Article • 4 min read
How Twilio and Match Group elevate CX with human-centric AI
What leading brands can teach us about pairing empathy with automation to deliver next-level service.
Early AI adopters are blazing new trails in customer experience—achieving unprecedented results and capturing customers’ attention (and loyalty) in the process.
At Zendesk Relate, two such trailblazers graced the stage: Todd Bursey, VP of Efficiency Operations at Twilio, and Meghan Hussack, Director of Strategy and Shared Services at Match Group, joined us to share the lessons they’ve learned from adopting AI and integrating it into their CX strategies.
Whether your company is just starting its AI journey or making strides towards more autonomous AI capabilities, these expert tips will help you understand the full potential of AI to transform your customer experience.
1. Approach high-stakes situations with authenticity
Match Group, the largest global portfolio of popular dating services, values empathy and authenticity. And those values are reflected in their approach to AI. Instead of relying on macros and templated responses like some human agents, their AI can offer customers a more personalized response.
“We’re an online dating company,” said Meghan. “It’s a very personal product for our customers. Even in our early testing stage, we’ve seen how AI responds with empathy.
“One of our customers wrote in with a product question, but also expressed feeling discouraged about dating in general—that they weren’t sure they were going to find their person. The AI responded with emotional validation and encouragement—even giving them a bit of a pep talk, saying things like, ‘keep your chin up, it takes time to find the right person.’ And then it went into the product question and pulled the relevant help center article.”
“In some cases, AI was able to improve the customer experience and be more engaging than our human agents.”
– Meghan Hussack, Director of Strategy and Shared Services at Match Group
How do consumers feel about these human-like interactions? According to our 2025 CX Trends report, they’re foundational to consumer confidence in AI. In fact, nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers said they’re more trusting of AI agents that are friendly, engaging, and empathetic.
2. Unlock new levels of personalization with autonomous AI
From Todd’s point of view, personalization is more than knowing your customer’s name. It’s also knowing the ins and outs of their account and offering up the right support at the right time.
“Everybody talks about personalization. It’s not just knowing your customer’s name. It’s also knowing their intent, their profile, and how they interacted with your company the last time they reached out.”
– Todd Bursey, VP of Efficiency Operations at Twilio
In the near future, Twilio plans to take those personalized interactions to the next level with autonomous actions.
“We’re looking at a proactive support model, identifying issues before the customer knows about them—and notifying customers that we’ve made these adjustments,” he said.
“When you give the AI the capability to take action on behalf of a customer to resolve their problems, you can start to target some of those use cases where humans no longer need to be in the mix. This allows us to elevate people to an advisory or oversight role where they’re reviewing to make sure that the AI is taking the proper actions—ensuring even more personalization and contextualization.”
3. Evolve your CX metrics to measure the modern age of service
Match Group is likewise focused on understanding—and allowing customers to choose—when they engage with a human versus AI. And vice versa.
“Some of our members just want a fast response and a fast resolution,” said Meghan. “If a customer can’t log into our service, that’s a problem we want resolved right away. In this case, the customer can leverage AI instead of waiting for a human—and that they walk away happy with that experience. It’s very important for us that our members are highly satisfied with their interactions.”
Like Match Group, Twilio considers CSAT one of the many critical metrics when it comes to AI. And in some cases, they’re evolving their CX metrics to include the blended experiences of interacting with AI and a human agent.
“We look at overall case deflection, which occurs when a customer can search and find their own information. And then we take it to the next level, which is case deflection from AI,” said Todd. “We also look at the differences between CSAT of our AI, CSAT of humans, and then this blended handoff.”
“When there’s a ticket that starts with the AI agent and is actually transferred to a human, we’re seeing better CSAT scores than we would be if the humans took it alone.”
– Todd Bursey, VP of Efficiency Operations at Twilio
For some metrics, Todd and his team have realized that blended scores can sometimes be counterintuitive. For example, since their AI agent handles questions that are considered low-hanging fruit, metrics like time to resolution for human agents has increased. Why? Because AI is doing its job—deflecting the easier tickets; whereas humans are taking on the harder tickets that require more research and more time.
As early AI adopters, Match Group and Twilio have set the standard for AI-powered success—merging empathy and technology to meet customers where they are and delivering unprecedented results.
Want to power your CX with AI? Get the insights you need to innovate like top brands. [Watch Relate on-demand]
