Jobs / Customer support
Can agents do customer support work?
Help customers through chat, email, or phone while following company policy.
- US jobs
- 2,595,750 (1.7% of employment)
- Typical wage
- $45K a year (employment-weighted mean of occupation medians)
- Occupations
- 1 in O*NET 31.0
- Evidence
- 1 direct benchmark, 4 also relevant, 1 context only
The answer today
Some tasksNo change since 10 Oct 2025.
Rule: Agents complete 20% or more of the tasks (or projects) on a direct benchmark.
The evidence that sets this step
- τ²-bench by Sierra: 97.8% of tasks completed · Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (thinking), 27 Feb 2026
Next step: Most tasks needs 60% or more of the tasks (or projects) on two direct benchmarks from independent institutions.
How much of the work is measured
57% of the work in this family is measured by direct benchmarks. Most of the work is measured (50% or more). On 10 Oct 2025: 57%.
Work = the O*NET 31.0 work activities of the family's occupations, weighted by how important each task is and by US employment. A benchmark measures an activity when its tasks make the agent do it and its grading checks it. Method.
| Work activity (O*NET) | Share of the work | Direct benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Respond to customer problems or inquiries | 19.5% | Measured |
| Explain technical details of products or services | 12.2% | Measured |
| Maintain sales or financial records | 10.3% | Measured |
| Provide information to guests, clients, or customers | 9.6% | Measured |
| Assist others to access additional services or resources | 9.6% | Not measured |
| Prepare documentation for contracts, applications, or permits | 8.0% | Not measured |
| Execute financial transactions | 5.8% | Measured |
| Advise others on business or operational matters | 5.5% | Not measured |
| Promote products, services, or programs | 5.2% | Not measured |
| Examine financial activities, operations, or systems | 4.5% | Not measured |
Our reading
Agents complete some customer support tasks on one direct benchmark. In the telecom domain of τ²-bench, the best verified run completes 97.8% of 114 simulated support conversations on the first try and 92.1% on all four tries. The customer is an LLM simulator, and the simulator choice changes scores. τ²-bench covers much of the work, but one benchmark cannot lift the family above some tasks. CRMArena-Pro, mapped here as partial, reaches 58.3% on single-turn CRM requests (2025) and does not set the step. No direct benchmark measures helping customers reach other services or preparing contract documents. A second benchmark from an independent institution at 60% or more would lift the family.
Evidence: τ²-bench, CRMArena-Pro by Salesforce AI Research and Sierra. Written 24 Sep 2026.
Benchmarks for this work
Direct evidence
Work benchmarks mapped primary to this family. They set the step when they report how many tasks agents complete.
Also relevant
These benchmarks cover part of this family's work, or have no result yet. They do not set its step.
- 45.9%Claude Opus 4.6 · 16 Mar 2026Emerging
Context only
These benchmarks span many occupations, or they test how agents behave. They give context but do not set the step.
Functions: Business workflow automationEnterprise workflowsCRM operationsCustomer serviceIncident responseProfessional deliverablesProcedure execution
What we do not know
- Benchmarks measure tasks, not whole jobs. A job is a bundle of tasks, judgment, and relationships.
- Capability is not adoption. A task that agents can do in a benchmark may still be done by people at work.
- Most results come from single runs. Reliability over many runs is often unknown.
Occupations in this family
Sorted by US employment (BLS OEWS May 2025). O*NET sub-occupations share the employment figure of their SOC group. Work measured = the share of the occupation's O*NET work that direct benchmarks test.
| Occupation | SOC | US jobs | Work measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Service Representatives | 43-4051.00 | 2.6M | 57% |
How to cite
Credit the original work first: the benchmarks listed on this page, and their institutions.
Then, if you used this page:
Can Agents Work. "Can agents do customer support work?." https://canagentswork.com/jobs/customer-support/ (accessed 2026-10-11). CC BY 4.0.@misc{caw-jobs-customer-support,
title = {{Can agents do customer support work?}},
author = {{Can Agents Work}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://canagentswork.com/jobs/customer-support/}},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-11. CC BY 4.0}
}