On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 08:50:41AM +1000, Tom Worthington wrote: > Consumers may hate the idea of AI customer service, but will they use it > anyway when it is disguised, or when it offers a cheap, less error > prone, readily available service?
Computer says "No" But they will have to use it when there's no choice, because the corporation has sacked all the human customer service staff (because they're more expensive than machines, which are even cheaper than outsourcing to India or the Philipines. And worse, they sometimes inconveniently try to actually help the customers they're talking to instead of being the frustrating obstacle they're required to be....especially when the customer is trying to unsubscribe from a service they never intended to subscribe to in the first place). Corporations don't want messy humanity or empathy getting in the way of inflicting their policy on customers. Also, bots can be programmed to favour corporate policy over consumer protection laws (or employee protection laws), or haven't even been fed those laws as training data. And, yes, humans can be obstructionist too - and they're often required to be by their employers - but not 100% reliably, while computers can be programmed to obstruct customers forever, without ever getting bored or acquiring a conscience or considering individual circumstances. > As an example, how do you know a human, or AI, is processing a form you > submit online? How much longer will you be willing to wait to speak to a > human customer service representative? Customers know, at least intuitively, that regardless of the current propaganda blitz trying to convince them that this "AI" push is being done for their benefit, it's no more for their benefit than HR exists for an employee's benefit. HR exists to protect the employer from employees and inflict company policy on them, and the purpose of "AI" "support" is to do the same to customers. (HR will be replaced by bots too - they sometimes have too much humanity left in them) > If the AI makes fewer errors, do you really want a human? What a corporation considers to be an "error" and what the customer considers to be an error can be entirely different and incompatible things. Especially when the so-called "AI" isn't even remotely similar to an actual intelligence, but is just really good at regurgitating semi-random strings of text (or audio & video) in response to prompt. People wanting support don't want a jumped-up Markov chain repeating corporate talking points at them, they want help. craig _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
