The AI front desk works. Someone still reads its homework.
SaaStr ran a 10,000-person event with two salespeople, and both quit on site. An agent had already closed a $70,000 sponsorship on its own. Jason Lemkin's team went from about ten salespeople to one, a fifth of a chief of AI, and twenty agents (exhibit 1). Output: about the same.
This note is drawn from Jason Lemkin's hour with Lenny Rachitsky, January 2026. This is the minute that carries it, 7:26 to 8:29.
The easy reading is that the models got better. The useful one is that the interaction changed. It stopped being a textbox you prompt and became a teammate you coach. Intercom's Fin now resolves 66 of 100 support conversations across 6,000 customers (chart 2). Half of US small businesses already use AI in customer service, and 94 in 100 plan to keep or grow the human team.
So the sober version wins. Lemkin still spends time every morning reading what the agents sent. His chief of AI spends 10 to 15 hours a week on it. Repetition got cheap. Judgment did not. Route the work by risk: the agent answers at 11pm, a person handles the exception. That is the front desk we build.
“It scales because software scales.”
Jason Lemkin, Lenny's Podcast, 9:25