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Half of companies planning to replace customer service with AI are reversing course (www.techspot.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 85 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The transition to an AI-focused business world is proving to be far more challenging than initially anticipated.

No shit, Sherlock.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    This isn't a surprise to anyone except fucking idiots who can't tell the difference between actual technology and bullshit peddlers.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    Which honestly seems to be an overwhelming majority of people.

    Tech companies took a pretty good predictive text mechanism and called it "intelligent" when it obviously isn't. People believed the hype, so greedy capitalists went all in on a cheaper alternative to their human workers. They deserve to lose business over their stupid mistakes.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Phone menu trees have their place, they can improve customer service - if they are implemented well, meaning: sparingly - just where they work well.

    Same for AI, a simple: "would you like to try our AI common answers service while you wait for your customer service rep to become available, you won't lose your place in line?" can dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness.

    Of course, there's no substitute for having people who actually respond. I'm dealing with a business right now that seems to check their e-mails and answer their phones about once per month - that's approaching criminal negligence, or at least grounds for a CC charge-back.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Phone menu trees

    I assume you mean IVR? It's okay to be not familiar with the term. I wasn't either until I worked in the industry. And people that are in charge of them are usually the dumbest people ever.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    people that are in charge of them are usually the dumbest people ever.

    I think that's actively encouraged by management in some areas: put the dumbest people in charge to make the most irritating frustrating system possible. It's a feature of the system.

    Some of the most irritating systems I have interacted with (government disability benefits administration) actually require "press 1 for X, press 2 for y" and if you have your phone on speaker, the system won't recognize the touch tones, you have to do them without speakerphone.

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  • [–] -2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    AI + worker effort is the sweet spot for efficiency and accuracy

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    ...and it's only expensive and ruins the environment even faster than our wildest nightmares

    what you say is true but it's not a viable business model, which is why AI has been overhyped so much

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