AI is fundamentally reshaping how customer-facing teams operate, and nowhere is this transformation more evident than in customer success (CS). During Gainsight’s recent webinar, Reaching Agentic Maturity: The Path to Agentic Scale, Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and Brent Krempges, CCO of Gainsight, laid out a compelling vision for the future of AI agents in scaling customer retention and growth.
They explored the transition from basic automation to fully autonomous agents, a process that can unlock unparalleled scalability and efficiency for Customer Success teams. As Mehta explained during the webinar, “AI has evolved from being an assistant to a true agent, capable of not just analyzing data but taking proactive actions to meet higher-level business goals like renewals, adoption, and risk mitigation.”
Let’s dive into what agentic maturity means, the roles AI agents can play in customer success, and how they can work hand-in-hand with human CS teams to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers. Whether you’re just starting your AI journey or looking to level up, the roadmap to agentic scale is within reach.
Defining Agentic Maturity
Agentic maturity represents the evolution of AI from basic tools to fully autonomous agents that can proactively support customer success goals at scale. As outlined by Mehta and Krempges during the webinar, this journey can be broken down into four key stages: starting with simple automation, moving to team agents that provide insights, expanding to customer-facing agents, and ultimately achieving fully autonomous, goal-driven agents.
“Agents aren’t just assistants waiting for you to tell them what to do,” explained Mehta. “They’re given higher-level objectives like ‘renew this customer’ or ‘identify risks,’ and they take on the heavy lifting to make those goals happen.”
At the heart of agentic maturity is the ability for AI to reason, plan, and act based on real-time insights, transforming scattered data into actionable strategies. For companies navigating complex customer lifecycles, this shift isn’t just a technological upgrade—it’s a strategic imperative. As Krempges put it, “It’s about reducing surprises, streamlining coordination, and empowering human teams to focus on building relationships rather than managing repetitive tasks.”
The Role of AI Agents in Customer Success
AI agents have the potential to revolutionize customer success by addressing some of the most critical challenges teams face today. Gainsight’s Atlas family of AI agents is already showcasing how intelligent automation can create meaningful business impact.
Take, for example, the Staircase AI Agent, which scans emails, meetings, Slack conversations, product usage data, and support tickets to uncover hidden risks or sentiments. “The Staircase AI Agent is like having a second set of eyes across your entire customer base,” said Mehta. “It doesn’t just identify risks—it surfaces insights your team can act on immediately.”
Another game-changer is the Renewal AI Agent, the first of its kind, introduced at Gainsight’s Pulse conference. This agent proactively manages renewals for long-tail customer segments, delivering personalized outreach and engagement strategies that mirror the best practices of top-performing Customer Success Managers (CSMs). Krempges highlighted its importance: For teams managing thousands of customers with lean resources, having an agent to handle renewals at scale is a complete breakthrough.
The benefits extend beyond renewals. Gainsight’s forthcoming Adoption AI Agent promises to tackle usage dips by analyzing user behavior, identifying friction points, and delivering targeted solutions, such as personalized email outreach or in-app guidance.
The Path to Agentic Scale
Achieving agentic scale requires a strategic approach. As Mehta described during the webinar, companies must navigate four stages of the AI journey:
- Basic Automation: Most companies start here, leveraging large language models like ChatGPT or tools like Microsoft Copilot to draft emails, summarize meetings, or provide surface-level insights. This is the foundation but only scratches the surface of AI’s potential.
- Team Agents: The next step is deploying agents internally to support your team’s workflows. For example, Staircase AI provides early risk detection by analyzing sentiment from emails, calls, and support tickets. Krempges emphasized its value: Risk management isn’t just about identifying problems—it’s about ensuring the team is focusing their efforts in the right places.
- Customer Agents: Agents can extend their value directly to customers. This includes AI-driven support bots, dynamic in-app guides, or even personalized learning experiences. As Mehta put it, “Customer agents not only improve efficiency but also empower customers to solve their own problems on their timeline.”
- Fully Autonomous Agents: The ultimate goal is creating agents that deliver on business outcomes like renewals, adoption, and onboarding without constant human oversight. Gainsight’s Atlas agents represent this vision, where agents are given high-level goals and independently craft solutions to achieve them.
Human and AI Collaboration
One of the recurring themes during the webinar was the importance of balancing automation with human expertise. “AI agents should take on the repetitive, scalable tasks so that human teams can focus on what they do best—building relationships and driving strategic outcomes,” said Mehta.
AI agents excel at activities like sentiment analysis, risk identification, and creating hyper-personalized outreach strategies. However, humans remain irreplaceable when it comes to empathy, creative problem-solving, and fostering trust. Krempges summed it up best: “When AI agents handle the routine tasks, your team has the bandwidth to strengthen relationships, engage at a deeper level, and truly make every customer feel special.”
This collaboration creates a win-win scenario: Agents ensure efficiency and scale, while human teams focus on the personal connections that drive retention and growth.
Gainsight’s Vision for the Future
Gainsight is paving the way for a new era of customer success with the launch of Atlas, a suite of AI agents designed to transform every stage of the post-sale journey. From the Staircase AI Agent to the upcoming Renewal AI and Adoption AI agents, Atlas represents Gainsight’s commitment to helping companies achieve agentic maturity.
“Our vision is simple,” said Mehta. “We want to shift the paradigm from people serving software to software serving people.” With Atlas, companies can deploy AI agents to do the heavy lifting, freeing their teams to focus on the personal connections that matter most.
As Gainsight continues to expand our offerings, one thing is clear: The future of customer success lies at the intersection of AI and human collaboration.
If you’re ready to explore how AI agents can transform your customer success strategy, watch the full on-demand webinar, Reaching Agentic Maturity: The Path to Agentic Scale.
