That's a good point - the current drive to replace human customer service is a second step, after cutting off their ability / power to do anything that's not on

That's a good point - the current drive to replace human customer service is a second step, after cutting off their ability / power to do anything that's not on the prescribed path. Companies don't want to deal with customers. It's only the missing automation why the human CSRs are still a thing. If you can replace them with AI and automate handling of all customer support paths that company considers relevant, that's it, all other edge-cases, bizarre problems etc are just not considered. Which I understand to some extent, given the sheer idiocy you sometimes encounter from the customers. The problem is that companies are also grossly over-confident in their products/services and ability to recognize all the scenarios.