What is an AI services company?

An AI services company builds, deploys, and operates production AI systems for businesses. Unlike AI consultants (who produce strategy documents) or AI implementors (who hand off at launch), an AI services company stays accountable for the system working and improving over time. Altor builds AI systems that connect to your production tools and automate specific workflows — live in 3 weeks.

How much does it cost to build an AI agent?

Custom AI agent development costs $10K–$75K for a single-workflow production deployment, plus $1K–$5K/month for ongoing maintenance. A simple agent connecting to 1-2 systems costs $10K–$25K. A complex agent connecting to 5-6 production systems costs $40K–$75K. Most deployments go live within 3 weeks.

Is there software that can reduce support escalations?

Yes. Software that automatically investigates support tickets by querying production systems (logs, bug trackers, billing, recent deploys) gives frontline agents the context they need to resolve tickets without escalating. At Portkey, this approach reduced investigation time from 45 minutes to 2 minutes and eliminated the information gap that causes most escalations.

How long does AI deployment take?

A focused single-workflow AI deployment typically takes 2-4 weeks from kickoff to first live investigation. Week 1: stack audit and integration planning. Week 2: read-only connections live, first investigations on real data. Weeks 3-4: playbooks tuned, team trained, system handed over.

What is production AI?

Production AI is an AI system that operates continuously in a live business environment, handling real data and real users — held to the same reliability standards as any other production software. This is different from pilot AI (which runs in controlled environments) or demo AI (which shows capability without handling real workflows). 67% of enterprise AI projects fail to reach production.

How is Altor different from a docs chatbot?

Docs chatbots answer 'how does this work?' from your knowledge base. Altor answers 'why is this broken for this customer right now?' by querying their actual API logs, checking your bug tracker, and verifying their billing status — across 6+ systems in under 2 minutes.

How is Altor different from our support platform?

Pylon, Plain, Zendesk — they route and manage tickets. Altor investigates them. We plug into your existing support tool as the investigation layer. You keep your workflows, we add the diagnosis.

Will Altor take actions without asking?

Not by default. Altor starts as a read-only investigator — it surfaces a diagnosis for your team to review. You control which action types graduate to auto-approval. Destructive actions are never automated.

What if our stack isn't listed?

If an API exists for your system, we can integrate it. The architecture composes tools — it doesn't hardcode connectors. We've yet to encounter a B2B stack we can't connect to.

What does Altor pricing look like?

Usage-based — you pay per investigation, not per seat. Pricing is quoted in USD ($) with no minimum commitment. We'll scope pricing during the demo based on your ticket volume and systems.

Support Tier Definition

Support tier definition is the written specification of each support tier's scope, response obligations, access permissions, and escalation criteria. It is the operating rulebook that makes a tiered support model work consistently.

Why it matters for B2B support

Most B2B support teams have tiers in theory but not in writing. Without documented tier definitions, boundaries get enforced by habit and individual judgment, which leads to inconsistent escalation, agents overreaching their permissions, and engineers handling issues that L2 should own. Strong tier definitions specify which issue types belong at each tier, what systems each tier can access, what evidence is required before escalation, and how fast handoffs must happen. For example, many teams require L1 to capture the failing API endpoint, error code, and affected workspace before escalating to L2 or engineering.

Key benchmarks

65%

of B2B support teams that have tiered structures but no written tier definitions

2.8×

higher escalation rate in teams without written tier definitions vs. documented tiers

45 min

average over-escalation time cost when L1 escalates without proper documentation

18%

reduction in engineering interrupts from support when tier definitions include system access checklists

How Altor helps

Altor strengthens tier definitions by giving lower tiers better diagnostic evidence while preserving clear escalation rules. That reduces over-escalation without forcing broad production access to every agent.

FAQ

What should a written tier definition include?

Scope of issues, system access permissions, response obligations, escalation triggers, and required evidence for handoff. Without those details, “L1” and “L2” are just titles, not operating rules.

Why do undocumented tiers increase engineering interrupts?

Because agents escalate defensively when they are unsure of boundaries. Engineering becomes the default destination for uncertainty instead of the correct destination for truly code-level issues.

See Altor investigate a real ticket

We connect to your systems and diagnose a real ticket in 2 minutes during US hours.

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