Inevitable AI Group
Zendesk was founded in 2007. That's not a criticism — it's context.
In 2007, iPhone had just launched. The cloud was still a novelty. "AI" meant a decision tree with a chatbot skin. Zendesk built the right product for that moment. They got huge. They went public. They got taken private again for $10 billion. Good for them.
But here's what they built: a ticketing system with 19 years of features stacked on top. Workflows. Macros. Views. Reports. Triggers. Automations. Integrations. Impressive — and exactly what you'd expect from a product built before AI changed what's possible.
They've added AI to it. Announced it loudly. Charged more for it.
It's still a ticketing system. AI as a layer on top of a 2007 architecture.
What "AI-first" actually means
Here's the thing about bolting AI onto an old product: you're solving a 2007 problem with 2025 technology. The architecture is still the same. The data model is still the same. The mental model the product asks you to adopt — tickets, queues, agents, macros — still the same.
AI-first means you start with the question: if we had to handle customer support today, with the tools available today, what would we actually build?
You wouldn't build a ticketing system. You'd build something that understands context. Something that can resolve issues without creating a ticket. Something that learns from every interaction. Something that makes human agents dramatically more effective — not just slightly faster at closing tickets.
That's Corebee.
The price makes it obvious
Zendesk's Suite Professional is $115/agent/month. Their entry plan is $55. Their "AI" add-ons cost extra on top of that. For a 10-agent support team, you're looking at $550 to $1,150 a month minimum, before you've gotten anywhere near the good stuff.
Corebee starts at a fraction of that.
This isn't charity. It's not a land-grab with a plan to raise prices later. It's the natural result of building something without 20 years of infrastructure costs baked in. When you're not paying for legacy code maintenance, legacy data centers, and a 6,000-person org chart, you can charge less and still run a great business.
The incumbent's price reflects two decades of infrastructure. We built fresh — and the pricing reflects that.
Jonathan built this in under 30 days
Jonathan Bar is the CEO of Corebee. He came to IAIG, we gave him the thesis and the support, and he shipped a working product in under a month.
That speed isn't a stunt. It's the point. The reason we can move this fast is that we're not rebuilding a ticketing system. We're building something new on top of infrastructure that actually matches the problem. When your foundation is right, the rest moves fast.
Corebee is live. Real customers. Real tickets (well, resolved conversations — old habits). Real feedback being incorporated every week.
The customer support market is enormous
The global customer support software market is worth tens of billions of dollars. Zendesk alone has over 100,000 customers. Freshdesk, Intercom, Help Scout — the list goes on. Everyone who runs a business that talks to customers is paying for this.
Most of them are paying for infrastructure they didn't ask for — and a pricing model that made sense in 2007.
The market is validated. The technology to build it better exists. The only thing missing was someone willing to start fresh.
That's three out of three on our checklist.
Go check out Corebee at corebee.ai. If you're running a team and paying Zendesk prices, take a look at what you're actually getting for that money — then compare.