Routing to a human!”
- **The cat**: Judges. Not on the payroll. Can't be automated; has been asked. The only one in the office who reads the whole bill. Says: “Nope.”

More at https://garyintheloop.com/cast.

## Gary found a portal

It goes to VARIA. Over there the whole bill gets counted before you build anything: tokens, people, wrong routes, the wait. Bring your numbers. [Shrink your bill on VARIA →](https://heyvaria.com/?utm_source=garyintheloop&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=portal)

## Follow Gary

- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@garyintheloop)
- [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@garyintheloop)
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/garyintheloop/)
- [X](https://x.com/garyintheloop)

## Contact

- itsme@garyintheloop.com
- About the show, how it is made and what we keep: https://garyintheloop.com/about