Auto-Resolution Rate vs Deflection Rate
Auto-resolution rate is the share of tickets an AI solves end to end, confirmed by the customer, with no human touch. Deflection rate is the share of demand that never reached a human, regardless of whether the underlying problem was solved. Auto-resolution is the stricter and more honest metric, because deflection counts a customer who gave up exactly the same as one who was helped.
The gap between the two is where trust leaks
A bot can post a high deflection rate by wearing customers down until they abandon the chat. Those abandoned sessions look like wins in a deflection dashboard and like failures in an auto-resolution dashboard. The difference between a tool that reports one number and a tool that reports both is the difference between marketing and measurement.
Why the industry blurs them on purpose
Blending deflection into resolution is how marketed AI numbers get inflated. Intercom Fin has been reported at a real production resolution rate of 45 to 53 percent against a marketed figure near 76 percent. The gap is largely the space between "did not reach a human" and "problem solved."
How Resolve reports it
Resolve shows auto-resolution rate and deflection as two separate numbers, on purpose, with reopen rate next to both. Reva only marks a ticket auto-resolved when the answer is grounded, the confidence threshold is cleared, and the customer confirms or does not recontact. You can always see how much of your deflection was a genuine fix versus a customer who simply left.