You guessed it. AI. A chatbot that fails to solve customer problems may create more financial risk than operational savings. The Gist Does cheaper customer service always save money? No. AI self-service can lower interaction costs while increasing customer churn if experiences fail to resolve issues effectively. Why do so many AI service initiatives disappoint customers? Organizations often automate broken processes before fixing underlying workflow, knowledge and escalation problems. What separates successful AI deployments from failed ones? Leading organizations prioritize readiness, governance, knowledge quality and human escalation paths before scaling automation. The bot saves you money. The customer never comes back. Here is what the data is actually telling us in 2026. Every boardroom conversation about AI and customer service eventually lands on the same slide. Cost per interaction. Chatbot: $1.84. Human agent: $13.50. The math looks obvious, the decision feels easy, and the project gets approved.…