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AI Model Comparison Guide for Customer Support

This guide compares various AI models to help you select the best fit for your customer support AI agent. Each section highlights key strengths, particularly focusing on technical capability, empathy and communication, speed, taking actions (like booking meetings or changing subscriptions), and handling multi-step or complex tasks.

GPT-5 Mini

GPT-5 Mini is OpenAI’s streamlined variant of GPT-5, offering high-quality reasoning and multimodal capabilities with enhanced speed and cost efficiency. It maintains a substantial context window of 400,000 tokens for handling extensive documentation and prolonged customer conversations. Best Suited For:
  • High-speed, real-time customer support requiring immediate responses
  • Cost-effective AI deployments with 83% lower operating costs than full GPT-5
  • Long-context scenarios involving extensive documentation, logs, or conversation histories
  • High-volume support operations where speed and efficiency are critical
Note: GPT-5 Mini operates approximately twice as fast as the full GPT-5 model while maintaining strong performance, making it ideal for customer support workspaces needing rapid, cost-effective, and versatile AI capabilities.

Grok 4

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Grok 4 is xAI’s flagship multimodal model. It supports text, voice, image input, and real-time search integration. Best Suited For:
  • Multimodal customer interactions: Agents can process screenshots, photos, voice recordings, and text in a single conversation.
  • Live knowledge retrieval & compliance: Native tool use enables up-to-date policy, product, or service information sourcing during support sessions.
  • Structured workflows & actions: Built-in function calling allows agents to book meetings, modify subscriptions, update tickets—seamlessly.
  • Long-context case management: The extensive context window supports full conversation histories, enhancing follow-up continuity.

Kimi K2

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Kimi K2 is Moonshot AI’s open-source Mixture-of-Experts model. It’s optimized for agentic tasks, native tool orchestration, and coding support. Best Suited For:
  • Autonomous, multi-step support workflows without external orchestration
  • Backend automation: code/scripts for CRM updates, diagnostics, analytics
  • Highly customizable/self-hosted deployments under MIT license
  • Processing long documents (transcripts, logs, user histories) natively

Other Model Options

GPT-OSS-120B

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GPT-OSS-120B is OpenAI’s open-weight model with 117 billion parameters, offering strong reasoning capabilities and cost-effective performance for customer support scenarios. Best Suited For:
  • Complex customer support scenarios requiring deep reasoning
  • High-volume support operations where cost-efficiency is important

GPT-OSS-20B

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GPT-OSS-20B is OpenAI’s smaller open-weight model with 21 billion parameters, optimized for balanced performance and accessibility in customer support applications. Best Suited For:
  • Standard customer support interactions with good reasoning capabilities
  • Cost-effective support operations for small to medium businesses

DeepSeek-V3

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Best Suited For:
  • Analyzing extensive data, logs, or complex documentation
  • In-house customization for detailed troubleshooting
Note: Ideal for complex, detailed support scenarios.

DeepSeek-R1

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Best Suited For:
  • Accurate interactions using detailed documentation
  • Conversational search and nuanced, documentation-driven support
Note: Strong performance in precise, documentation-based interactions.