AMS filament bleed on color changes

When I use our AMS there is often color bleed from the previous color on the new one. Previous topics I found suggested this could be due to the hot end or a flow issue.

How do I troubleshoot which is which? We have had the printer for almost a year in January. The post said if you do “a lot” of printing suspect the hot end. Unfortunately, a lot is a vague term. We go through spurts in our printing but I’d say we probably average a model a day. Not sure that qualifies as a lot printing. Or enough that we’d need to replace our hot end.

Any help diving into this topic and understanding just what is happening is greatly appreciated.

Oh, I also noted the deers ear is kind of chewed up. What could cause this? A flow issue, too?