CX Innovation Lab: AI-Enabled Customer Support

CX Innovation Lab: AI-Enabled Customer Support

Unifying digital and social support through intelligent routing and expert-driven resolution

Overview:

At Cisco, I founded and scaled a CX innovation lab focused on rethinking how customers engage with support across digital and social channels. The goal was to move from fragmented engagement models to a cohesive, scalable service system that unified intake, routing, escalation, and resolution.

Problem:

Customer engagement was fragmented across disconnected systems and channels:

Separate intake paths for social, digital, and support channels
Inconsistent routing and escalation rules
Limited visibility across customer interactions
Fragmented knowledge reuse across teams and experts
Slow information gathering from technical experts

This resulted in inconsistent experiences, slow resolution, and missed revenue opportunities as customers struggled to navigate support and purchase pathways.

Role:

I led CX platform and experience innovation with Product, Engineering, Sales, and PR, owning:

Defined the target-state service architecture and led execution from concept through scaled rollout
Led end-to-end service experience design across digital and social channels
Owned CX system architecture, workflow design, and operating model development
Evangelized and scaled the model across a global network, partnering with 150+ subject matter experts to deliver high-quality, expert-led responses
Partnered with AI/ML teams to design routing and prioritization models that filtered noise and surfaced high-value customer and sales opportunities

Approach:

I approached the challenge as an ecosystem design problem, focusing on customer experience and scalability:

Mapped end-to-end customer journeys across social, digital, and support channels to identify friction points and gaps in resolution pathways
Synthesized stakeholder input and performance data to prioritize high-impact improvements
Defined unified cross-channel architecture connecting intake, routing, escalation, and resolution
Designed intelligent routing and prioritization logic to reduce noise and improve case accuracy
Introduced structured experimentation (MVPs, A/B testing) to validate changes before scaling

Solution:

The resulting service system:

Unified fragmented support channels into a cohesive omnichannel service model
Enabled consistent routing and escalation across all engagement types
Embedded AI-driven prioritization and routing logic
Established a scalable expert network (150+ technical sales engineers) to improve resolution quality and speed
Implemented knowledge capture and smart response suggestions to improve efficiency and consistency
Introduced structured crisis response workflows for high-risk and sensitive customer interactions

Outcomes:

~98% reduction in non-actionable “noise” cases through AI-driven intake filtering
~99% accuracy in case routing through AI-enabled systems
~$2M sales pipeline impact in a 6-week pilot of expert engagement flows
$1.2M in cost savings through platform and vendor optimization
Scalable support model enabling faster resolution across high-volume channels
Built and launched a learning knowledge system powered by a 150+ expert network

Related Article: How Cisco Used Social to Build a Bridge to Its Customers

Interactive Touch-Screen CX Support Command Center at Silicon Valley Headquarters

Recognition:

Finalist for the 2020 Cisco Individual Digital Marketing Innovation Award

2020 Audience Honor Award Recipient and 2019 Award Finalist for Social Customer Service Program Innovation and Excellence

2019 Ragan’s PRDaily.com Awards – Honorable Mention for Social Listening and Real-Time Response

2019 Drum Social Buzz Awards – Second Place for Best Social Media Customer Service Strategy/Campaign – View Article