Intercom and Lowe's: How AI Agents Save Up to an Hour a Day and Significantly Boost Conversion

The implementation of AI agents is already saving employees between 40 and 60 minutes of work per day. Engineers, data scientists, and communications teams report gains of up to 80 minutes. These saved hours are not just numbers: they translate into accelerated product development cycles, increased conversion rates, and tangible cost reductions, allowing companies that have embraced AI to significantly outpace competitors.

Every company has thousands of hours spent on routine operations: answering typical inquiries, searching for information, drafting documents. These hours do not create value but merely support current processes, and multiplying them by specialist salaries reveals astronomical losses. However, this burden can now be lifted, and those who do it first will gain a multi-fold advantage.

Where Companies Were Losing Time

Until recently, routine operations in large companies like Intercom (a customer engagement platform) and Lowe's (a major home improvement retailer) were a burden that slowed growth and reduced efficiency. Intercom's support staff faced the need to manually process thousands of calls, leading to response delays and, consequently, decreased customer satisfaction. At Lowe's, sales associates spent time searching for product or promotion information, and online shoppers often struggled to get quick answers to their questions, negatively impacting conversion rates.

These tasks, while seemingly minor, generated colossal losses of time and resources on a large business scale. Delays, errors, the need for constant re-verification—all of this diverted employees from more strategic and creative tasks.

Why Conventional Automation Was Insufficient

Traditional automation systems, such as FAQ bots or operator scripts, only solved part of the problem. They handled simple, templated requests, but as soon as a query went beyond the predefined scenario, human intervention was required. This meant that a significant portion of the work remained manual, and employees were still overloaded. What was needed were systems that could not just follow instructions, but also understand context, make decisions independently, and interact with customers and employees at a deeper level.

This is why companies turned to AI agents: solutions capable of not just automating individual steps, but taking over entire workflows that require natural language understanding, data analysis, and interaction with various internal systems.

How Intercom and Lowe’s Designed Their AI Agents

Intercom developed an AI agent for voice customer support, designed to analyze inquiries in real time, find solutions, and respond without human intervention. Key requirements included low response latency and a high proportion of fully resolved requests. The agent was designed to have access to the company's knowledge base and customer relationship management system, allowing it to provide personalized and accurate answers.

Lowe’s pursued the creation of two AI assistants: Mylow for online shoppers and Mylow Companion for in-store associates. Mylow was intended to answer customer questions about products, availability, and promotions in real time, helping them make purchasing decisions. Mylow Companion was for sales associates, providing them with quick access to product information, promotions, and inventory levels, enabling them to serve customers more effectively. Both agents were integrated with internal inventory management systems and product catalogs.

Implementation and Scaling

The implementation of AI agents in both companies occurred in phases. Intercom began with a pilot launch of the voice AI agent on a limited segment of customer inquiries. After successful testing and refinement, the agent was scaled to handle the entire incoming call volume. Gradually, its functionality expanded, allowing it to address increasingly complex tasks.

Lowe’s deployed its AI assistants, Mylow and Mylow Companion, across more than 1,700 stores and on its digital platforms. Integration with existing infrastructure was a key success factor. Employees were trained to use Mylow Companion, while customers accessed Mylow via the website and mobile app. Over time, as data and feedback accumulated, the agents' functionality improved, and their use became more seamless for users.

Results

These figures are not just efficiency improvements; they represent direct savings of hundreds of millions of dollars annually for companies with such operational volumes. Accelerated cycles, reduced costs, and increased customer satisfaction through AI agents are not just a competitive advantage, but a necessity in the modern economy.

How to Implement This in Your Company

The cases of Intercom and Lowe’s demonstrate that AI agents can bring significant benefits across a wide range of areas. If you have repetitive tasks that consume a lot of time for employees or customers, this is a ready-made scenario for an AI agent. Here's how to start:

• Identify routine processes. Find tasks that employees or customers perform frequently and that can be described by a set of rules or access to information.
• Ensure data access. An AI agent needs secure access to internal systems and databases to be truly useful.
• Start small. Launch a pilot project in one relatively simple area to get quick results and gather feedback.
• Integrate the agent into existing tools. The easier it is for employees and customers to use the new agent in their familiar environment, the faster it will be adopted.
• Scale gradually. Expand the agent's functionality and scope as experience is gained and its effectiveness is confirmed.

If this case sounds like what's happening in your company, our manager can help: he'll analyze your business and niche for free and point out where an AI agent would bring a real result in your case. Message the manager