Can AI Improve Customer Service Without Killing Jobs? Crescendo Thinks So

Customer service is one of the industries most impacted by AI — but what if AI alone isn’t the answer?

In this episode of The Neuron Podcast, Grant Harvey and Corey Noles sit down with Matt Price, Founder & CEO of Crescendo, to explore how AI and humans working together can outperform automation alone. After spending 13+ years at Zendesk, Matt is now building an AI-native customer experience platform that automates up to 90% of tickets with 99.8% accuracy — without sacrificing empathy, trust, or outcomes.

We cover:

• Why LLMs are the biggest shift in customer service since the telephone

• Why bolting AI onto old CX workflows fails

• How Crescendo’s multimodal AI can chat, talk, see images, and control devices in one conversation

• Real-world examples (like smart sprinkler troubleshooting via voice + vision + APIs)

• Why Crescendo combines AI agents with forward-deployed human experts

• How outcome-based pricing aligns incentives around real customer satisfaction

• How AI is reshaping (not eliminating) customer service jobs

• Why “deflection” is the wrong mindset for CX — and what replaces it

• What customer support roles look like in an AI-native future

This is a deep dive into the next generation of customer experience, where AI handles scale and speed — and humans deliver judgment, empathy, and innovation.

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