When Nathan Strum, CEO of Abby Connect, recently sat down with Sales Pop Online Sales Magazine, he shared something most business leaders are grappling with: how to use AI without losing the human touch that customers actually want.
The answer isn’t what you’d expect.
The Real AI Revolution Isn’t About Replacing People
Abby Connect started as a virtual receptionist service. Today, they’re doing something more interesting—they’ve built a platform where AI and humans work together, each doing what they do best.
Their approach? Three service options: traditional human receptionists, AI-powered receptionists, and a hybrid model that switches between the two as needed.
Here’s what makes this work: AI handles the repetitive stuff brilliantly. Answering the same questions over and over? Collecting basic information? Routing calls? AI excels at this. But when someone’s frustrated or needs genuine problem-solving, that’s where humans shine.
Smart Scheduling: Where AI Actually Changes the Game
One area where AI is genuinely transformative is scheduling. Think about healthcare offices or salons managing multiple providers, various services, and complicated calendars. Teaching this system to a new employee takes weeks. Teaching it to AI? Once.
The AI learns the complexity once and applies it consistently forever. No sick days, no retraining, no mistakes from fatigue.
The Hybrid Model That Actually Works
Here’s the clever part: Abby Connect’s AI can detect when a caller is getting frustrated and automatically transfers them to a human agent. No more “press 5 to speak to someone” loops that make customers want to throw their phones.
This is what good AI implementation looks like—using technology to reduce friction, not create it.
What This Means for Your Business
If you’re thinking about implementing AI in customer service, Strum’s advice is worth heeding: don’t just swap a human for AI one-to-one. That’s lazy thinking.
Instead, redesign the entire process. Ask yourself: what friction can we eliminate? Where does AI add genuine value? When do customers need a real person?
The businesses that get AI right are also investing heavily in their employees. As AI handles routine tasks, people need training for higher-value work—problem-solving, empathy, and creative thinking. Things that actually require human judgment.
The Transparency Question
One non-negotiable: be upfront about when customers are talking to AI. Strum emphasizes that transparency builds trust. Customers don’t mind AI assistance when they know what they’re getting and can request a human if needed.
Trying to trick people into thinking they’re talking to a real person when they’re not? That’s a fast way to destroy trust.
The Bottom Line
AI in customer service isn’t about cost-cutting or replacing your team. It’s about letting technology handle what it does well so humans can focus on what they do well.
The companies winning at this are the ones that blend both thoughtfully, train their teams continuously, and are honest with their customers about how they use AI.
That’s not the future—it’s happening right now at companies like Abby Connect. The question is whether your business will adapt or get left behind.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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