5 ms·

What is the application of this that makes anything better for anyone? All I can think of is more spammers, scammers, horrible customer support lines.

by WD-42 10mo ago

anhner 10mo ago
> What is the application of this? spammers, scammers and horrible customer support lines.
asdfsfds 10mo ago
[flagged]
- mcny 10mo ago
  It is funny you mention Microsoft s customer support because it is a publicly known issue at this point that I'd you are a Microsoft employee or a v dash, the first level of support you talk to is basically something you have to overcome to get any help at all.
dmos62 10mo ago
Good customer support lines? Is there a reason why it can't provide good support. I often use chatgpt's voice function.
- TZubiri 10mo ago
  The expectation of customer support lines is that customers want to speak to humans. It isn't just the fact that these are semantics that aren't written anywhere and are open to change, because by using a human-like voice agent on a customer support line, you are pretending that that is a human, which is a scam or fraud. If you really believe that the support can be good, then use a robotic text to speech, don't pretend it's a human. And make it clear to users that they are talking to a human, phone is a protocol that has the semantic that you speak to a human. Use something else. The bottom line is that you have clients that registered under the belief that they could call a phone number and speak to a human, businesses are performing a short-term switcheroo at the expense of their clients, it's a scam.
  - znpy 10mo ago
    > The expectation of customer support lines is that customers want to speak to humans. Not really. The expectation is to be able to express their need in a natural language, maybe because their issue is not covered by a fixed-form web form (pun not intended). So yeah AI might be a good fit in that scenario.
    - TZubiri 10mo ago
      It's a protocol and network that has backwards compatibility with 19th century telegram wire networks that later were voice lines for a full century. If that isn't the channel to speak to a human, nothing is. You can speak to a bot with an app or whatever. At least make it sound robotty instead of pretending to be a human.
- WD-42 10mo ago
  How? Businesses will use this to justify removing what few actual human support staff they have left. Nobody, and I mean it, nobody calls customer support because they want to talk to a computer. It’s the last resort for problems that usually can’t be accomplished via the already existing technical flows available via computer.
  - b112 10mo ago
    Beyond true. I wonder what Amazon's goals are, as an example. Currently, at least on the .ca website, there is no way to even get to chat to fix problems. All their spider text of help options, now always lead back to the return page. So it's call them (which you can only find the number via Google.) I suspect they're so disfunctional, that they don't understand why the massive uptick in calls, so then they slap AI in via phone too. And so now that's slow and AI drivel. I guess soon I'll just have to do chargebacks!? Eg, if a package is missing or whatever.
    - Antoniocl 10mo ago
      Interesting, I regularly use chat-based support on amazon.ca to speak with (what I presume is) a real human after none of the control flow paths adequately resolve my issue. I've always found the support quick to reply and very helpful. Granted, it's been 1-2 weeks since I had an issue, so it may have changed since then, or it could be only released to a subset of users.
      - b112 10mo ago
        I wonder if I'm stuck on the (A)wseome/(B)ad side of A/B testing.
      - awad 10mo ago
        Amazon is generally good at 1) resolving an issue in your favor and 2) getting you to a human if needed but gosh does it feel like I've taken a different path to do so every single time I'ever needed support.
  - dmos62 10mo ago
Kim_Bruning 10mo ago
This might be good for Back-office hands-free tool access, for employees who are on the road. (they shouldn't be looking at the screen, and they might be limited to voice calling due to coverage issues besides). Aka: really weird terminal.
bronco21016 10mo ago
My local dealership adopted one of these for their service department. Prior to the AI assistant, you would call and immediately be placed on hold because the same people serving customers at the desk were answering the phone. The AI picks up right away and can schedule an oil change. It's fantastic and I'd love to see more of this. Of course it also has the ability to escalate to a human for the things it doesn't have capabilities for. For narrow use cases like this I personally don't mind these tools.
- WD-42 10mo ago
  If they have the ability to hook an llm up to a system that can schedule an oil change why can’t they provide a form on their website to do the same thing and save everyone the hassle?
  - quaheezle 10mo ago
    They do offer the ability to schedule an oil change via the website and yet some people still prefer to call. User preference and multi-channel servicing options are nice to support
    - WD-42 10mo ago
      They do? How do you know?
      - Antoniocl 10mo ago
        Unsure about whether the specific dealership in question supports online booking, but there existing consumers whose preference is for a phone call over a web-based experience is definitely the case, at least in the US. For example, even with the (digital-only) SAAS company I work at, we have a non-trivial amount of customers who with strong preferences to talk on the phone, ex to provide their credit card number, rather than enter it in the product. This is likely more pronounced if your product serves less tech-savvy niches. That said, a strong preference for human call > website use doesn't necessarily imply even a weak preference for AI call > website use (likely customer-dependent, but I'd be surprised if the number with that preference was exactly 0)
NedF 10mo ago
[dead]

What is the application of this that makes anything better for anyone? All I can think of is more spammers, scammers, horrible customer support lines.

by WD-42 10mo ago

What is the application of this that makes anything better for anyone? All I can think of is more spammers, scammers, horrible customer support lines.

anhner 10mo ago

> What is the application of this? spammers, scammers and horrible customer support lines.

asdfsfds 10mo ago

[flagged]

mcny 10mo ago
It is funny you mention Microsoft s customer support because it is a publicly known issue at this point that I'd you are a Microsoft employee or a v dash, the first level of support you talk to is basically something you have to overcome to get any help at all.

dmos62 10mo ago

Good customer support lines? Is there a reason why it can't provide good support. I often use chatgpt's voice function.

TZubiri 10mo ago
The expectation of customer support lines is that customers want to speak to humans. It isn't just the fact that these are semantics that aren't written anywhere and are open to change, because by using a human-like voice agent on a customer support line, you are pretending that that is a human, which is a scam or fraud. If you really believe that the support can be good, then use a robotic text to speech, don't pretend it's a human. And make it clear to users that they are talking to a human, phone is a protocol that has the semantic that you speak to a human. Use something else. The bottom line is that you have clients that registered under the belief that they could call a phone number and speak to a human, businesses are performing a short-term switcheroo at the expense of their clients, it's a scam.
- znpy 10mo ago
  > The expectation of customer support lines is that customers want to speak to humans. Not really. The expectation is to be able to express their need in a natural language, maybe because their issue is not covered by a fixed-form web form (pun not intended). So yeah AI might be a good fit in that scenario.
  - TZubiri 10mo ago
    It's a protocol and network that has backwards compatibility with 19th century telegram wire networks that later were voice lines for a full century. If that isn't the channel to speak to a human, nothing is. You can speak to a bot with an app or whatever. At least make it sound robotty instead of pretending to be a human.
WD-42 10mo ago
How? Businesses will use this to justify removing what few actual human support staff they have left. Nobody, and I mean it, nobody calls customer support because they want to talk to a computer. It’s the last resort for problems that usually can’t be accomplished via the already existing technical flows available via computer.
- b112 10mo ago
  Beyond true. I wonder what Amazon's goals are, as an example. Currently, at least on the .ca website, there is no way to even get to chat to fix problems. All their spider text of help options, now always lead back to the return page. So it's call them (which you can only find the number via Google.) I suspect they're so disfunctional, that they don't understand why the massive uptick in calls, so then they slap AI in via phone too. And so now that's slow and AI drivel. I guess soon I'll just have to do chargebacks!? Eg, if a package is missing or whatever.
  - Antoniocl 10mo ago
    Interesting, I regularly use chat-based support on amazon.ca to speak with (what I presume is) a real human after none of the control flow paths adequately resolve my issue. I've always found the support quick to reply and very helpful. Granted, it's been 1-2 weeks since I had an issue, so it may have changed since then, or it could be only released to a subset of users.
    - b112 10mo ago
      I wonder if I'm stuck on the (A)wseome/(B)ad side of A/B testing.
    - awad 10mo ago
      Amazon is generally good at 1) resolving an issue in your favor and 2) getting you to a human if needed but gosh does it feel like I've taken a different path to do so every single time I'ever needed support.
- dmos62 10mo ago

Kim_Bruning 10mo ago

This might be good for Back-office hands-free tool access, for employees who are on the road. (they shouldn't be looking at the screen, and they might be limited to voice calling due to coverage issues besides). Aka: really weird terminal.

bronco21016 10mo ago

My local dealership adopted one of these for their service department. Prior to the AI assistant, you would call and immediately be placed on hold because the same people serving customers at the desk were answering the phone. The AI picks up right away and can schedule an oil change. It's fantastic and I'd love to see more of this. Of course it also has the ability to escalate to a human for the things it doesn't have capabilities for. For narrow use cases like this I personally don't mind these tools.

WD-42 10mo ago
If they have the ability to hook an llm up to a system that can schedule an oil change why can’t they provide a form on their website to do the same thing and save everyone the hassle?
- quaheezle 10mo ago
  They do offer the ability to schedule an oil change via the website and yet some people still prefer to call. User preference and multi-channel servicing options are nice to support
  - WD-42 10mo ago
    They do? How do you know?
    - Antoniocl 10mo ago
      Unsure about whether the specific dealership in question supports online booking, but there existing consumers whose preference is for a phone call over a web-based experience is definitely the case, at least in the US. For example, even with the (digital-only) SAAS company I work at, we have a non-trivial amount of customers who with strong preferences to talk on the phone, ex to provide their credit card number, rather than enter it in the product. This is likely more pronounced if your product serves less tech-savvy niches. That said, a strong preference for human call > website use doesn't necessarily imply even a weak preference for AI call > website use (likely customer-dependent, but I'd be surprised if the number with that preference was exactly 0)

NedF 10mo ago

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