customerScore 30/100Watch
Customer support AI is underserved market: help desk incumbents vulnerable as AI is 'both the death of our company and also the best chance we have of survival'
Mustafa Suleyman· Microsoft AI· AI· 2026-07-06
“We kind of realized that AI might actually be both the death of our company and also the best chance we have of survival at the same time. And cuz AI is clearly going to make customer support a lot different than it was before. And as a result, help desks won't need to look the same way they used to. But people are going to want to use AI for customer support and there's no one out there doing it right now.”
Why it matters
A speaker from an incumbent help desk/customer support company signals that the category is undergoing disruption. No dominant AI-native customer support solution exists yet, suggesting a narrow window for startups to establish category leadership.
Investment implication
AI-native customer support and contact center automation represent an underinvested category with incumbent vulnerability. Companies like Zendesk, Five9, and traditional contact center providers face displacement risk; new entrants building AI-first customer service agents have first-mover advantage potential.