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Half of companies planning to replace customer service with AI are reversing course
(www.techspot.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2025
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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.
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.
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.
AI + worker effort is the sweet spot for efficiency and accuracy
...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
What I’m saying is the ONLY viable business model
not at the current cost or environmental damage
Yeah but these pesky workers cut into profits because you have to pay them.
They're unpredictable. Every employee is a potential future lawsuit, they can get injured, sexually harassed, all kinds of things - AI doesn't press lawsuits against the company, yet.