Living and working in such a technological world brings with it the hype of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots etc. and the debate of whether AI machines will overthrow the world…
But seriously, it is clearly an exciting time to be alive, with many businesses being completely transformed by inventing, developing or adopting new technologies that revolutionise their processes and potentially their industry.
However, whilst I am talking up robots and AI and it is almost unavoidable with the range of news pieces and articles, I would like to pose this question to you…
“Is there anything wrong with the human approach?”
Let’s run through a few things that humans can currently win at in a game of top trumps and why we, as a race, shouldn’t throw the towel in just yet.
It’s no secret that AI can blow humans out of the water at repetitive tasks and problem-solving that includes crunching large, well-organised data.
However, what AI cannot handle is contextualising data or dealing with ambiguity. They just can’t make judgement calls.
Following on from the above point. If you have ever had any dealing with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) then it can be easily recognised how frustrating it can be dealing with this phone tree setup. Trying to convey your point, your frustration etc. can easily be mistaken by the robots.
Yes, the AI technology is creating a convenient first response for the business, but surely the customer should be the focus?
The whole point of marketing and customer service is to build trust with your potential customer and to persuade them into buying your product or service rather than go to one of your competitors.
Having that human touch allows the customer to connect with that person, be it through resolving an issue, or having a voice to a name to then return for repeat custom. In my opinion, your customers’ experience is the most important area of your product or service.
No customers = no business
Pretty simple calculation!!
If you’re dealing with a person, you can always discuss workarounds to a question or a problem. AI will have been programmed to follow a certain set of rules and it would be difficult to get them to stray from this.
Yes, this can create inefficiency within humans by going off on tangents and wasting time etc. However, often customers can be put onto a different track by humans which can be the best way.
Put it this way, have you ever gone into a shop and not bought what you went in for but bought something else? I thought so.
It is hard to argue that technology is not going to play a huge part in the future. There are so many benefits including scalability, response time, autonomy etc, but sometimes, the human touch can still prevail.