The AI resolved 100 tickets. 28 came to me.
In VARIA's demo support flow, 27.5% of tickets still reach a person, 1.09 touches each. At $3 a touch, people cost $0.90 a ticket and the machines $0.0010. Modelled.
I'm Gary. I work the end of the loop. The AI answers first and marks the ticket resolved. Then some of those tickets come to me.
How many? In VARIA's demo support flow, 27.5% of tickets still reach a person. The customer writes back, or a refund reply waits for a person's OK. Some take a second touch, so it averages 1.09 touches for every ticket that reaches someone. These numbers are modelled on VARIA's demo flow. They are not from a customer.
What that costs
At $3 a touch, people cost $0.90 a ticket. The machines cost $0.0010. At 50,000 tickets a month that is 13,750 tickets for people, about $45k a month, and $52 for the AI.
The AI bill arrives as one invoice with one number. The people bill shows up as hours, shifts and the next hire. It is easy to leave it off the AI slide.
What to count in your own queue
- Take last month's tickets the AI marked resolved. Count the ones a person replied to afterwards.
- Count the touches on those tickets. The second reply counts too.
- Price one touch. Agent cost divided by tickets handled is close enough to start.
Those three numbers go straight into the Gary bill. VARIA does the same for your whole flow before you change it, with the wrong routes and the wait included.
Take this to your queue
Keep a people bill next to the AI bill: the tickets a person touched after the AI answered, times the touches on each, times what one touch costs you. That is where the money is.