
· Prakash Natarajan · AI
AI Agent vs. Chatbot for Customer Support
A chatbot follows a script and hands off when a question falls outside it. An AI agent reads the ticket, checks your systems, and finishes the job itself.

A chatbot follows a script and hands off when a question falls outside it. An AI agent reads the ticket, checks your systems, and finishes the job itself.

Ticket escalation fails when context gets lost in the handoff. Here's how to build a process that keeps the full picture intact, from triggers to metrics.

System design, tool contracts, memory, guardrails, evals, orchestration, and human handoff — the complete engineering breakdown for building AI agents that reason, act, and recover on their own.

Understanding customer support AI not as a single solution, but as a hierarchy of levels—from traditional human-only support to fully autonomous agents.