Should you let a robot answer your phone calls?

Author’s note.? This is a “what is best for my business” discussion and not necessarily an article about the specifics on the technologies at play here.? I will use the terms “robot” and “AI” interchangeably.? From the perspective of an entrepreneur, a “robot” is any software, application, device or machine that is designed to perform tasks that are routinely done by humans.? Robots are supposed to make our lives easier and that should be the goal that businesspeople should consider first.? The primary requirement for bringing a robot into any part of your business should be increased productivity/efficiency, lowered costs, and/or freeing up human workers from mundane tasks so that they can focus on more complex issues.

For those of you that follow me you know that I have been rather skeptical about AI and robots in the workplace, especially when they are used for trickery or criminal purposes.? In this case we are looking towards the future.? Assuming that robots, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotic process automation (RPA) are what the future holds for us, then let’s envision a world where that is a good thing that is beneficial to your business. ?More importantly, if your customers and clients are interacting with your robots, then they should enhance that customer service experience, and that is where many robotic solutions fall short today.?

You do not have to look far to find articles and whitepapers on why humans seem to inherently dislike robots.? There are many reasons.

·?????? Preference for Human Interaction: Many people prefer speaking with other human beings because of the nuanced communication, empathy, and understanding that humans can provide.? The advent of computerized telephony in the early 2000’s taught us this when customer call center functions became global.? People not only want to talk to a human that sounds like they do, and also one that understands their dialect, local accents, and the expressions used by caller.

·?????? Frustration with Past Experiences: If someone has had previous experiences with AI voice agents (Aiva for short) that were inefficient or could not resolve their issues, they will be more likely to avoid further calls to that same robot.? The worst thing that a robot can do to your customer is make them feel that you have wasted their time.

·?????? Complexity of Requests: AI systems, despite advances, may still struggle with complex or non-standard requests. This can make people reluctant to use them for any situation they perceive as complicated.? Many Aiva applications today are designed to handle only one or very few specific tasks.? <If a human does not answer the call the robot should answer and schedule a follow up meeting for the customer to interact with a human employee.>? This would be great if the one and only purpose for that phone number was marketed as “Call this number and we will set up an appointment for you to talk to a customer service professional.”?? If your customers also call that number for urgent ech support, to ask about billing questions, or dozens of other more complex issues, then a simplified robot like this is guaranteed to fall short of your customer’s expectations.

·?????? Emotional Comfort: Discussing personal or sensitive issues may be uncomfortable with an AI due to concerns about privacy or the lack of emotional support a robot can offer.? We could talk about this one all day, but it boils down to whether or not the robot provides a human-like experience.? I recently interacted with a robot that was designed to answer questions and schedule appointments for a personal injury lawyer.? I was impressed that it asked if I was the one that was injured and then said, “I am sorry to hear that happened to you”.? It also considered my location when I was scheduling an appointment and realized that I was a long distance from the lawyer’s office. The robot suggested that a video call, instead of a face-to-face meeting might be best.? Humans like to set a rapport with who they are talking to as it makes them feel more comfortable.? If the robot can go beyond the customer’s expectations, make recommendations and answer more complicated questions, then that is a huge win.? It could be as simple as looking where the customer is on the current weather forecast map and then saying something like “it looks like it is going to be stormy today where you are."? Do not underestimate the power of these types of interactions.

·?????? Lack of Trust: There may be concerns over the AI's ability to handle the problem correctly, concerns about data privacy, or simply a mistrust of machine intelligence to understand and prioritize human needs.? This combined with the scammers and fraudsters that are using Aivas to trick people and steal from them gives your robot an assumed bad reputation from the start of its conversation with your customer.? Furthermore, if your robot comes across as impersonal, ineffective or emotionless this mistrust will grow quickly.

·?????? Complexity.? Your viewpoint should be, did the Aiva make resolving an issue take longer, or if it added complexity to a simple problem, then the robot failed.? If you are deploying robots to make your business’s process better, that is great, as long as it does not make your customer experience worse.

What can we do to better select which robotic app or service we purchase to enhance our business and our customer experience?? Know up front that having an effective and personable Aiva answer your phone calls is something that takes time.? The technology that should be at play here is called a “Language Learning Model” (LLM).? Robots that interact with humans need to be trained and tested.? Before your Aiva is answering live customer calls it needs to know all of the specifics about your business and what you do.? If you are using Chat GPT or any other AI apps that are readily available today, then you are possibly missing this step.? Most AI models available today are based on past information.? The vendors who sell these solutions load them up with knowledge bases, databases, news articles, pop culture references and all kinds of general knowledge, then it is released to the public to answer questions.? The problem is that the version that you are using has learned nothing more after its release date.? The only “learning” it is really doing is a determination of whether or not it successfully answered your question.? This is important, but more is needed if you want a robot to answer your phone.

The proper way to approach developing a robot to handle your specific work situations takes a partnership.? The AI company that you choose must bring skills to the table that are something more than an Interface to or a "wrapper” or user interface on top of an existing platform like Chat GPT.? ?Ideally your own specific knowledge about your business, the industry that you serve, your perspective customers, your location and the products/services that you offer need to be specifically “trained” into an AI engine.? Furthermore, information that is not applicable to the task that your robot is working on needs to be removed to avoid incorrect or confusing answers.? Finally, you and your AI expert need to work together and test the robot through the multiple tasks that you want it to complete.? You should plan for significant testing, retraining and updates to a robot’s application before you should be satisfied with the work that it is going to be asked to do.? A critical aspect of this is, what happens if the robot is asked a question that it cannot answer?? Does it apologize and connect you to a knowledgeable human agent?? Does it validate your contact information and promise that it will send you an appropriate/accurate answer later?? Or…? Does it fail and provide an obviously wrong answer?

I have recently had the pleasure to work alongside two cutting edge companies that are pioneers in this area.? The first one is a General AI expert that is looking for partners that can work to build a robot that is designed for their specific industry or business.? Their robots have learned to read, analyze, index and transcribe 150-year-old, handwritten legal documents because they worked with a company that does a lot of legal research.? They have also worked on a solution that can analyze information from abandoned oil wells to see if they are a fit for thermal power generation, because they partnered with geology and energy experts.? The second company I'm working with has specialized in AI Voice Agents that are designed for very specific purposes.? I interacted with one that learned how to answer questions and?recommend catering services for a major hotel chain.? The robot was asked if a client could have a party that featured a live elephant.? The robot knew that the local laws for where the hotel was, did not allow large animals to attend indoor functions. ?It apologized that it could not accommodate the customer’s request and then recommended that the client select an elephant ice sculpture for their function, instead of the real thing.

The bottom line is that if you want your business to be part of the future that uses robots to their own and their customer’s advantage, then you must make an investment in your time, knowledge and resources.? You must be ready to partner with an AI company that knows what they’re doing and is also interested in custom tailoring a robot for your specific purpose.? If you are talking to an AI company that wants to sell you the same generic solution that they are selling to everyone else, then it should be for only one of very few specific tasks.? Reading scanned business cards and putting the data into your customer database is a good example of this.? If your use case or the problem that you want a robot to solve is more complex than read and transcribe a business card, then you will need to partner with the right AI company if you want your robot to impress your customers.

#AI, #ArtificialIntelligence, #robot, #automation, #entrepreneur, #business