The pressure to settle down with a single AI provider is real. Front, the only customer operations platform built for cross-functional account work, says you can keep on swiping.
With new custom Autopilot agents and connections to external agents built with Claude, Codex, Sierra and others, teams can choose the right agent for the job without creating a mess behind the scenes. Front keeps the context, governance and handoffs in one place so all those agents (not to mention the humans running the whole thing) can actually work together.
Go ahead. See other agents. But for anyone wondering how to make that relationship work, Front has some advice and insight.
Seeking Advice: My AI Wants Me to Be Monogamous. Do I Really Have to Choose Just One Agent?
Dear Front,
I encouraged my teams to experiment with AI, and now every department (Support, Success, Operations) is using a different solution.
Individually, a lot of it is working. But as more of these specialized agents start interacting with each other, I worry we’ll end up with disconnected context, more handoffs and a lack of governance – and customer needs will ultimately fall through the cracks.
How can I make sure my teams are operating cohesively without forcing the company into one relationship with a single model or agent provider?
Sincerely,
Afraid of AI Commitment
Dear Afraid of AI Commitment,
The most successful AI relationships aren’t monogamous. With Front’s new custom Autopilot agents or external agents, each new agent gets the relationship history from day one – you don’t need to rebuild the customer experience around them.
You’re not the only one resisting the pressure to commit. In a new survey of 400 U.S. support, operations, and account management leaders, Front and Wakefield Research found that nearly all of them (98%) say their organizations have a list of preferred AI agent vendors, with 65% required to use those options. But when approved solutions don’t meet their teams’ needs, 44% would bypass the list entirely, either using an agent from another vendor or building their own.
“One enterprise AI model won’t rule us all, and companies shouldn’t bet their strategies on a single provider,” said Dan O’Connell, CEO at Front. “They need the freedom to customize, build and change their AI ecosystems without disrupting their teams’ work. As models commoditize, agents multiply and humans increasingly work alongside them, coordination becomes the real challenge – and operating with context will be paramount.”
From resolving a support issue and negotiating a renewal to issuing a refund and handling collections, customer work already requires different expertise, and AI is becoming just as specialized. Yet 77% of teams lack AI agents that are coordinated across multiple agents, systems, and teams. The consequences are already being felt: while 90% of leaders say their organizations allow AI agents to interact with customers, 79% say their organizations have received customer complaints caused by an AI agent’s work.
Front’s custom Autopilot agents can be configured for each brand, team, and issue type, with their own skills, knowledge, and processes. Along with agents built elsewhere, they can follow company policies, take action across connected systems, and bring in a person when needed, with clear ownership and controls over what each agent can do.
Bay Transit Co is experiencing this benefit firsthand. “We’ve brought AI teammates into Front that reply to carrier emails within minutes with load details and rate requests, and instantly pull tracking status for customer inquiries before handing off for a person to make the call,” said Brandon Bay, Founder and CEO, Bay Transit Co. “Using external agents in Front has saved us at least 11 hours a week of lookup, paperwork, and first replies we no longer do by hand, which has been monumental for our agency.”
Visibility is the secret to keeping a multi-agent relationship healthy. Yet only 26% of leaders say their organizations measure AI agent performance on a formal schedule. Nearly half (45%) evaluate performance informally depending on the user, while another 25% only measure performance when a problem is identified. For one in three companies (35%), when an AI agent makes a mistake or gives a customer inaccurate information, the customer is the most likely person to flag the problem.
So, what are the ground rules for a healthy multi-agent relationship? Front is releasing new features to give teams greater visibility and control across the customer lifecycle:
- Autopilot, Front’s native AI agent, now lets teams create custom agents tailored to their business and run powerful workflows built through plain-language Playbooks.
- External agents built with Claude, Codex, Sierra, and more connect directly into Front, bringing AI agents out of silos and keeping handoffs, approvals, and oversight in one place.
- Compass provides consistent governance across Autopilot and external agents, scoring AI-handled conversations, tracking quality and satisfaction over time, and pinpointing where agents need better guidance, knowledge, or processes. Teams can review the suggested fixes, make changes, and decide what to implement.
- Copilot, Front’s AI assistant, automates recurring work on a schedule so account roundups, meeting preparation, and follow-up are ready before they’re needed.
- New Account Management capabilities give teams a complete view of each customer, helping them spot churn risks, uncover expansion opportunities, and understand which accounts need attention next.
Customers shouldn’t have to know how complicated your AI relationship is behind the scenes. Our advice is simple: keep your options open, but provide agents and humans alike with ground rules and a clear place to work.
Yours,
Front
Learn more about Front’s latest innovations and explore the data.
About Front
Your AI strategy is going to change. Probably sooner than you think. Front is the only platform built for cross-functional account work designed for that constant change, giving businesses one place to bring their own agents and coordinate teams across the customer relationship. Context travels with the work, handoffs stay connected and companies stay free to choose, swap and build whatever comes next. Join the more than 9,300 companies, including Uber Freight, Navan, and Stripe, that rely on Front and check us out at Front.com and on our socials: LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006847340/en/
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