Whenever an org says it wants to use ‘AI’ for a better customer experience, it is almost certainly lying.
Customers are not clamoring for shitty chat bots that extend the time to get to a real human. Customers are not asking for LLM-authored SEO-driven FAQ pages. Customers are not asking for yet more hero images of people with extra fingers.
The org is likely only interested in using ‘AI’ to reduce effort, save money, cut staff.
@aardrian "#AI" is a prime example of the damage done by #VC funding too. Considering the energy use, these services are operating at a loss just to gain market share, it's warping the real competitive picture and people are falling for it. Happens every. Single. Time.
By the time the VC money runs out, there's enough buy-in to make it hard to reverse, the damage to society will have been done, and the VCs can start raking in the dough...
@xorbit They have learned from the Uber model how to buy a market at a loss. The ecological damage is someone else’s problem. As it is always someone else’s problem. Because their tax breaks will ensure it won’t be their problem.
@aardrian increase income. Always doing everything they can to make more money. One day no one will be able to afford to buy their crap and then where will they be. Support ethical companies. Research and spurn companies that are only interested in the bottom line.
@aardrian Quoting the above link: "The case against using computers instead of humans is that computers are bad at handling error conditions, can't adapt to unusual situations, and behave according to mechanical rules, […] but that's precisely the situation we're in right now with humans. It already feels like dealing with a computer program. Not a modern computer program, but a compiler from the 80s that tells you that there's at least one error, with no other diagnostic information."
@docRekd I agree that telephone customer service does not scale, and chat bots are a viable approach.
But when an org straps a chat bot to its site for novelty, or when the ChatGPT chat bot cannot perform the same functions as existing chat bots, or when the chat bot makes shit up, or…
Anyway, I don’t like training chat bots for free when I just want to know where my shipment is.
@aardrian Yup. Amazon is a great example... they've gone through great pains to make the process of reaching a human as difficult as they can without removing it entirely.
@aardrian Personally, I am clamoring for an AI chatbot that gets me to Level II support automatically and then turns the call back over to me to actually fix the problem.
@aardrian
as someone who has already modelled services and workflows for 1st and 2nd level, I'd liek to express an objection against this very narrow-minded look into this matter.
There's plenty of scenarios I could come up with where AI would be awesome to assist the agent on the telephone and enable him to both either deliver a quick fix to the customer or improve the whole incident handling process, which is what really stalls humans and prevents them from really interacting with others
@aardrian
if "chat bot" or "image generation" are the only examples you can come up with when it comes to AI, it's pointless to continue talking to you
@aardrian They've never wanted it, not since before voice recognition on automated phone trees, automated phone trees themselves or outsourced call centres. Every innovation has only ended up an obstacle set up to make sure you give up before you make it to a human.
@aardrian I posted this in our ai guild group chat today, also mentioning the costs/ amount of energy of using generative ai. One of the comments was: let’s focus on sharing knowledge. The other comment was: a calcuation of LLM carbon footprint vs an employee…
@enantiomer For too many businesses, the investor is the revenue source and the customer is the product, and I am amazed that consumers overall still don’t recognize this.
@aardrian@danilo And they aren’t even always conscious of this. I have definitely experienced decision makers actually convincing themselves that changing (insert whatever) is “what customers want!” when it was really only about slashing costs and making lines go up on (shareholder-fixated) goals.
@aardrian when i see ai as an option, i find a phone number and carpet bomb it with phone calls until i get a human. Then i ask my question, however basic. When a human points out that there is an ai option i spend a lot of time explaining politely all the reasons 'ai doesn't work on my browser' or 'it keeps saying wrong answers'
Or whatever.
Then call again the next day, if i have another question.
I know it takes time, but putting their hold music on speaker is a small price to pay to gum up a shitty system.
@Npars01 Hell, you got a human to at least show up. That might be a win in some contexts. Shipping company might consider that part a loss, of course, since a human had to get involved.
Never mind the box. They have forgotten there was ever a box.
@aardrian for some companies the goal of customer service is to frustrate complaining customers until they give up and accept whatever mistake has been imposed on them. Chatbots are the next phone tree.
@EMR@aardrianAhem. Just about to have a go at trying to get the compensation we're owed for a cancelled flight. I'll keep your sentiments in mind (cough). #jetstar
@aardrian
yeh if I weren't close enough to retirement that I don't think they'll bother to replace me, I'd feel nervous about being a LLM skeptic. I see people literally casting around despreately for something they can use AI for.
I think as a consultant one has potential to add "AI skepticism" to one's value proposition, but it's a bit touchier w.r.t. people in more regular jobs. I'm thinking a lot of individual-contributor contractors are in srs anxiety about it.
@FeralRobots Yeah, I assume more junior folks are the ones who may feel the most at risk.
But junior folks are powered by ramen, and LLMs are powered by shit-tons of energy. So it seems a straightforward value prop to some orgs. Obviously not to those who are paying pennies for compute time while fake-AI companies try to corner the market like Uber.
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