We Automated Support and Lost Our Escalation Instinct
We Automated Support and Lost Our Escalation Instinct  
Podcast: The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird
Published On: Fri Jul 24 2026
Description: "Did someone drop the ball?" is the wrong question when an escalation slips through the cracks. The right question: "Did we design a system where the ball could be seen at all?" @StacieBairdHX on how automating the routine tickets erodes the instinct to spot the non-routine ones — HX Podcast Episode 2 out now.   Key data points: Klarna cut "hundreds" of support roles for AI, saw quality decline, began rehiring1 CEO admitted "prioritizing cost over experience"1 Salesforce cut support from ~9,000 to ~5,0002 CEO said AI handles about half of cases, meaning humans still do the other half2 Gartner projects 50% of companies that cut support for AI will rehire by 20273 Visier analysis of 2.4M workers: highest boomerang rate since 2018 (Visier, 2026)4 Footnotes Orgvue Survey, 2025 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 Forrester Research, Predictions 2026: The Future of Work ↩ ↩2 ↩3 Robert Half Survey, 2026 (via CNBC) ↩ ↩2 Careerminds Survey of 600 HR Professionals, 2026 ↩ ↩2 Harvard Business Review, Executive Survey, 2025 ↩ Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. AI-Attributed Layoffs, 2026 ↩ Stacie For more episodes, visit StacieBaird.com.