Travelling back from the Call & Contact Centre Expo UK, where the focus was – understandably – on AI and its impact on our contact centres.
Reflecting on the numerous discussions, panels, and speakers, there were many different views in how AI might change the landscape, empower frontline employees or super-power self-service options. But I’m still not completely sold.
In the 1930’s, new technologies like the washing machine, vacuum cleaner (now with a bag) and, soon, the dishwasher, promised to revolutionise how we kept our homes clean.
These “time saving” devices would free-up homemakers from the monotony of chores.
Yet, in 2020, homemakers still spend a comparable amount of time on housekeeping chores.
Some of these activities may have changed (we now spend less time on meal preparation and cooking, but more on kitchen wiping – such is our apparent obsession with killing 99.9% of germs).
But the point remains.
There is still a human involved.
And, in nearly 100 years, this involvement hasn’t changed massively.
This is because we’re replaced like-for-like.
It’s not a revolution; it’s evolution.
The machines do what a person would do.
It’s new technology working in the same old context.
AI – as with many other technologies – has the ability to allow us to forget what has come before and start with a brand new context.
A “What if we could do x?”, rather than “How can [tech] do what we do already?”
That’s the real opportunity.
More importantly (at least for me as a soft, fluffy “people” person, apparently), it allievates some of the inherent fear that the bots are coming for my job.
My reflection is this:
AI offers huge upsides if we can unshackle from those old models.
If we don’t unshackle and look to replace something old with something new, it could be as transformative as Sharepoint was going to be to comms.
And that would be a real shame if AI was that much of a damp squib…
