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Former Microsoft VP says Microsoft missed the AI wave like the internet and mobile, as Copilot scales back in Windows 11 (www.windowslatest.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 41 points 3 months ago (22 children)

It’s like they created a very good phone tree and are trying to shove it into everything that never had or needed a phone tree in the first place.

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  • [–] 27 points 3 months ago (14 children)

    The fuck is a phone tree? Pardon my language, sir.

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  • [–] 62 points 3 months ago (13 children)

    "for financial services, press one. for technical support, press two. for goblins, press three. for repairs, press four."

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  • [–] 45 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I TOLD YOU NOT TO TALK ABOUT GOBLINS

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  • [–] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    You forgot the mandatory lead message. "Please listen closely as our menu options have changed." No, they haven't. Ever.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Also the standard "outdated message you have to listen to twice in entirety despite it not applying to you," like "Please note, starting June 1, 2021 as a result of the Covid 19 Virus we will be starting social practicing guidelines in our offices" and they repeat a number twice for curbside that hasn't existed in half a decade.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    I'll bet the cause of that is simple. The one person who knew how to change the message no longer works there, and while that has been mentioned to the higher ups, it's not a priority so it got shoved into the "to-do" pile.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Thanks! I just thought that’s some non-existent thing, which Microsoft invented and nobody needs it ever. Well, that’s not far from your point, I guess. But still. Didn’t know that’s called a phone tree!

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  • [–] 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 child)

    funny you should use that example in particular because i recently had the displeasure of using microsoft's phone tree. i was trying to close a dead relative's account and the info on the website was wrong.

    they built a phone tree that remembers you. if you try to call in multiple times during some time period (at least several hours) it will just assume you have the same question and skip to your last choice.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Funny you mention a phone tree, something that's been hit by AI. It's actually been around longer as voice recognition that finds a close match to a keyword, but in theory AI should be able to take a request and break down what is actually needed.

    I haven't run across an AI version that works well. I don't know if that's because the voice recognition part is still bad, or if they're using Co-pilot (since I know how it mangles simple requests in text).

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  • [–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah it really feels like an LLM should work better than a phone tree for that, but every time I actually encounter one it’s so so much worse.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I wouldn't be surprised if there's instructions to modify the system prompt to maximize effectiveness, and everyone leaves it at the generic default. Just like so many people leave other things at the default and just plug it in and go. Thank goodness the Cisco hold music is decent. I grew to love it while holding on the VA phone lines a lot for my dad.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    Shouldn't the default settings work fine for the tasks that it's advertised to do? I mean when I buy software I don't expect it to be set to "be shit" mode by default.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    At least tpu can tell the AI to get you to a human and most of the time it actually does so.

    Having voice recognition in place of the usual "press x" before AI was even worse. Bot that now it's much better though.

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