[zdragnar]

I needed to replace my car's windshield in a hurry while on an extended trip. I called around to see who might have one in stock that could do a rush order. There was one place that had an automated voice system, and I hung up because it kept redirecting the conversation to get me to hand over more information than necessary to answer my question.

If I were already an existing customer and just wanted to schedule an oil change, it'd be fine, though I'd probably just schedule on the website anyway. I'm really only going to call in if I have an unusual circumstance and actually need to speak with someone.

[zugi]

Automated voice systems that try to sound human but are in fact purely scripted are insanely annoying. E.g. "I think you said 'windshield', is that correct? ... Got it, thanks!"

If you only have 4 options, just give me the old school list of voice options and I'll press 1 through 4, in less time, and being only moderately annoyed.

But a knowledgeable AI system as described in the article - that knows what it knows and tells you when it doesn't - could work great. If it had access to inventory and calendar, it might have worked for you. The question is whether the implementation lives up to the high expectations set by the articles.

[tempestn]

Me too, but I wonder whether we're in the minority here. I'm sure there must be plenty of people who just call places to get information easily found via the web, or there wouldn't be so many automated phone systems that explain how to get information via their website.

[dmd]

I know someone who works on the voice response system for $LARGEBANK. She says that more than 95% of calls are just to find out a checking account balance.

[zdragnar]

That's fine, and there's no need for AI pretending to be a human, or to ask me to talk to a computer as if it is a human. Routine decision trees work really well here.

In fact, decision trees are nice because they tell your more or less up front what they're capable of.

What really sucks (AI or decision tree, either way) is when they don't let you easily speak with someone.

[tempestn]

I'd argue a well designed AI assistant would be considerably better than a decision tree for that use case. Decision trees are slow because you normally need to wait through several options before getting to the one you're interested in. (Though sure, perhaps not if your call is literally for the most common thing.) But with an AI you could jump straight to what you're interested in.

"Hi, I'm the LargeBank AI Assistant. How can I help you?" "I'd like to know the balance of my checking account."

And then authenticate and get the balance as usual. Simpler and faster. Agreed that it becomes a problem if it's seen as a replacement for human agents though. In an ideal world it would actually free up the human agents for when they're actually needed. In reality it'll probably be some of each.

[forgetfreeman]

I'd counter with the following:

por espanol marque beep

if you have a quest beep

for beep

beep*beep*beep*beepbeep*

The account balance for account ending in NNNN is: $375.86

I shouldn't have to navigate a conversation in a situation where muscle memory will take me through the phone system decision tree in seconds.

[mystifyingpoi]

I believe that. Probably 95% of my support calls to online shops are about order status (aka: the website shows "in preparation" for a week already, I need to talk to a real person).

[mikkupikku]

I routinely call businesses instead of using their websites, but I do this to talk to a person instead of a machine.

[tempestn]

Would you call a business to ask a question that's answered on their website?

[mikkupikku]

Absolutely, routinely.

Often the relevant information is a pain to find on a website, but even if it isn't, the people who answer the phone often have important context like "Usually we do offer that recently but one of our suppliers..." or "We can do that, but maybe instead..." or "Oh the website isn't updated with..."