The "Human Middleware" Problem

You hire smart people. You screen them for empathy. You test their critical thinking. You train them for six weeks on your product nuances.

Then you put them in a seat and force them to press the same three buttons for eight hours a day.

This is the "Human Middleware" problem.

In 2025, most contact centers still rely on humans to act as the glue between disconnected systems. A customer asks for a refund. The agent looks up the policy in a PDF. The agent opens the billing tool. The agent clicks "refund." The agent opens Gmail. The agent sends a confirmation.

This task requires zero critical thinking. It requires zero empathy. It is purely mechanical.

Yet you are paying a full salary, benefits, and overhead for it. You are using your most expensive resource (humans) to do the work of your cheapest resource (software).

‍

The Math of Boredom: Why You Are Bleeding Cash

Let’s look at the economics of repetitive work.

The average support ticket for a "Level 1" issue (password reset, order status, simple refund) takes about 6 to 10 minutes to resolve.

• Agent Cost: ~$25/hour (fully burdened).
• Cost per Ticket: ~$4.00.

If your team handles 5,000 of these "Level 1" tickets a month, you are spending $20,000 monthly on tasks that add zero strategic value to your business.

But the salary cost is just the tip of the iceberg. The real cost is Attrition.

High-performing agents do not quit because the work is too hard. They quit because the work is mindless¹.

‍

When an intelligent person spends 40% of their day answering "Where is my order?" they disengage. They stop caring. They make mistakes. Eventually, they leave.

Replacing a fully trained agent costs between $10,000 and $20,000 in recruiting, training, and "ramp time" productivity loss².

‍

If you have a 50-seat support team with 40% annual turnover, you are spending $200,000 to $400,000 a year just to replace people who left because they were bored.

‍

The Technical Gap: Why "Swivel Chair" Support Persists

Why does this happen? Why are humans still copy-pasting data between windows?

It is a failure of integration.

Most companies buy a "Best in Class" tech stack. You have Salesforce for CRM. Shopify for orders. Zendesk for tickets. Jira for bugs.

These tools rarely talk to each other fluently.

When a customer asks a question that spans two systems—like "Why was I charged for the item I returned?"—the software hits a wall.

• The Chatbot checks the FAQ. It sees nothing about specific user charges. It gives up.
• The System cannot see the logic.
• The Human has to step in.

The agent has to "swivel" their chair (or tab). They look at Shopify to see the return. They look at Stripe to see the charge. They realize the refund failed. They manually fix it.

You are paying the human to be the API.

‍

The Shift to Agentic AI: Automation that "Does"

The solution is not to hire faster typists. The solution is Agentic AI.

We need to distinguish between "Generative AI" (which writes text) and "Agentic AI" (which executes tasks).

‍

An Agentic AI does not just read a script. It has "hands." It connects to your backend systems via API. It can perform the same steps your human agent performs, but instantly and without error.

‍

The Difference in Action

Scenario: A customer wants to exchange a shirt for a different size.

‍

• The Old Way (Human Middleware):

1. Customer chats with agent.
2. Agent asks for order number.
3. Agent checks inventory for new size.
4. Agent generates return label.
5. Agent emails label.
6. Agent updates inventory.

• Time: 12 minutes. Cost: $5.00.

‍

• The New Way (Agentic AI):

1. Customer tells AI "Exchange this for a Medium."
2. AI checks inventory via API.
3. AI generates label via shipping integration.
4. AI emails label.
5. AI updates inventory.

• Time: 10 seconds. Cost: $0.50.

‍

This is not just "deflection." This is resolution.

‍

The New Role of the Human: From Robot to Problem Solver

When you automate the repetitive 60% of your volume, you do not just save money. You unlock revenue.

You are left with a team of humans who have time to breathe. You can now redeploy them to High-Value Work⁴.

‍

What does high-value work look like?

1. Retention and De-escalation

When a customer is furious and threatening to cancel, you do not want a bot. You want an empathetic human with the time to listen, negotiate, and save the account.

2. Complex Investigation

Some problems are new. A software bug that no one has seen before. A shipping container lost at sea. These require critical thinking and cross-departmental communication. Humans excel here.

3. Revenue Generation (The Profit Center)

This is the holy grail. If your agents aren't drowning in "Where is my order?" tickets, they can focus on "What else do you need?"

Support leaders often talk about turning the contact center into a profit center⁵. You cannot do that if your agents are rushed. But if an agent has time, they can consult with the customer. They can suggest add-ons. They can drive upsells.

‍

Your Next Move: The "Boredom Audit"

You need to identify where you are wasting human potential.

Run a "Boredom Audit" on your tickets from last month.

1. Export your top 10 ticket categories.
   Look at the volume. What are the most common reasons people contact you?
2. Apply the "Robot Test."
   For each category, ask: "Does solving this require empathy? Does it require unique judgment?"
   If the answer is no—if the answer is just "Look up X and click Y"—then it is a robot task.
3. Calculate the Waste.
   Multiply the volume of those robot tickets by $4.00. That is the amount of money you are setting on fire every month.

Stop paying humans to be bad robots. Let the AI handle the repetition. Let your people handle the customers.

‍

Next Step

High turnover is usually a symptom of bad tools. But what is the actual dollar cost of losing a rep?

Read our next post: The True Cost of Agent Attrition

‍