Chat Bot Quandary Tough Things First podcast

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Chat Bot Quandary

5d ago 13:12

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It turns out chat bots for chat or phone-in help lines are a mixed bag of results. Is the pendulum swinging back in favor of live human help? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn talks pros and cons of Ai assistance and human communication barriers.

Ray Zinn: Hi, Rob. Good to be with you today.

Rob Artigo: I thought we’d talk a little bit about chatbots. If you call an organization, and you get a voice comes on, and it’s an artificial voice, and you’re sort of navigating the choices of what you want to get to using this computer voice. Or it could be also doing one of the … If you’re online, and you’re doing a chat with a artificial intelligence giving you the answers right there instead of a person.

Rob Artigo cont:Well, this company called Klarna had switched to chatbots 100%, and they were all in for chatbots. I read this story about them. It says Klarna … Swedish company. It’s called a FinTech firm. Initially, they replaced much of their customer service staff with AI chatbots, claiming they performed the work of 700 employees. That’s the lure. That’s what you … You’re like, well, hey, look, if I can have a 24/7 auto voice that doesn’t need to get paid or eat or need a break, then that should cut down on your employees.

This story goes on to say, due to declining service quality and customer dissatisfaction, the company’s now rehiring human agents. The CEO acknowledged that the overemphasis on cost-cutting led to poor service and emphasized the necessity of human interaction for customer satisfaction. The new hiring strategy involves remote, contract-based roles targeting students and rural workers, raising concerns about job stability. This shift highlights the limitations of AI in handling complex, empathetic customer interactions and underscores the enduring value of human support.

We have talked about on this podcast … And if I remember correctly, you were somewhat fond of the idea of like, “I don’t care if it’s an AI voice. All I want is the result.” You get on there, and you’re going to talk to a computer. Fine. I just need to navigate where I need to go and get the answer I want.

Have we gotten to a point where the trend to cost cut in the direction of AI as a good thing … Is that the trend we’re still going to see, or are we starting to see a kind of reverse of that-

Ray Zinn: Well, it’s interesting you bring that up because a lot of companies like Home Depot use that AI thing to try to help you with finding what you are looking for. I hate those kind of things, at least right now, because they’re not very good. They get confused. Either your accent or some other form of communication fouls up the AI, and you get off and to a different thing. And I’ve actually hung up at least half the time Home Depot because I would just give up. They’re often women’s lingerie when I’m looking for timber.

It’s totally ridiculous, and we’re seeing it online too. The search boxes that you can do to find what you want … Unless you can do it pretty accurately what you want, you’re going to be searching for the … You’ll find the wrong thing. I’m sure it’s going to improve over time. I mean, it’s got to get better, but as we know, everything has a learning curve, and sometimes companies move too quickly to depend on things like AI to reduce our head count and cut costs.

Are we there yet? We’re getting there, but we’re not there. In other words, the search engines are getting better. I’ve noticed that. I was looking for some sprinkler parts. And in fact, this was two days ago I was looking for sprinkler parts. And now I was able to find what I wanted more quickly than I did three or four years ago. I was looking for sprinkler parts, but sprinkles came up. The stuff you put on cookies or cakes. It’s improving, and I’m sure over the next several years you will be able to get what you want or find what you want using these chatbots as you would.

And by the way, I have noticed they’re getting better. It’s just that there’s just nothing like having a human on the other end. Now, I’ll admit that another company that I’ve had trouble with is Dish network, which is a TV app, and I found out that they’re using foreign countries. In other words, they’re using people in Indonesia or Philippines, and their accent in English is terrible. And I’m talking to a real human, but I can’t understand what they’re saying, and they’re not understanding what I’m saying.

It’s a similar thing that we’re facing with AI. It’s a different language, as you would, whether it be Russian, German, English, or Spanish or whatever. The accent that we use … And I like that word accent because accent means that what emphasis you’re using doesn’t affect how the results you get. It will get better. It’s not there yet. I wish Dish didn’t keep using these countries that I don’t have any idea what they’re saying because of their accent. That’s causing a problem. Not just AI, but using customer service and countries where their accent, as you would, is not good enough for communication. It’s not just AI. It’s also communicating with other humans that have a different language barrier than you do.

Rob Artigo: I was literally on the phone trying to order a medication, and the person who was in the United States had an accent. And it’s not my fault, and it’s not their fault, but it’s just a communication problem. And literally, at the end of our conversation, I was in the same boat I was in when I called them on Friday, so I ended the conversation. And she thought that I was asking for one thing, and I was not asking for that. I was telling her I already did that. It does happen, and it doesn’t have to be a foreign party.

Another thing I have is I can listen to, watch TV, and then I have a person with a British accent come on, and I’m okay with the British accent, but for some reason the tone of the voice with the British accent makes it drop out in my ear. I have no idea why, but I can’t hear them. I don’t know what they’re saying. It’s funny because here we are talking about the chatbot, where the chatbot would be an easy solution for that kind of a problem. It turns out that you also have the same kind of problem with the chatbot because the chatbot will misunderstand what you’re saying as well.

Ray Zinn: Well, again, when you’re talking to a person that has a different accent or different language barrier, your brain’s not working the way it’s meant to work. It’s still trying to translate. For example, if you’re not familiar with a particular language, and you’re trying to get some instructions or directions, you’re trying to translate that language into English, and so that’s why you’re not hearing it is because it takes time for you to translate it.

I speak several languages, and I don’t think in English. I think in the language that I speak. That allows me to do it more fluently. If I have to do a translation, then I could use my phone or some other app a way to communicate that I rattle it off and to translate, and then it gives it to me in their language, and I can hand them the phone and let them read it. It’s slow, but that’s the way you can do it is you’d have to actually have a translator that allows you to communicate in your native tongue as you would. There’s certain languages that I don’t know as well, and I have to translate it back to English or start with English and then try to convert to their language.

I remember I was at the grocery store, and I was looking for some eggs. And I said, “[Spanish 00:09:33].” The girl got very incensed because huevos has a more negative term and to some Spanish-speaking people, but in Spanish, or in classic Spanish, huevos means eggs, but it also has a bad connotation to other Spanish-speaking countries. And they use the word blanquilla, which that’s not a word that I use in speaking Spanish, but in other words, the word I used initially, huevos, has a bad connotation to certain countries, and so they use a different word. You got to be careful about the words you use. Even though you’re speaking in quote quote their tongue, their language, it may not be the dialect that they’re familiar with.

When communicating, communicating is not easy at all, and that’s what AI is supposed to do, is it’s supposed to help us communicate.

I was writing a speech, and somebody told me to use AI to do the speech. You give it certain clues as to what you want to do. You tell them the subject. You tell them certain key things you would like to say, and you also use your own speech for the AI to understand your words. They create the speech for you. When I read it, I said, “Holy mackerel. That’s not me. That’s not the way I would’ve given this speech,” and so I had to start with my own ideas of the speech I wanted to give. I couldn’t use that one that was created. You got to be careful. Right now, the technology is not good enough to output what you want.

Rob Artigo: One day, it may be, and it probably will be good enough, but it definitely is a word of caution to be careful when you’re using it.

Well, join the conversation at toughthingsfirst.com. Your questions and comments are always welcome. Follow Ray on X and Facebook and LinkedIn. And of course, pick up Ray’s books, Tough Things First and the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three, and on sale now, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills and Attributes and Fundamentals That Make Up the Essential Leader.

Thanks, Ray.

Ray Zinn: Thanks, Rob.

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