At what point does AI in customer support become a necessity rather than a nice-to-have?

For most teams, it stops being optional the moment support volume grows faster than the team can scale. When repetitive questions start taking up the majority of agent time, response times slip, costs rise, and hiring becomes a constant reaction instead of a plan. That’s usually the tipping point.

AI becomes a necessity when customers expect instant answers across channels, when agents spend more time copy-pasting than solving real problems, and when managers lose visibility because tickets pile up faster than they can be triaged. At that stage, automation isn’t about replacing people, it’s about keeping quality and consistency under control as the business grows.

It also becomes essential when accuracy and brand tone matter. Once support teams need answers that are fast, consistent, and grounded in real data, relying purely on humans or basic macros no longer works at scale.

Curious to hear your experience. When did AI move from “interesting experiment” to “we actually need this” in your support or operations?