5 Human-Centered Tactics Support Leaders Can Use to Thrive with AI
Let’s be real: AI isn’t going anywhere. As support leaders, we’re being asked to do more with less, and automation looks like an easy win.
But here’s the risk: if we just chase efficiency, we’ll end up training ourselves out of the jobs that matter — the human ones.
In her essay The Danger Of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think, Shannon Vallor points out something that hit home for me: the real danger isn’t the machines — it’s forgetting what makes us human. Below is an excerpt:
Playing with your kid or making a work of art is intelligent human behavior, but if you view either one as a process of finding the most efficient solution to a problem or generating predictable tokens, you’re doing it wrong.
If we reduce our roles to just speed, accuracy, and scale, AI will absolutely win. But if we stick to human values — empathy, ethics, curiosity, care — we build something AI can’t touch: a truly human-positive support experience.
Here’s how we do that — practically, not theoretically.
🧠 1. Rethink Intelligence: It’s More Than Just Solving Tickets
AI is great at tasks. But support is about people.
We’re seeing tools that respond faster, summarize better, and route smarter. That’s amazing — but don’t compete with that. Step aside. Let AI do what it does best.
Instead, shift your team’s energy to what AI can’t do:
- Reading between the lines of a frustrated customer’s tone.
- Owning mistakes and turning a negative experience into a loyal relationship.
- Coaching peers through tough conversations or gray areas.
🛠️ Example: If AI flags a high-priority case based on sentiment, your team member’s job isn’t just to respond — it’s to say, “Hey, I hear you. Let me make this right,” and actually follow through with accountability.
🫶 2. Don’t Just Handle Issues — Heal Friction
AI can recognize problems. Humans resolve them.
Customers don’t always come for the fastest answer. They come to be heard, understood, and helped.
Your job as a support manager?
- Create space for empathy-driven conversations.
- Encourage your team to use human tone over robotic templates.
- Track and reward not just speed — but how customers feel when they leave.
🛠️ Example: You can automate the “Your case has been escalated” message — but only a human can say, “I’m personally keeping an eye on this — I’ll update you by 3 PM.”
⚖️ 3. Don’t Automate Humanity Away
Just because we can automate something doesn’t mean we should.
Ask this before replacing any human interaction with AI:
- Does this remove friction?
- Or does it remove trust?
Some things are better off not automated:
- Apologies
- Policy exceptions
- Thank-yous
- Hard feedback
🛠️ Example: Instead of auto-rejecting refund requests, use AI to flag edge cases — but have a human make the final call with context and compassion.
🎯 4. Redefine What “High Performance” Looks Like
We need to stop measuring our people like we measure machines.
Fast replies and closed tickets matter — but that’s not the whole story. Here’s what else to track and reward:
✅ A teammate going the extra mile
✅ A creative workaround for a customer
✅ A moment of calm during a tough chat
✅ Honest feedback about a process bottleneck
Real value shows up in behavior, not just metrics.
🛠️ Tip: Use team reviews to highlight “most human moment of the week” — it sends the message that soft skills are not soft. They’re essential.
🔧 5. Train for Judgment, Not Just Tools
AI will keep evolving. So should our team’s thinking.
Give your team the confidence to ask:
- “What are we optimizing for?”
- “Is this automation creating a better experience — or just a faster one?”
- “How would I feel as a customer in this interaction?”
🛠️ Quick win: Run monthly retros where you review a few cases together:
- Which parts could’ve been automated?
- Which parts shouldn’t have been?
- What could we have done more humanely?
🌱 Final Thoughts: What Stays Human, Stays Valuable
Let’s not fight AI — let’s make room for it to do the mechanical stuff.
That gives us the chance to double down on what only humans can do: build trust, read between the lines, stay calm under pressure, show care, ask better questions.
The teams that stick to human values — not just human labor — will be the ones who thrive.
And if we get this right? We don’t just survive the AI shift. We lead it.