Ever felt like managing Gorgias is less “customer support” and more “high-stakes juggling act”?
If you’re an operator, you know the drill: rising ticket volumes, rising expectations, and rising bills — but not rising support quality. Customers are overwhelmed too: 70% say brands send so many messages they’re tuning them out, and 59% have deleted critical messages (like bills or notices) because they mistook them for marketing [1].
At the same time, AI is rapidly reshaping service. By 2027, 50% of service cases are expected to be resolved by AI, up from 30% in 2025 [2]. The question isn’t if AI will be involved in your support — it’s how well it will work for your brand.
What if customer support actually felt… enjoyable?
These are the pain points operators repeat again and again:
Support shouldn’t feel like punishment.
Break free from the old routine. Below are seven categories of alternatives — with one standout — designed to make support simpler, faster, and genuinely scalable.
14.ai is the AI-native platform built for the way e-commerce actually works today.
Here’s what makes it the #1 Gorgias alternative:
Done right, AI in customer service can boost productivity by 30–50% or more when implemented at scale [4].
14.ai is what support feels like when it’s finally built around you — not the other way around.
Traditional ticket-first systems struggle to keep up with modern expectations:
As companies move from experimentation to scaled AI deployments, many traditional tools get stuck in “pilot mode” — great demos, limited impact [3].
They work… until you grow. Then they bottleneck you.
Simple, rule-based chatbots can help with FAQs, but:
Customers are already overwhelmed by “AI-generated chatter” and automated experiences that don’t solve their problems [1]. A bot answering “What’s your return policy?” isn’t enough anymore.
These tools bolt AI onto legacy architectures. You get:
…but the same manual work underneath.
As McKinsey notes, the real shift isn’t automated tasks — it’s redesigning the work itself, with AI at the core [3].
If AI isn’t changing processes and outcomes, it’s just a shiny add-on.
These tools excel at:
…but fall short when shoppers ask:
Without deep commerce integration, they can’t resolve real issues.
These “AI helpers” plug into your site or helpdesk, but often create new issues:
More complexity — not more clarity.
Outsourcing can work, but at a cost:
In a world where CIOs/COOs must tie AI to business outcomes [3], hiring more people isn’t scalable.
A real upgrade should offer:
| Feature | Traditional Helpdesks | Premium AI-Enhanced Tools | 14.ai (AI-Native) |
|---|---|---|---|
| After-hours Coverage | No | Partial | Yes |
| Automation Depth | Low | Medium | High |
| Proactive Engagement | No | Limited | Yes |
| Shopify/TikTok Actions | Basic | Patchy | Deep |
| Ease of Setup | Days–weeks | Days | Minutes |
| Consistency | Variable | Variable | Reliable |
| Agent Experience | Fragmented | Mixed | Unified + efficient |
| Cost-effectiveness | Can escalate | Expensive | Scales with your team |
It’s fully AI-native. Automation isn’t bolted on — it’s built in. 14.ai is designed around agentic AI, meaning the AI agent not only generates responses but takes actions in your systems to resolve customer issues.
Yes. With AI expected to resolve an increasing share of service cases by 2027 [2], always-on coverage is now baseline. 14.ai provides instant, automated support 24/7.
14.ai connects directly into your commerce stack, enabling the AI agent to look up orders, process exchanges/refunds, and respond with real-time accuracy — the kind of behind-the-scenes AI work Shopify identifies as core to modern support [4].
Yes. It’s built for fast deployment and iteration. As McKinsey notes, organizations that win with AI are those that move beyond pilots into real, scaled impact — which requires simple, operable infrastructure [3].
Consistency matters more than anything.
Old systems make support feel like punishment.
14.ai makes support feel like the best part of your day.
Ready to make support sweet and simple?
Start your 14.ai journey today and discover how effortless customer care can be.
[1] https://www.csgi.com/state-of-the-customer-experience
[2] https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-service/