Nobody calls customer service because it is the highlight of their day. Usually, something has gone wrong, self-service has failed, or an answer is needed quickly. Too often, the result is hold music, a maze of menu options, and the need to explain the same problem more than once.
Cresta has partnered with former NFL star Marshawn Lynch for a new campaign asking enterprises to put their customer experience into “Beast Mode.”
The campaign plays on Lynch’s action-first personality, but it raises a serious question for CX leaders. Can AI customer service make support faster and more personal without creating another barrier between customers and the help they need?
In this interview with Russell Banzon, Cresta’s CMO, uncovers the thinking behind the campaign, the persistent friction in AI-to-human handoffs, and why businesses need to rethink automation from the customer’s perspective.
Watch the full interview with Russell Banzon above to hear his perspective on building AI customer experiences that are fast, personalized, proactive, and still grounded in the human moments that matter.
Why Does Customer Service Still Create So Much Friction?
Customer service creates friction when the process intended to solve a problem gives customers more work to do. Long waits, rigid IVRs, repeated authentication, and disconnected agents can make even a simple request feel unnecessarily difficult.
Cresta’s campaign uses one of Lynch’s most recognizable lines, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” as a stand-in for the customer who has spent too long on hold and simply wants the interaction to end.
It is a playful hook, but it reflects a real problem. Organizations have invested in automation for years, yet many customer journeys still feel fragmented. The issue is not automation itself. It is automation that focuses on deflecting contact rather than helping a customer reach a resolution.
Can AI Agents Help Instead of Becoming Another Obstacle?
AI agents can improve customer service when they understand why a customer is reaching out, use relevant context, and either resolve the issue or transfer it smoothly to the right person. They become another obstacle when businesses use them as a new version of the menu-driven systems customers already dislike.
Enterprises should not treat AI as a direct replacement for older forms of automation. Instead, they should start by considering the ideal experience they want to deliver.
“The right starting place is thinking from first principles: what does the most ideal customer experience really look like?”
That changes the conversation from containment rates to customer effort. If an AI system can recognize a recently purchased product, a previous interaction, or the likely reason for contact, it can begin with a more useful question and avoid making the customer start from scratch.
Why Do AI-to-Human Handoffs Still Break the Customer Journey?
AI-to-human handoffs fail when the context from the automated conversation does not travel with the customer. A successful transfer should give the human agent the interaction history, the customer’s intent, and the actions already taken.
Banzon identified siloed systems and fragmented intelligence as two of the main challenges. Many organizations use separate technologies for automation, agent assistance, analytics, and customer data. Each may work independently, but customers experience the gaps between them.
“When your customer talks to your automation, it’s not usually getting relayed perfectly over to the human conversations and vice versa. They should know the context of you having just talked to your automation or the human conversation the last time you called in.”
Customers do not see separate platforms. They see one brand. If they have to repeat their issue after an AI interaction, the business has added friction instead of removing it.
How Should Businesses Decide What to Automate First?
Businesses should decide what to automate by analyzing their real customer conversations, rather than simply selecting the highest-volume reason for contact. The best early opportunities often have clear customer needs, limited variation, and accessible systems that can complete the required action.
Banzon advised organizations to use their existing contact center data as an automation blueprint. High-volume interactions may offer a compelling return, but they are not always the best starting point if they involve many exceptions or complex workflows.
Instead, CX leaders should identify the contact types where AI can reliably help, then build from there. That approach provides a more realistic path to automation and reduces the risk of exposing customers to an experience that is not ready for them.
What Is the Final Takeaway for CX Leaders?
Cresta’s partnership with Marshawn Lynch uses “Beast Mode” to frame an increasingly important CX challenge. AI should make customer service fast, personalized, and proactive, but it must also preserve context and make it easier to reach a well-prepared human when needed.
The organizations that succeed will not necessarily automate the most conversations. They will use AI to reduce customer effort, connect their systems, and give human agents more capacity for the moments that matter most.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cresta’s partnership with Marshawn Lynch about?
Cresta has partnered with former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch on a campaign encouraging enterprises to put customer experience into ‘Beast Mode.’ The campaign focuses on making customer service faster, more personalized, and more proactive with AI.
How can AI agents improve customer service?
AI agents can improve customer service by understanding customer intent, using relevant context, resolving routine issues, and handing complex requests to human agents without forcing customers to repeat themselves.
Why are AI-to-human handoffs important?
AI-to-human handoffs are important because customers expect a human agent to understand what has already happened. When conversation history and intent do not transfer, customers must restart the interaction and experience more friction.
Will AI replace customer service agents?
AI may automate routine conversations and administrative work, but human agents remain important for complex, high-emotion, and high-value customer interactions that require empathy and judgment.
How should businesses choose what to automate?
Businesses should analyze customer conversation data to identify interactions with clear needs, low variation, and workable access to the systems needed for resolution. High volume alone does not make a use case suitable for automation.
