Gusto embraces AI by upskilling non-technical staff

Gusto’s co-founder and head of technology, Edward Kim, believes that replacing existing teams with AI engineers is not the best approach for businesses preparing for an AI-driven future. In an interview, Kim emphasised that non-technical team members often have a deeper understanding of customer needs and challenges, making them more effective in guiding the development of AI tools.

At Gusto, non-technical customer experience team members contribute by writing “recipes” that instruct Gusto’s AI assistant, Gus, on how to interact with customers. This approach allows employees to leverage their domain expertise, even without technical skills, to create powerful AI applications. Kim highlighted the success of CoPilot, a customer support tool developed by a former support team member, Eric Rodriguez, who was later promoted to the engineering team. The tool, used by Gusto’s support team, quickly became a game-changer, enhancing efficiency by providing immediate, accurate responses based on the company’s internal knowledge base.

Kim noted that AI tools like Gus empower teams to create solutions without requiring coding knowledge, using natural language instructions. This bottom-up strategy contrasts with the trend of hiring highly specialised AI experts and reflects Gusto’s belief in leveraging domain expertise. As AI continues to evolve at the company, Kim envisions a shift in roles, with more employees focusing on writing AI recipes and fine-tuning prompts rather than direct customer interactions. This approach, he suggests, will enhance customer experiences and free up resources for Gusto to expand its services.