Tell support staff what will land in their queue differently, and give them a few tickets to practise on before it does. Each 90-day recertification can change which tickets the AI agent resolves alone, which it drafts for a person and which refunds it holds. A short brief, a handful of worked tickets and two weeks of coaching keep people confident.
What does recertification change for support staff?
Support teams have two kinds of agent in the same queue: the people, and a governed AI agent beside them. The AI agent usually resolves routine tickets end to end at depth 3, such as delivery questions, password help and simple account changes, using the help centre articles and the customer's account. It drafts replies at depth 2 for people to edit and send on everything else. Refunds move money, so they need depth 4; above the business's own limit they are refused, and the agent may only draft them for a person to make.
Recertification re-runs the agent's cases on recent tickets. The scope gate checks that the agent keeps to the ticket types its role covers, and the grounded gate checks that every answer traces to a help article or account record. A typical change is a ticket type moving from resolved to drafted because the help article was out of date during the replay. Support staff then see those tickets again, with drafts attached.
If the run clears no depth, the agent drops to depth 1 the same day. Every ticket it resolved now waits for a person, with no draft. Queues rise within hours. A plain account of the cycle is in what recertification is.
Who owns readiness?
The support team lead owns readiness for their team: the brief, the practice tickets and coaching. The support manager owns the business's own limits, such as the refund value above which a person makes the refund. The knowledge manager owns the help centre articles, which are the sealed source the agent draws on. The builder owns recertification.
Steps for each cycle
- Agent, depth 1: report the cycle. Tickets resolved, drafts sent unchanged and edited, refunds paid and held, handovers and refusals, with the deciding bound for each.
- Person (knowledge manager): fix the articles behind the most-edited drafts before recertification.
- Person (builder): recertify on recent tickets.
- Person (support team lead and builder): write the change note: ticket types added or removed from resolution, refund limit, new handover triggers.
- Agent, depth 2: draft eight practice tickets reflecting the changes, checked by the team lead.
- Person (team lead): run a 20-minute session. Each person edits a draft and explains what they changed and why.
- Person (each support agent): confirm they have read the note.
- Person (team lead): coach from the first fortnight, using real edited drafts.
| Step | The agent does | Depth | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine tickets | Resolves within scope | 3 | Defining scope |
| Other tickets | Drafts a reply with sources | 2 | Editing and sending |
| Refund within limit | Pays | 4 | Setting the limit |
| Refund above limit | Drafts only | refused | Making the refund |
| Complaint | Hands over with a summary | escalation | Handling it |
| Out-of-scope request | Refuses and routes to a person | refused | The answer |
What should support staff practise?
Editing a draft, not accepting it. The skill is reading the draft against the ticket and the sources it cites. If the draft quotes a help article, check it is the right one for this customer's product.
Spotting what the agent could not see. A customer who wrote three times in a week is frustrated even if the latest message is polite. The agent's draft may be correct and still wrong in tone.
Held refunds. For staff who approve, read the deciding bound first. "Refused: above limit" means a person makes the refund; "held: claim declared by customer" means checking the order record before paying.
Teaching the agent back. When a draft is wrong because a help article is wrong, report the article. That fixes the source for every future ticket instead of one reply.
Controls and the evidence they leave
- Article fixes before recertification. Evidence: the list of articles changed and why.
- Change note. Evidence: dated note.
- Practice session. Evidence: attendance and edited practice tickets.
- Named approval on held refunds. Evidence: approvals in the append-only record.
- Practicum for new approvers. Evidence: the practicum log template for customer support agents.
What to measure
The edit rate on drafts by ticket type, before and after the cycle. Reopened tickets, split by whether the AI agent or a person resolved them. And the waiting time on held refunds. A rising edit rate on one ticket type almost always points to a help article, so send it to the knowledge manager first.
Where does readiness slip?
Staff learn about a scope change from a customer. A ticket type the agent used to resolve suddenly arrives with a draft, and staff assume it is a fault. The change note prevents that.
Staff send drafts without reading them at the end of a long shift. The reply goes out under their name and remains theirs, as are customer support agents accountable for an AI agent's mistakes explains.
Team leads coach on speed only. After a depth change, accuracy should come first for two weeks. Team leads run their own cycle; see keeping support team leads ready for recertification.
Where the Academy fits
Support staff new to agents can start with Pryme Intelligence Academy's Foundations track, about 4 hours with a free badge. Those who approve held refunds or review drafts all day are the audience for the Operator track, whose modules cover human review and teaching the agent. Module tests are set in the learner's own industry and role. More in the guide to AI literacy and certification for people who work with agents.
Questions people ask
Should customers know an AI agent resolved their ticket?
Yes. Say so plainly, and make it easy to reply and reach a person.
What if a support agent disagrees with a refusal?
They raise it with the team lead, who passes it to the builder if the bound looks wrong. They do not work around it by hand.
How much time should the cycle take from each person?
About half an hour: the note, the practice session and the sign-off. Coaching then happens inside normal one-to-ones.