Technology

I know this isn't a common takeaway, but I'm all for it.

The current state of call centers is EXCRUCIATINGLY painful for consumers and only exists in the form it does to commodify US for the company. We tolerate the shit experience of call centers, so companies don't need to pay more money to give us a better experience. That's why they exist, the only reason. If firing them all and turning them into AI makes the experience even SLIGHTLY less painful than calling your local public assistance help line, I'm all for it. If I can bypass 4 separate phone tree selection menus with 3 minutes of wait time with the crackling loud wait music between being passed around departments, I'm all for it. These are shit dead end jobs with no upside whatsoever.

I work for a company that is “all in” on AI. And offshoring. But AI is unlikely to provide second or third level support for complex and poorly documented software that operates at the intersection of legislation and rule making.

Add to that, customers who are licensed in their field but cannot comprehend that software implementation of paper forms requires the same inputs generally, much less explain their objective…

Also, the implementations I’ve been presented with as a consumer have been hot garbage.

The front line folks who exist primarily so customers can yell at someone might be in trouble. But companies who put their people in that position are shit anyway.

It's about damn time.

Great so customer service will soon become 10x worse.

Of all the things that should decimate call centers...