Joan Westenberg
The AI Moment for Agent Guidance
The emergence of AI copilots has done something remarkable for customer support: it's made agent guidance a strategic priority.
Companies like Zendesk have elevated the conversation with their Co-pilot, demonstrating that real-time guidance can transform how agents work. The category is growing, and rightfully so - customer service has always needed better ways to help agents make confident decisions in the moment.
At Cloudset, we see this AI-driven momentum as validation. Agent guidance is no longer a "nice-to-have." It's become essential. But as companies implement these solutions, they're discovering an important nuance: not all guidance problems are created equal.
Some workflows need helpful suggestions. Others demand precise calibration.
That distinction is creating a new subcategory within agent guidance: Agent Calibration - guidance designed to balance structure with judgment, applying control exactly where it's needed.
Two Types of Guidance for Two Types of Work
As agent guidance matures, we're seeing a natural split based on the nature of the work being guided:
Narrated Guidance: Instructions Without Structure
Think of this as a knowledgeable colleague looking over your shoulder, offering suggestions based on what they see. AI copilots excel here - analyzing the conversation, surfacing relevant articles and procedures, and then recommending responses. The agent reads the response suggestion and any recommended actions, then decides what to do next.
Where it shines: Well-documented procedures, common scenarios, general productivity improvements
The mechanism: Text-based instructions, contextual recommendations, knowledge retrieval
Calibrated Guidance: Precision Where It Matters, Judgment Where It Counts
This is fundamentally different. Instead of just describing what to do, calibrated guidance provides structured paths that adjust to complexity - tight control over compliance checkpoints and required data, loose flexibility where human expertise adds value. There's no interpretation gap on what must be done, but agents retain judgment on how to navigate contextual decisions.
Where it's essential: Multi-step workflows requiring reliable compliance, regulated processes, mission-critical accuracy where you can't afford to get it wrong
The mechanism: Declarative process design, interactive decision trees, calibrated validation
CloudSet operates in the second space. We've built Agent Calibration for scenarios where suggestions aren't enough - where the right balance of structure and flexibility must be guaranteed.
The Evolution of How We Guide
The difference between these approaches becomes clearer through an analogy:
Repair Manual → Video Tutorial → GPS Calibration
Repair Manual: Detailed written instructions describing how to change your car's oil. You read it, interpret it, execute it. Success depends on your understanding and execution. (Equivalent: Traditional knowledge bases)
Video Tutorial: Visual demonstration showing each step. You watch, pause, rewind, then replicate. Still requires interpretation, but more immediate and clearer. (Equivalent: AI copilot suggestions)
GPS Calibration: Turn-by-turn directions that adapt to conditions - rerouting when you miss a turn, warning about traffic, but leaving driving decisions to you. The system is calibrated to your destination and the terrain you're navigating. (Equivalent: Cloudset's Calibration Maps)
Each evolution adds fidelity. Written instructions become visual demonstrations become adaptive guidance. For straightforward tasks, the earlier forms work fine. For complex journeys where precision matters, you need calibration.
Why "Calibration" as a Subcategory
Calibration isn't just a metaphor - it describes how this guidance actually works.
Calibration means:
- A balanced instrument: Structure where precision matters (compliance, data), flexibility where judgment matters (context, decisions)
- Real-time adjustment: Agents see clear next steps while retaining expertise for navigating nuance
- Appropriate control: The system ensures critical requirements are met without creating rigidity
- Tuned to terrain: Different workflows need different calibrations - the tool adjusts to complexity
For companies handling complex support workflows - particularly in fintech, wealth management, healthcare, or any regulated environment - this distinction matters enormously.
CloudSet's Calibration Maps: Guidance as Infrastructure
Every organization struggles to codify complex processes. Lengthy documentation, training sessions, and one-off meetings attempt to transfer knowledge, but they scale poorly and leave room for interpretation.
Calibration Maps change that equation. They allow process owners to encode their expertise once - including compliance checks, data requirements, and decision logic - then deploy that structure across every relevant case, calibrated to give appropriate control without constraining valuable human judgment.
Two Levels of Calibration
Strategic Calibration (For Process Owners)
Design the paths agents will follow. Calibrate tight control over compliance checkpoints and required data. Calibrate loose flexibility for decision points where agent expertise matters. Build balance directly into the workflow structure.
Operational Calibration (For Frontline Agents)
Follow clear, interactive guidance for each case. Experience structure where it helps (required steps, data capture, compliance). Retain judgment where it matters (contextual decisions, customer interactions). Progress through complex workflows with confidence, knowing the system is calibrated for your success.
What Makes Calibration Maps Different
Maps don't just suggest - they embody calibrated guidance:
- Interactive decision trees guide agents through each step
- Required data capture at compliance checkpoints
- Flexible branching logic where context determines path
- Calibrated validation - tight for regulatory requirements, permissive for judgment calls
- Clear completion criteria that define when work is done
- Visibility at every stage - agents always know where they are and what matters next
This is the difference between narrated and calibrated guidance. Narrated guidance describes. Calibrated guidance balances structure with the expertise agents bring.
When Calibration Investment Makes Sense
Not every workflow requires this level of structure. Calibration is designed for scenarios where complexity and stakes justify the investment in declarative process design:
Mission-Critical Accuracy Scenarios
- Financial services: KYC compliance, fraud investigations, account modifications
- Wealth management: Investment advice documentation, regulatory reporting
- Healthcare: Treatment protocols, insurance verification, HIPAA compliance
- Legal: Case intake, evidence handling, privilege verification
Characteristics of Calibration-Ready Workflows
- Regulatory requirements with zero-tolerance for deviation on specific checkpoints
- Multi-step processes with interdependencies
- High-cost-of-error scenarios (financial, legal, reputational)
- Frequent auditing or quality assurance needs
- Complex decision trees that overwhelm written instructions
- Need for both guaranteed compliance and contextual flexibility
For these situations, the investment in building Calibration Maps pays for itself through reduced errors, faster onboarding, and audit-ready compliance - all without sacrificing the human judgment that makes great service possible.
The Advantage of Declarative Calibration
Here's what makes Calibration fundamentally different from suggestion-based guidance:
With Narrated Guidance:
- AI suggests: "You should probably verify the customer's identity"
- Agent decides: "I'll do that now" (or maybe they forget)
- Outcome: Dependent on agent interpretation and follow-through
With Calibrated Guidance:
- Map structures: "Identity verification required before proceeding" (checkpoint)
- Agent completes: Verification step with appropriate flexibility in method
- System validates: Confirmation required to advance on compliance requirement
- Agent navigates: Contextual decisions using expertise within structured path
- Outcome: 100% compliance on critical checkpoints, human judgment where it adds value
This is the power of declarative calibration. The process isn't just described - it's calibrated through the structure itself, tight where precision matters, loose where expertise matters.
Agent Guidance in the AI Future
Customer support is entering a transformative period. AI agents are already handling straightforward requests, drafting responses, and routing complex cases. The pace is accelerating, and hybrid teams - humans and AI working together - are becoming the norm.
This evolution makes guidance more important, not less.
As AI handles more volume, the calibration layer becomes critical infrastructure:
- Human agents need clear paths through increasingly complex escalations - structure where it helps, freedom where it doesn't
- AI agents need structured workflows to ensure reliable outputs
- Hybrid teams need a common framework to ensure coherent collaboration
Calibration provides that framework. It's guidance designed to work for both human and AI agents, ensuring that automation accelerates work without sacrificing consistency or constraining valuable judgment.
The opportunity is to pair AI's speed with Calibration's precision:
- AI brings acceleration and scale
- Calibration brings balanced structure
- Together they create systems that scale with confidence
Why Calibration Resonates with Companies
Organizations implementing Calibration Maps see three immediate benefits:
Consistency: Every customer gets the same high-quality resolution on mission-critical steps, with appropriate agent flexibility on contextual decisions
Efficiency: Agents don't waste time figuring out compliance requirements; critical checkpoints are clear and explicit while expertise flows naturally
Scalability: New hires reach productivity faster because the Maps carry forward institutional knowledge without requiring perfect retention or constraining their growth
These benefits compound. Better consistency improves customer satisfaction. Greater efficiency increases agent capacity. Enhanced scalability reduces training burden. The system gets stronger as it's used.
Cloudset's Position in the Agent Guidance Landscape
Cloudset has been building toward this moment for years. Our customers have always come to us because they needed guaranteed consistency for complex workflows within Zendesk - but not rigid processes that constrain their best agents.
Agent Calibration represents the culmination of that work. It's a solution for companies who need to ensure compliance while preserving the human expertise that makes great service possible. For teams handling mission-critical processes where 100% adherence on critical checkpoints isn't optional, but contextual judgment still matters.
The market is bifurcating:
Simple guidance → AI copilots (excellent for common scenarios and general productivity)
Complex guidance → Calibration systems (essential for regulated workflows requiring both compliance and judgment)
Both have their place. Your needs depend on which problems you're solving.
If you're running Zendesk and handling complex, regulated, or high-stakes workflows where you need both reliable compliance and valued expertise, Calibration might be the balanced structure you've been missing.
Agent Calibration is how you guarantee consistency without sacrificing judgment
And Cloudset is here to show you how.
