We examine how artificial intelligence (AI) affected the productivity of customer service agents and customer sentiment in online interactions. Collaborating with a meal delivery company, we conducted a randomized field experiment that exploited exogenous variation in giving agents access to AI-generated suggestions. We found that AI improved both the efficiency and effectiveness of the interactions: AI-assisted agents responded faster, engaged customers more deeply, and achieved greater improvements in customer sentiment. The benefits were most pronounced for less-experienced agents. However, AI’s impact varied by conversation type: It improved efficiency and customer sentiment in subscription cancellation requests but was the least effective in repeat complaint scenarios because of systemic issues beyond the AI’s capability. A text analysis of agent messages suggests that improved customer sentiment was explained by AI-assisted agents exhibiting higher levels of key response characteristics: empathy, information, and solution. Furthermore, we exploit a unique data feature: Customers first chatted with an automated chatbot without any human intervention before they were transferred to human agents (who may or may not have had AI assistance). We found that if customers who had experienced chatbot comprehension failures were then connected to AI-assisted human agents, the involvement of AI negatively affected customer sentiment. This is because unusually rapid responses in the latter scenario led customers to believe they were still communicating with a chatbot only, suggesting a spillover from their initial negative chatbot experiences. Companies should understand the conversation contexts, such as customer intent and chatbot interactions, when integrating AI into their customer support strategies.

This study investigates the comprehensive and multidimensional effects of quota (goal) frequency on sales force performance. The study provides a theory of salespeople’s behavior—aggregate effort and the product-type focus—in response to the temporal length of a sales quota cycle. The theory includes many realistic elements, such as salespeople’s multidimensional effort, heterogeneity in ability, product focus, and forward-looking behavior. We test the theory through a field experiment, varying the sales compensation structure of a major retail chain in Sweden. Consistent with the developed theory, shifting to a temporally frequent quota structure leads to an increase in sales performance for low-performing salespeople by preventing them from giving up in later periods within a quota-evaluation cycle, but to a decrease in sales performance for high-performing salespeople. With quotas set over short time horizons, the high-performing salespeople focus mainly on low-ticket products, resulting in a decrease in both sales volume and the sale of high-ticket products, thus reducing the firm’s profits.