How AG1 uses AI to empower customers with a daily health ritual.

AG1, a leading global health company, is laser-focused on its bold mission: empowering individuals to take control of their health. With a core value of continuous improvement, AG1 fosters dynamic, personal customer relationships that inspire action, support daily rituals and celebrate progress.

Leading this charge is Leala Francis, Senior Vice President of Customer Insights and Member Experience at AG1. Leala’s vision extends beyond serving AG1 customers, whom AG1 calls members; she is working to build one-to-one relationships and support AG1 customers in creating a daily habit of prioritizing their health every day.

“Our customers seek support, guidance, and partnership in their wellness journey,” she says. “Many customers who build a daily routine tell us how it creates momentum and boosts their confidence to accomplish even more. We're here to help more people feel that sense of empowerment and take control of their health.”

The need for scale

In 2024, after years of immense growth, Leala identified the opportunity to further leverage technology in order to help the team scale to meet rapidly growing customer demand with a personalized approach. "Our customer support team is outstanding but we were handling tens of thousands of inquiries a month manually,” Leala recalls.

The solution? Implementing an AI agent with Sierra to engage and support customers at scale. The AG1 agent manages a variety of tasks, from answering basic FAQs and tracking orders to handling more complex subscription needs like adjusting shipment dates, adding products, or changing shipping addresses. Beyond automating these processes, the AI agent embodies AG1's brand personality.

“At AG1, our team personally responds to every single review, whether it’s giving a thumbs-up to a superfan or addressing a delayed package,” explains Leala. “Our AI agent allows us to focus on these individual relationship-building interactions, while still providing fast, accurate responses to common inquiries.”

Understanding and predicting customer needs

As Leala began investigating all aspects of the AG1 customer experience, she discovered an interesting trend that AG1’s customers were more satisfied with chat support. “By shifting more inquiries to chat, where our AI agent can resolve them in real-time, we aim to deliver the kind of experiences our customers prefer.” said Leala.

To deliver a fantastic chat experience, AG1 trained its AI agent like a top support representative, equipping it with fast access to all necessary systems. A natural extension of the team, the AI agent uses real-time data like subscription history to offer tailored solutions when customers seek to modify orders. “If a customer is going on vacation, the agent can suggest pausing the subscription or offer travel packs,” Leala says. This approach has created a stronger connection for customers to AG1’s mission of supporting lifelong health journeys.

The impact of the AI agent was fast and meaningful: AG1 saw a double-digit percentage migration from email volume to chat. “We know that there is a relationship between faster response times and higher NPS,” Leala notes. “It's our job to meet our customer needs and support them on their health journey. We know that customers who get their answers quickly have a higher retention and are more likely to recommend us.”

Ensuring quality performance

AG1 has a high bar for customer engagement. With their support team consistently earning an average 4.9 CSAT across all interactions, Leala knew that maintaining this level of excellence with the new AI agent was critical.

To ensure the AI agent upheld AG1’s reputation for outstanding service, Leala had her team perform rigorous quality assurance. Their job was to evaluate the agent on two key fronts: technical performance and conversational soft skills. Every interaction was carefully rated on a scale from 1 to 5, looking at how well the agent handled inquiries and how naturally it communicated.

Once the AI agent was tested, refined, and fully deployed, the results spoke for themselves. The agent achieved perfect 5/5 scores 99% of the time, matching the highest standards of AG1’s human ambassadors. Customers appreciate the agent’s accuracy and flexibility, in addition to the speed and seamless experience delivered.

Gathering customer insights

Leala’s approach goes beyond just handling inquiries—she views AI as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of AG1’s customers. One of the key tools in Leala’s strategy is Sierra’s Experience Manager, which provides powerful reporting and analytics to track customer trends and sentiment.

“The data we get from Sierra helps us spot patterns we couldn’t identify before, right when issues or opportunities are emerging,” Leala explains. This ability to adapt quickly has allowed AG1 to stay ahead in delivering personalized, impactful customer experiences.

Looking ahead

With Sierra’s AI agent handling an increasing volume of customer inquiries, Leala is excited about what’s next for AG1. She and her team are always considering new ways to enhance the customer experience. For example, using AI to act as a concierge when making a purchase decision - answering product questions and offering personalized recommendations to help customers make informed decisions with confidence.

“For us, AI isn’t just about automation,” Leala says. “It’s about creating a seamless, personalized experience for every customer and making sure that we’re always there to support our customers in building healthy daily habits.”