Surface Ripples

Customer Concerns Over AI

We may as well face it, artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay - for better or worse.

 A recent survey by the Qualtrix XM Institute looked at the consumer concerns among 28,400 consumers w across 26 countries with organisations that had adopted AI. 

These concerns related to:

• Lack of human connection
• Job losses
• Poor quality of interactions
• Potential misuse of personal data.
• Potential extra effort required when dealing with AI
• Reliability of information provided

 What was particularly interesting for me in this survey was that in none of the cases above did concerns exceeded 50%.  In other words, either people were accepting that AI was here to stay, or they did have concerns but maybe felt they could be overcome.

At present, general feeling is that AI will replace repetitive, procedural type tasks.  Where, however, a “human interface" is required, we will continue to deal with humans.

Personally, I’ve seen the results of “chat bots” being used to provide so-called “Live chat services”.  My gut feel is that these bots aren’t capable (yet) of distinguishing whether a human being needs to be brought into the equation or not.   They simply follow a list of questions and answers and, if your problem doesn’t fit into the correct pattern, suggest that you call the organisation.  Somewhat self-defeating…

Of interest also was that less than 30% felt that information provided could not be relied on.  Does this mean that they’re comfortable with general levels of technology or that experience has shown that information is indeed reliable?

The three concerns rating 45 or 44% related to job losses, quality of interactions and misuse of personal data.  A gain the fact that these were under 50% may or may not indicate that there is a relatively high degree of confidence in quality of interaction and data protection, but I would suggest that things could be improved.

In all, the survey suggests that it’s too early to be complacent with regards to the adoption of AI.  There will no doubt be a “teething period” as organisations get to grips with how best to exploit this new technology and how to train it for their particular function.

Suffice to say, AI language programmers will be in high demand for the foreseeable future.

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  

Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Selling, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 09:18