StubHub transforms live event ticketing with Claude

StubHub, the world's leading marketplace for live events, uses Claude to transform customer experiences by delivering instant, accurate support that resolves complex ticketing issues in seconds—improving satisfaction scores while optimizing operational efficiency.

Key results with Claude:

• Customer wait times dropped from over 20 minutes to near-instant responses
• Optimized customer service operations to decrease costs by over 30% while improving response quality
• Claude consistently outperformed other AI models in resolution rate and customer satisfaction

Meeting the demands of time-sensitive ticketing

StubHub is the world's leading destination for live events—if you've ever searched for a ticket to a concert, game, or show anywhere in the world, chances are you've landed on StubHub.

"We are redefining what it means to be a ticketing platform. What sets us apart is our ability to use technology to turn complex customer journeys into simple, delightful experiences," said Timothy Addison, Engineering Org Chief of Staff at StubHub.

Serving millions of fans meant confronting a unique operational challenge: customer support at scale. Unlike traditional e-commerce, ticketing operates on unforgiving deadlines. When customers contact support, they're often just hours or minutes away from their event, where every delayed response could mean a missed concert or ruined special occasion.

Traditional support models couldn't meet these demands. StubHub needed to maintain exceptional service quality while dramatically reducing response times—all while handling increasingly complex issues around order tracking, ticket access, and last-minute policy questions.

Selecting Claude through data-driven testing

StubHub's decision to build with Claude came from data-driven results. The team conducted rigorous A/B testing with multiple AI models, measuring performance across key metrics.

"The decision to choose Claude was entirely data-driven. We tested multiple model providers side by side, and Claude consistently delivered the best results for case resolution rates and customer satisfaction scores," Addison explained.

What set Claude apart was its ability to understand nuanced customer intent and retrieve relevant internal policies and context in real time. "We needed an AI model that could understand complex customer requests, pull the right information from our internal systems instantly, and deliver resolutions that match our human agents' quality," said Addison.

How Claude powers instant ticket support

Claude connects to StubHub's internal systems through a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline, pulling real-time knowledge base data, customer details, and order context for comprehensive support. StubHub’s AI virtual assistant handles an increasing share of customer issues end-to-end—from tracking orders and retrieving event information to assisting with ticket access and resolving policy questions, supporting customers in any language around the clock.

"Our chatbot helps customers track orders, get event updates, and access tickets before events. These tasks previously took 20 minutes and required multiple calls," Addison shared. The transformation happened quickly—StubHub launched their first use case within six weeks, demonstrating effective collaboration with Anthropic.

"It evolved into a continuous improvement loop—constantly refining, expanding, and optimizing the experience," Addison noted. "The Anthropic team's support, expertise, and responsiveness helped us move quickly and confidently."

Transforming cost centers into strategic advantages

Claude's impact on StubHub's operations has been profound. Claude works alongside human agents to provide fast, accurate, and policy-compliant support at scale—24/7 in any language.

"Claude has fundamentally changed how we view customer service. It's now becoming a core part of our product experience that enhances customer satisfaction," Addison explained. "Claude handles the full customer journey for routine cases, from inquiry to resolution. This goes beyond automation to streamline our entire support ecosystem."

While customer support is StubHub's primary use case, the company is expanding Claude's impact company-wide. Their engineering team is trialing Claude Code to help developers write, edit, and fix code—demonstrating StubHub's dual AI approach that increases employee productivity while transforming customer experiences.

Building the future of intelligent event experiences

StubHub envisions AI transforming how fans discover and experience live events. Their roadmap includes intuitive search that understands user intent, AI-powered event discovery, dynamic pricing tools, and intelligent buying assistants.

"We see our collaboration with Anthropic expanding across our entire business," Addison shared. "We're excited about the potential and enjoy working with the Anthropic team. This is just the beginning."

As live events bring people together worldwide, StubHub ensures the technology connecting fans to experiences is as seamless and delightful as the events themselves. With Claude foundational to their AI strategy, they're redefining ticketing platforms in the digital age.