Skip to main content
Back to Academy catalog
By FunctionIntermediate

AI for Customer Service & Support

A 65-minute playbook for CX leaders — three patterns that ship, two that backfire, the support-not-surveillance line, and a 4-week pilot with the KPIs that prove value.

65 min·8 chapters·Director · Manager · Individual contributor·Free

Last updated: 2026-05-20

What you'll learn

By the end of this course you'll be able to:

  • The CS-AI fit map — three patterns that ship, two that backfire, one principle for every pitch
  • Agent assist — the four-component stack + three anti-patterns + six-week rollout rhythm
  • Scoped deflection bots — intent inventory + three scope rules + clean-handoff design
  • Multilingual support — language reality + code-switching + production gotchas at scale
  • Knowledge AI — three grounding disciplines + KB-quality gate + citation patterns
  • Sentiment + escalation — the support-not-surveillance line + escalation logic teams rely on
  • Voice support AI — three plays + latency/accent gotchas + the disclosure customers expect
  • Your 4-week pilot plan — one play deeply + KPI scaffold + four conversations Monday

Who this is for

CX leaders, contact-centre operators, support managers, and ops teams running customer service across phone, chat, and email. Especially useful for teams considering bot deployments at scale and concerned about CSAT impact — and for teams whose previous AI rollout fractured frontline-agent trust.

Curriculum

8 chapters · 2 hands-on exercises · capstone challenge

Each chapter ends with the learning objectives ticked off. Quizzes are auto-graded with feedback; exercises are open-ended and produce artifacts you can take to your team.

1

1. The CS-AI fit map

8 min
  • Name the three CS-AI patterns that ship + the two that consistently backfire
  • Apply the principle — AI handles volume, humans handle judgment — to every vendor pitch
2

2. Agent assist done right

9 minQUIZ
  • Deploy all four components: suggested response, knowledge surfacing, real-time coaching, auto case summary
  • Avoid the three anti-patterns and hold the six-week rollout rhythm
3

3. Scoped tier-1 deflection bots

9 minEXERCISE
  • Run the intent inventory; refuse deflection bots if top 10 intents are under 60% of volume
  • Build whitelist + 3-turn cap + emotional-escalation exit + clean-handoff design
4

4. Multilingual support at scale

9 minEXERCISE
  • Measure actual language distribution; tier languages by deployment depth
  • Handle code-switching, dialect register, and the three production gotchas at scale
5

5. Knowledge base AI — without hallucinated policies

9 minQUIZ
  • Enforce the three grounding disciplines — retrieval-only, mandatory citations, refusal patterns
  • Pass the KB-quality gate before deploying — atomic articles, same-day versioning, quarterly audit
6

6. Sentiment, escalation, and frontline trust

9 min
  • Commit to three support-not-surveillance principles in writing before deploying sentiment AI
  • Send the right team-trust signal — adjusted-on-feedback, coaching-not-punishment, no AI-driven terminations
7

7. Voice support AI

8 min
  • Ship three voice plays — IVR replacement, structured data capture, wait-time assistant
  • Architect for latency under 1.5s, accent recognition, interruption handling, and disclosure

Capstone: Capstone — Your 4-week CS AI pilot plan

7 min
  • Run one play deeply for four weeks with daily standup and clean baseline
  • Schedule four week-one conversations: executive sponsor, supervisor, infosec/legal, two pilot agents

Capstone deliverable: Every learner who completes this course produces «Your 4-Week CS AI Pilot Plan» — a tangible artifact you take back to your organization.

Interactive Course · Free

Full web-rendered experience available now.

All 8 chapters live with interactive slides, audio narration, mock-exam practice, and cross-device progress tracking. The first two chapters are accessible without an account.

Take the interactive course

References & sources

Built on cited sources — not vibes.

Every course is researched fresh against vendor documentation, regulatory sources, and peer-reviewed work. Sources used in this course:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service — Documentation

Microsoft Learn · Source link

Gartner — CX in the Age of AI

Gartner Research · Source link

McKinsey — Customer Operations and AI

McKinsey & Company · Source link

EU AI Act — Final Text (incl. transparency/disclosure obligations)

European Parliament · Source link

Course details

Track

By Function

Level

Intermediate

Audience

Director, Manager, Individual contributor

Function

Customer Service

Industry

Cross-Industry

Stack

Microsoft, Stack-agnostic

Paired Gennoor Way phase

train, innovate, sustain

Format

interactive, video, reading