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If you're asking seriously... Because, as the AI continues to improve, more and more users will choose not to fail out intentionally, reducing the required leve

by sib 1y ago

If you're asking seriously... Because, as the AI continues to improve, more and more users will choose not to fail out intentionally, reducing the required level of human staffing for a certain number of customers / orders. It's just like today - there are some users who will keeping "hitting 0" to get to a human, but many others who won't.

toomuchtodo 1y ago
As a human who always hits 0 or bails out, I think this is yet to be proven. There are even products to help with this. If legislation is required to always provide a human for customer service, that can be done. https://gethuman.com/ https://gethuman.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/17/the-death-of-customer-service-why-has-it-become-so-so-bad https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/17/the-death-of-c...
- sib 1y ago
  As a (sometime) economist, if no one ever used the phone tree, companies would stop deploying them.
  - toomuchtodo 1y ago
    People use the phone tree not because they want to, but because they have limited alternatives. Companies deploy them for line goes up ("how can we provide as little value as possible for as much profit as possible without the customer leaving"), not for the benefit of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=enshittification&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
    - sib 1y ago
      Yes - and the point is, if everyone availed themselves of the alternative (e.g., escaping the phone tree), as previous post implied, then "line wouldn't go up" and companies would stop.
  - burnte 1y ago
    Actually what happens is companies just make it harder and harder to escape the phone tree.
  - Spivak 1y ago
    You haven't backwards, the user of the phone tree software is the company deploying it. It exists for their benefit, not the customer's.
    - sib 1y ago
      That would be the customer of the phone tree software... Of course it exists for their benefit. But, if all customers escaped from it, then it would be pointless and companies would stop - why spend money on something the doesn't reduce costs? So, since companies do, in fact, implement and retain phone trees, they are undoubtedly benefitting from doing so. And, to loop back to the start of this branch, if AI-driven "phone trees" do a better job than traditional ones (and there's no reason to suspect that they won't, over time), then fewer customers would opt out and it would be more beneficial to companies.

by sib 1y ago

toomuchtodo 1y ago

As a human who always hits 0 or bails out, I think this is yet to be proven. There are even products to help with this. If legislation is required to always provide a human for customer service, that can be done. https://gethuman.com/ https://gethuman.com/ https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/17/the-death-of-customer-service-why-has-it-become-so-so-bad https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/17/the-death-of-c...

sib 1y ago
As a (sometime) economist, if no one ever used the phone tree, companies would stop deploying them.
- toomuchtodo 1y ago
  People use the phone tree not because they want to, but because they have limited alternatives. Companies deploy them for line goes up ("how can we provide as little value as possible for as much profit as possible without the customer leaving"), not for the benefit of the customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=enshittification&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
  - sib 1y ago
    Yes - and the point is, if everyone availed themselves of the alternative (e.g., escaping the phone tree), as previous post implied, then "line wouldn't go up" and companies would stop.
- burnte 1y ago
  Actually what happens is companies just make it harder and harder to escape the phone tree.
- Spivak 1y ago
  You haven't backwards, the user of the phone tree software is the company deploying it. It exists for their benefit, not the customer's.
  - sib 1y ago
    That would be the customer of the phone tree software... Of course it exists for their benefit. But, if all customers escaped from it, then it would be pointless and companies would stop - why spend money on something the doesn't reduce costs? So, since companies do, in fact, implement and retain phone trees, they are undoubtedly benefitting from doing so. And, to loop back to the start of this branch, if AI-driven "phone trees" do a better job than traditional ones (and there's no reason to suspect that they won't, over time), then fewer customers would opt out and it would be more beneficial to companies.