What is First response time?
How long a customer waits for the first reply. AI takes it from hours to seconds.
Updated June 2026
First response time, or FRT, is the time between a customer sending a message and receiving the first meaningful reply. It is the metric customers feel most directly.
With an AI agent answering first, FRT drops from hours to seconds, around the clock. The number that matters then is whether that first reply actually resolves the issue, not just how fast it arrived.
See it on SupportWire
Related terms
- Resolution rate The share of conversations an AI agent fully closes on its own. The most honest measure of whether your AI actually solves problems.
- Involvement rate How much of your inbound support volume the AI agent touches, whatever the outcome. A measure of footprint.
- Automation rate Resolution rate times involvement rate. The single number that ties AI impact to cost and capacity.
- Deflection rate Share of support requests resolved without a human. Useful when measured honestly; misleading when silence counts as success.