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Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

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Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#71

Post by rcme »

ghaff wrote: post #44
gnufied wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same goes for almost all grocery shops here - Publix, Kroger, target etc replacing checkout with self-checkout kiosks completely. I absolute hate using self-checkout for non-packaged groceries items. Especially if I have lots of stuff. Freaking "unintended item in baggage area". Not to mention, I feel like Publix etc in particular employed lots of folks with disability. It warmed my heart to talk to them. I don't kno…

Grocery stores and others absolutely still need cashier checkout. If I have a handful of items I can barcode swipe and even a couple pieces of produce that's fine. But they simply aren't designed for a full shopping cart which includes a ton of non-barcoded items. Ditto with home repair stores. Scan a new smoke detector? Sure. Check out a bunch of lumber etc. That would be no. In my experience, most stores are findin…

Order groceries online. It's much more convenient for large orders.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#72

Post by gremlinsinc »

graypegg wrote: post #19
muskmusk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Have you ever sat in a customer service chat with someone who wasn't very helpful and very slow sat the same time? There were probably handling several other chats at the same time. Why shouldn't we replace those interactions with an AI that is fast and infinitely patient and friendly? I am willing to be convinced otherwise, but I don't see how fighting technological progress that is net positive for almost ever…

I'm curious to see how empowered the LLM customer service of the future is. Are they going to be allowed to process refunds? People will find out how to convince the LLM you do meet the requirements for a refund. And if you check the requirements using something deterministic (last order was within last 2 weeks, customer has a high loyalty points score, they're subscribed to some premium service) then why do you need…

the money saved in employee wages more than makes up for any refund fraud.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#73

Post by xp84 »

davb wrote: post #15
atmosx wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because up to this point my experience with automated systems in banks, phone companies and web services companies has been awful even for trivial requests. Until shit improves, I will be bashing on those and prefer companies that allow me to get human interaction asap.

Agreed. And chatbots also leave no room for discretionary exemptions. My headset microphone broke recently (after the warranty period) - emailing the company and asking if there was any way I could buy a new one netted me a free replacement and a nice note from a real person. I’m 100% convinced that a chatbot would have told me that based on the serial number my headset was out of warranty and ended the chat.

This is a shallow reading of what a “bot” could be capable of. Whoever is running customer service at that company has obviously decided that for certain situations people should be entitled to courtesy replacements. That decision was not contingent on who is taking the calls. When that person makes the decision to shift some/all workload to chatbots, he, or she could easily teach the bots what types of courtesy repairs or replacements should be considered, and the criteria they should meet.

For instance, in your case, the rep probably knew that the part cost a couple bucks and the postage cost a buck or two, so a three dollar expense was deemed well worth it for goodwill.

This is the kind of thing that a bot would be just as good at, and it’s also a thing that does not automatically happen just because the agents are humans. Some companies would fire the human rep for giving you that freebie.

Honestly, the real reason why bots will be a good thing is that 3/4 of customer service calls come from confused people who really just need handholding. Setting the jobs issue aside, which is going to be a much bigger question across humanity, eventually I’d like to see bots handle that 3/4 of calls. Half the customer service staff could be retained and deployed exclusively to handle the issues actually worth their time.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#74

Post by sokoloff »

carapace wrote: post #20
ghaff wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're wealthy enough to delegate it to an assistant, I'm sure that's really hard for anything that doesn't involve going to a local store or service. (Or, again, personal advisors of various types but again we're talking lots of money involved.) ADDED: And the fact that going through online travel/hotel/airline sites is mostly easier (and cheaper) than dealing with most travel agents used to be. Until somethi…

> that's really hard for anything that doesn't involve going to a local store or service. Is that such a bad thing? FWIW it used to be that you could pick up the phone, dial '0', and talk to an operator , a real human being with significant power over the system they operated. When the phone companies got rid of human operators: that was the beginning of the end of ...something?

You used to be able to go into elevators and tell the attendant what floor you were going to, or have the ice delivery service figure out how much you needed for the next day as well. The current situation is a significant improvement, IMO.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#75

Post by Dylan16807 »

ghaff wrote: post #44
gnufied wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same goes for almost all grocery shops here - Publix, Kroger, target etc replacing checkout with self-checkout kiosks completely. I absolute hate using self-checkout for non-packaged groceries items. Especially if I have lots of stuff. Freaking "unintended item in baggage area". Not to mention, I feel like Publix etc in particular employed lots of folks with disability. It warmed my heart to talk to them. I don't kno…

Grocery stores and others absolutely still need cashier checkout. If I have a handful of items I can barcode swipe and even a couple pieces of produce that's fine. But they simply aren't designed for a full shopping cart which includes a ton of non-barcoded items. Ditto with home repair stores. Scan a new smoke detector? Sure. Check out a bunch of lumber etc. That would be no. In my experience, most stores are findin…

> But they simply aren't designed for a full shopping cart which includes a ton of non-barcoded items.

Huh. Everything at my grocery store either has a barcode or is produce that needs to be weighed, so there's no speed advantage for a cashier.

And they've gone through different sizes of self-checkout, some of which actually had more room than the cashier checkouts.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#77

Post by krainboltgreene »

BigBalli wrote: post #56

I don't understand why everyone (excluding people who were replaced) is so "outraged".

Because people want to work and there's money to pay them to work and the "AI" shit is dramatically worse. This is a net negative for everyone except the shareholders and even then that's only in the short term! If you saw someone shooting up in an alley with a smile on their face, you wouldn't be upset with others who are concerned with that person's future. Why do you care here?

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#78

Post by krainboltgreene »

indy wrote: post #64
BigBalli wrote: post #56

I don't understand why everyone (excluding people who were replaced) is so "outraged".

Exactly, almost everyone who reads Hacker News have built their careers on technological progress. Outrage now that it's coming after their jobs just rings hollow.

I built careers on making labour easier, I want the result of that labour to benefit the workers, not the exceptionally short term vision of shareholders.

Just because you can't understand why this affects your future doesn't mean it's hollow outrage.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#79

Post by techsupporter »

ghaff wrote: post #44
gnufied wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same goes for almost all grocery shops here - Publix, Kroger, target etc replacing checkout with self-checkout kiosks completely. I absolute hate using self-checkout for non-packaged groceries items. Especially if I have lots of stuff. Freaking "unintended item in baggage area". Not to mention, I feel like Publix etc in particular employed lots of folks with disability. It warmed my heart to talk to them. I don't kno…

Grocery stores and others absolutely still need cashier checkout. If I have a handful of items I can barcode swipe and even a couple pieces of produce that's fine. But they simply aren't designed for a full shopping cart which includes a ton of non-barcoded items. Ditto with home repair stores. Scan a new smoke detector? Sure. Check out a bunch of lumber etc. That would be no. In my experience, most stores are findin…

> In my experience, most stores are finding a reasonable balance.

I hope you're right but this hasn't been the case at the grocery stores around me. QFC (a Kroger-owned brand in the Pacific Northwest) has, at least at two I usually frequent, stopped staffing checklanes after 8 or 9pm. It's self-checkout only. These are at stores that have a lot of signage advertising that "summer hours are here, all locations open until 1am!"

I normally shop around 9 or 10pm and there has historically been at least a "push this button to ask someone to come to the in-person method". Much as I like self-checkout, I don't like doing it with a full cart of groceries. Both recent times, I was told rather bluntly that a full cart was my problem.

With service like that, I'd rather just go to the Amazon spyware grocery store. At least I can put everything in a bag myself and they're open until 11pm.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#80

Post by cdot2 »

littlestymaar wrote: post #53
kwanbix wrote: post #30

I wonder if all company owners just fire everyone and replace them with AI, who will pay for their products and services?

They already tried by not raising inflation-adjusted wages for 50 years, and the solution to that problem was: lower the interest rate and push people to borrow to consume.

Inflation adjusted income has risen pretty consistently. The stat people sometimes cite for that is household income which has more to do with changes in average household size rather than changes in wages
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