AirGigs is a global marketplace for hiring remote studio musicians, vocalists, and engineers. Founded in 2012, the platform serves songwriters, producers, and artists who need professional-quality talent without traditional studio limitations. Based in the United States, AirGigs has grown steadily for more than a decade but achieved especially massive growth after the shutdowns of 2020 pushed thousands of musicians to online collaboration.
Unfortunately, that growth came with a cost: support volume kept rising, response times lagged, and the team found themselves answering the same basic questions every day.
When Helply connected seamlessly to their help desk, everything changed.
What began as a small test quickly became a level-one support engine that now resolves the majority of inbound tickets, frees up staff time, and modernizes the entire customer experience.
Key Performance Highlights
65% of new tickets resolved automatically
Helply handles the majority of customer questions with no human involvement.
One full-time support rep redeployed
A team member previously dedicated to support now manages higher-value administrative work.
Faster onboarding for new customers
Users get immediate answers at sign-up, improving first-touch experience, reducing friction, and decreasing churn.
The Story: A Marketplace Overwhelmed by Success
When the international shutdowns started in 2020, AirGigs saw an explosion in activity. Thousands of musicians suddenly needed remote production options and AirGigs became one of the few established platforms ready to support them. With that surge came a wave of support requests. New users needed guidance. Existing users needed faster answers. And the support team was drowning in repetitive questions.
David Blacker, co-founder and CEO, described that period as intense. The site was growing, the ticket volume kept rising, and the team had to add more support staff just to keep up. Even after the initial surge, growth continued. Response demands remained high.
"We never wanted to outsource customer service to AI," David said. "But we needed a way to handle quick questions so people could still reach us fast."
AirGigs needed speed and scale without losing the human touch that mattered to their brand.
The Problem: Drowning in Repetitive Questions
AirGigs was spending too much time on repetitive support tickets. Questions like “how do I log in?”, “where do I find my billing info,” and “how do I do…xyz…”
The team was already using Groove to manage tickets, but volume kept increasing as the platform expanded. Supporting that growth required more headcount. And users expected immediate answers.
"People do not want to wait three or four hours for a support response," David explained.
They tried using ChatGPT to speed up writing responses, but the generated answers were inconsistent, and manually replying to tickets was still too slow.
The team needed a system that could handle tickets automatically while still giving customers direct access to real humans when necessary.
The Solution: A Seamless AI Layer That Plugs Right In
That’s when Helply entered the picture. When AirGigs saw that Helply could act as frontline customer support that would plug directly into their existing help desk, they were immediately interested.
"It was a no brainer because it plugged right into our help desk. And if it could help people get to the information they are looking for quickly, that was a better customer experience."
Concierge Onboarding with Helply
Onboarding was simple. The Helply team connected a Helply agent to the AirGigs knowledge base and help desk. Helply immediately learned from years of ticket history and the entire knowledge base without the team needing to upload anything manually. Fine-tuning took less than a week using Helply’s Q&A review workflows.
"The entire onboarding experience and getting Helply on their site was concierge," David said. "Every question I had was answered right there in our private Slack channel."
Within days, Helply was functioning as an AirGigs customer service agent. It answered common questions, handled “how do I” inquiries, and escalated only when necessary. Crucially, customers could still reach a human instantly.
"It was a friendly use of AI," David added. "Not aggressive and not replacing anyone. Just augmenting what we do."
The Results
Helply now resolves 65% of all new tickets coming into AirGigs. That single shift allowed the team to reassign a level-one support rep to important administrative projects that previously sat on the back burner.
The impact shows up across the entire customer journey:
- New users get faster answers at sign up
- Existing customers receive immediate guidance without waiting in queues
- And the brand looks more modern and responsive
David also noticed Helply improving over time:
"I saw it answer a question today that it answered in the past, but in a more nuanced, articulate way. That was a wow moment."
The numbers and the experience tell the same story: AirGigs is now faster, more efficient, and better equipped to support ongoing growth.
Secondary Impact
- The brand experience feels more modern and customer-centric.
- The team has full visibility into Helply’s analytics and resolution data.
- Support workflows are simpler because Helply keeps improving responses over time.
- Training new staff is easier because core knowledge is already structured and consistent.
Future Outlook
AirGigs plans to continue expanding its customer base and expects ticket volume to rise with growth. Helply now acts as the foundation for a scalable support function. With more time freed inside the team, AirGigs can focus on platform improvements, community growth, and higher-value work that supports long-term expansion.
Closing Quote
"Helply helped us close about 65% of all tickets since we adopted it, and it even helped us move a support person onto more important admin tasks. It is a friendly use of AI that makes our brand feel more modern."
