Vendor reports compare apples (chat tickets the bot took) to oranges (the email backlog it didn't), and ignore the cost of a degrading escalation queue. We propose a five-metric scoreboard and the audit pattern that catches inflated wins inside 60 days. The honest sustainable deflection rate is 25-40%, not the 70% vendors quote.
This piece is being expanded into a full long-form article in the coming weeks. We publish each insight once the engagement it draws from has settled enough that we can name the trade-offs honestly — not while a pattern is still proving itself in production.
Field notes ship when the engagement they came from has stopped surprising us, not before.
Want the long-form version when it lands? Or want to skip ahead and talk through the same questions for your own company?