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Google is Building 'Virtual Agents' To Handle Call Centers' Grunt Work (qz.com)
Google is officially building AI technology to replace some of the work in call centers, the company announced at its Cloud Next conference today, confirming earlier reports. From a report: The software is called Contact Center AI, and Google is working with at least a dozen partners, such as Cisco and Vonage, to install "virtual agents" that will be the first to pick up the phone when a customer is routed to a call center. When the customer asks something that the AI can't do, it will automatically forward the call to a human, according to a blog post by Google Cloud chief scientist Fei-Fei Li. Li writes that new AI shares some underlying technology as Google Duplex, the AI service showed off earlier this year that emulates a human voice to call restaurants and make reservations. This means that with Contact Center AI, it's unlikely a customer would know they're talking to a robot unless it was disclosed at the beginning of the call.
was not bad enough
Being that level 1 support is mostly treated like a robot anyways. A script that they need to follow rather strictly. This script cannot become too advanced because it will be hard for the Level 1 support to follow. An AI can probably do this job a bit better, just because it can follow complex rules much more easily.
That said, most companies have a Phone Tree system already for Level 1 support. and Google will be replacing an automated system with a better one.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Google 3 weeks ago: "Don't worry we're not planning on using our AI technology to put call center workers out of their jobs."
--FAST FORWARD THREE WHOLE WEEKS--
Google today: "We're taking away call center workers' jobs with our AI technology."
Other companies already have these "Virtual Agents", it's the dreaded Call Tree you have to navigate before you are able to talk to a live person. Assuming you can get through the tree without throwing your phone at the nearest hard surface or jumping in front of a bus to end your misery.
It: Before we get started, can you tell me what your call is about ?
Me: Agent
It: Okay, I can help you with that, let me get a bit more information first. . . . .
Me: -facepalm-
Even more amusing is when you're talking to the damn bot and they include the sounds of typing in the background after you answer a question to give the impression you're actually talking to someone.
EVEN MORE AMUSING is after you finally get to a live person, it's in an overseas call center where the accent is so thick you can't understand them. The answers they give are simply scripted flow charts and you're in no better position after the call concludes than you were before it started.
Them: Okay, have you tried rebooting your router ? Or unplugging / replugging your cable ?
Me: -gunshot to head-
As a final jab, they then send you a survey request over and over again until you go insane or write an email rule which auto-deletes the damn thing.
( Because no one reads the surveys and, if they do, no one acts upon them )
Call centers in general have a pre-recorded message before even getting anywhere that states something like "this call may be recorded and monitors for training and administrative purposes" - So the bot doesn't even need to consent, the automated systems ALREADY do this today and have done it for countless years.
I can tell you, as someone who worked in a support call center when younger, that people love to be transferred during calls. Everyone loves to explain something twice.
See how much easier this is to read when it's punctuated properly?
Give'm a break, they worked at a call center and know how to read poorly worded stuff quickly so you cannot understand it...
As for me, When I was younger, I worked as a programmer who maintained the carefully worded marketing scripts that showed up on the screens at the call center. After I quit, they called me once so I told the CSR guy, "Oh, well, I'll tell you what you can do... Hit down arrow to the third option, hit 'Do' and hit 'Do' one more time to confirm." There was a brief pause as he absorbed what I told him ("Do not ever call me again!") and as he tried to keep me on the phone I said, "You understand what I told you. Good luck with your job but you better look for another.. Trust me, I know. "
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
about 70-80% of the work on a help desk is password resets. This will be the first to go. It'll mean huge reductions in the call center workforce. Those employees aren't going to say "Welp, guess I'm not needed anymore" and eat a bullet. Most will leave IT. Some will struggle to stay in. And they'll be gunning for _your_ jobs.
Best case scenario you get stuck pulling the weight of a whole slew of newbs out of their depth who passed a job interview by sheer luck and/or nepotism. Worst case (and this will happen) your boss notices that when he goes to fill a position there's 5000+ applicants and decides he can cut your pay and increase your hours instead of hiring.
Either way now would be good time to do something about these massive productivity increases and job losses due to AI and automation.
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Did I miss something here?
I'm just not seeing what's unique about this idea. It just sounds like any old IVR application out there, where you listen for keywords in the responses to try and figure out what the caller wants.
The technique is to prompt the user, then listen, and if the IVR doesn't understand with a specific level of confidence, start to "train" the user on easily recognizable words and phrases. How's AI going to help this? All it's going to do is make some likely vain attempt to parse the words said and try to equate that (with some level of confidence) to some predetermined set of options. It will say "I'm not sure what you mean" and proceed to prompt the user again by outlining a list of things it knows how to do, or (worse) just telling them to "try again". Trying again will likely get you EXACTLY the same input, said slower, which isn't going to help the AI any. The result with and without AI will be the same and take just as long.
Unless I missed something, this is nothing more than Google hype or the musings of some inexperienced IVR engineers trying to sound like they are thinking outside the box. Doesn't look like it's new to me.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Doesn't matter what your excuse is, get a warrant.
Thank you for calling 911. Please stay on the line and as soon as we get a warrant to record this call we'll be right back to you ... [muzak] ..."
I always make a statement to the effect that by continuing this call you are agreeing to being recorded and that any consent arrived on this call is legally binding and considered contractual.
World Saving would immediately forward me to a supervisor, and Wells Fargo agents would hang up. When dealing with what I suspect might be an AI or robocall I make a nonsensical statement like "purple monkey dishwasher sauce ?" and ask for agreement. You can generally determine the nature of the call by the response or lack thereof from something like that.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Whenever the person says, "This call may be recorded..." I tell them, "You bet I'm recording this!" Some come back and say that I'm not allowed to do that. I tell them, too late.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
That's the new gold rush. Develop a company to create "Virtual You's AI" that screen all your phone calls before they get to you. This will start an arms race, of sorts, between scam call AI trying to outfox Virtual You's AI, Virtual You's getting more complex to circumvent this, and so on. Each time a scammer calls a tiny virtual battlefield takes place and, hopefully, your side wins. This time.
I deal with 2 GoogleFi phones -- 'Personality AI' agents are the most annoying feature of Google's AI Call Center.
"Hey pardner, ..." -- fake cowpoke dude.
"It certainly is sunny here, how's the weather there?" -- fake nature lover.
"Roger that." -- fake roger dodger.
Per Douglas Adams' classic - “A new generation of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation robots and computers, with the new GPP feature.” Arthur: "GPP? What’s that?" Ford: "Er It says Genuine People Personalities."
When I ask Google Call Center responders, "Are you a real human or an AI?" The question is completely ignored, not YES, nor NO. I THINK THE ROBOTIC AI NATURE OF MY INTERACTION SHOULD BE DISCLOSED, that way I can skip the 'how are you' pleasantries, at least.
I have and will never work in that industry again. First as an agent, then running their IT.
They don't give a shit about you! They don't give a shit about the customer! Your job is to take screaming abusive with a smile for $10 - $15 an hour and if you don't like they will find someone else who will.
I realized when I worked for an AOL company long ago. It was that the CEO doesn't give a shit. My job was to take the hits so he can sit back in his office and play golf after verbal assaults and threats as we would not cancel their accounts and provide bad service.
If customers had to stop by the office and speak in person to staff and send snail mails you bet AOL would still be around today. But they are isolated.
At the end of the day NO ONE WANTS to hear screaming angry customers. This includes the CEO and people making decisions. You are a contractor out to take the abusive for them as a cost to do business as it is better you than them etc. It is all low bottom work and I have seen call center companies screw customers (as in the companies not users) over big time too.
It is a screwed up industry that i advise to avoid second to fast food.
http://saveie6.com/
they're going to lose their livelihoods. Most of them will die in a gutter (seriously, 45,000 people in America die every year from preventable diseases). But the desperation will force some of them to improve enough to compete at higher tiered jobs, like the ones you occupy.
It doesn't matter if they have skills or not. They'll work 80+ hours a week to try and hang on. Their burn out. Die of heart attacks. But in the meantime wages will plummet.
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