The Cost of Doing Business

Running a customer support team has always been one of the biggest expenses for any business. Salaries, training, overhead, and the natural limitations of human agents all add up. When you look closely at how much each support interaction costs, it becomes clear why many companies are turning toward automation and AI-powered assistants.

In this article, we’ll break down the real cost of human support agents, how many conversations they can handle at once, their average response times, and what this means for your business in 2025.

The True Cost of a Human Support Agent

Let’s start with the basics: what does it cost to employ a single customer support agent?

Salary and Benefits

On average:

North America (US/Canada): $40,000–$55,000/year
Europe: €30,000–€45,000/year
Emerging markets (Philippines, India, LATAM): $7,000–$15,000/year

But base salary is just the start. You also have to add:

Benefits (healthcare, insurance, paid leave): typically 20–30% of salary
Training and onboarding: $3,000–$5,000 per agent annually
Equipment and software (laptop, headset, CRM license, helpdesk tools): $1,500–$3,000/year

When everything is added up, a support agent in the US can easily cost $60,000–$70,000 per year.

How Long Do Agents Work?

Human agents work under strict time constraints. A standard schedule looks like this:

40 hours per week
~ 160 hours per month
After breaks, meetings, and idle time, actual support coverage is about 120–130 hours/month

Even if you cover multiple shifts to provide 24/7 support, one agent can only work their 8-hour day. To provide round-the-clock coverage, you need at least 3–4 full-time employees per seat.

Response Times and Expectations

Customers today expect fast, nearly instant replies. But how do humans measure up?

Industry Benchmarks

First Response Time (FRT):
- Email: 12–17 hours
- Live chat: 1–2 minutes (when staffed)
- Phone: 1–3 minutes on hold
Average Resolution Time:
- Simple issues: 5–10 minutes
- Complex issues: 24–48 hours

The Problem With Human Response Times

Unlike AI, humans cannot instantly recall every policy, guide, or FAQ. They need to:

Read the question carefully
Search the knowledge base or ask colleagues
Type a response (with potential typos and delays)

Even the best agents average 30–60 seconds of “think time” per message in chat conversations. That adds up quickly when juggling multiple customers.

How Many Chats Can a Human Handle?

One of the biggest bottlenecks in live support is concurrency — how many conversations an agent can realistically manage at once.

Chat Concurrency Limits

Phone support: 1 call at a time
Email support: 1–2 tickets at a time
Live chat: 2–4 chats at once (for skilled agents)

Beyond this, quality drops dramatically. Agents lose track of context, make mistakes, and customers get frustrated with slow replies.

What This Means in Practice

Let’s assume:

1 agent can handle 3 concurrent chats
Each chat lasts ~10 minutes on average
That means 18 conversations per hour maximum

In reality, factors like back-and-forth delays, breaks, and complexity lower this number closer to 10–12 conversations per hour.

The Cost Per Conversation

Now let’s tie costs to conversations.

Example Calculation

Agent cost: $65,000/year
Work hours: ~1,500 productive hours/year
Chats/hour: ~10 conversations

That works out to:

15,000 conversations/year
$4.30 per conversation

For phone support, the cost per interaction can be even higher:

Average call length: 6 minutes
8 calls/hour maximum
~12,000 calls/year per agent
$5.40 per call

Scaling Costs

If your company handles 100,000 conversations per year, you’d need:

~7 full-time agents
$450,000+ annual spend

The Hidden Costs of Human Support

The visible numbers only tell part of the story. Businesses also absorb hidden costs when running human support teams.

Turnover

Customer support has one of the highest turnover rates in any industry (30–40%). Constantly replacing and retraining staff adds significant expense.

Inconsistency

Not every agent performs at the same level. Some are faster, friendlier, and more knowledgeable. Others may frustrate customers, leading to lost sales.

Downtime

Agents take breaks, sick days, and vacations. Every absence requires backfilling or reduced coverage, which directly impacts response times.

Human Error

Mistakes are inevitable — sending wrong information, forgetting follow-ups, or escalating unnecessarily. These errors can cost far more than just agent time.

Comparing Human vs AI Support

Let’s compare the numbers directly.

Metric	Human Agent	AI Agent (Receiveo-style)
Cost per year	$60,000–$70,000	Fraction of that (usage-based)
Hours available	120–130/month	24/7, unlimited
Response time	1–2 minutes	Instant (under 1 second)
Chats at once	2–4	Unlimited
Consistency	Variable	Always consistent
Training	Ongoing	One-time setup, auto-updates

This is why more businesses are turning to AI-powered assistants. Instead of hiring dozens of agents, you can deploy an AI that handles the bulk of conversations and routes complex issues to humans.

When Humans Are Still Essential

AI isn’t a full replacement. There are still critical cases where humans are necessary:

Complex escalations that require judgment calls
Emotional support (e.g., sensitive healthcare or financial issues)
VIP clients who expect white-glove service
Product feedback loops where human nuance matters

The ideal model for most businesses is AI + human collaboration, where AI handles repetitive, high-volume requests and humans step in for complex cases.

The Business Impact

Switching from a purely human team to an AI-augmented model can have massive financial impact.

Example: Mid-Size SaaS Company

Current volume: 100,000 chats/year
Human-only cost: ~$450,000/year
With AI handling 70% of volume:
- Human agents cover 30,000 chats
- Cost drops to ~~$150,000/year + AI usage fees (~~$50k)
- Savings: $250,000/year

Beyond Cost Savings

Faster response times → higher customer satisfaction
24/7 coverage → more global sales opportunities
Scalability → handle seasonal spikes without new hires

Future of Support in 2025 and Beyond

The landscape of customer support is shifting quickly:

AI agents will continue taking over routine inquiries
Humans will specialize in complex, high-value cases
Metrics will shift from “how many tickets closed” to “customer satisfaction and outcomes”
Cost per conversation will drop dramatically for companies that adopt AI early

The businesses that thrive won’t just cut costs — they’ll reinvest in better customer experiences.

Conclusion

The cost of doing business with human support agents is steep:

$60,000–$70,000 per agent per year
Limited working hours and availability
Only a handful of chats at once
$4–$6 per conversation, at scale

AI is not here to eliminate human jobs but to transform how businesses scale support. By offloading repetitive questions to AI, companies save money, improve response times, and free up human agents for the conversations that really matter.

In the end, the cost of doing business isn’t just financial — it’s about opportunity. Every minute your customers wait for help, you risk losing trust, loyalty, and revenue. The companies that adopt smarter support now will be the ones leading in the next decade.