[LINK] Most consumers hate the idea of AI-generated customer service

[Roger Clarke]

On 15/7/2024 06:49, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> more like more examples of ROBO debt will emerge.
> 
> Defence is the Computer did it!
> 
> Hope this government Scam is fixed soon (apparently the reader seeks out 
> all cards and charges to them - not just the opal card you think you 
> have used) 
> https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/contactless-payments/how-to-use-contactless#accordion-card-clash-content

Makes an absolute mockery of authorisation-less payment arrangements, 
doesn't it?!

________________________________________


> On 15/7/24 14:06, Craig Sanders wrote:
>> 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
>> Link at anu.edu.au
>> https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> 

-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

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Visiting Professorial Fellow                          UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University