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The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

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Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#31

Post by Eridrus »

flax wrote: post #11

I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. That is something that AI is not giving us today. By design. Companies are not switching to AI customer service because it's better or cheaper for the same service. They are choosing to replace customer service with AI chat bots that simulate the customer service experience without act…

I dunno, I talk to the Doordash bot, it gives me a refund for the failed delivery because it didn't score me as doing fraud, I don't care there was no human involved. It's certainly an upgrade over the menu-driven approach that has no room for deviation.

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#32

Post by [deleted] »

ashishact wrote: post #14
mdorazio wrote: post #5

An AI written post talking about the importance of human connection in the age of AI is hilarious.

I had read 80% of the post and loved it. Then I came to see few comments - Saw yours and now having difficulty reading further. That means: 1. AI has gotten better - or eventually most people would like reading AI generated content 2. Author is just using AI to post-process - content is original Anyway I did love the content.

[deleted]

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#33

Post by kentm »

flax wrote: post #11

I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. That is something that AI is not giving us today. By design. Companies are not switching to AI customer service because it's better or cheaper for the same service. They are choosing to replace customer service with AI chat bots that simulate the customer service experience without act…

> I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work.

Every time a business tries to make a "connection" its really just an avenue to exploit or manipulate me. I've never had them making a connection for my benefit (i.e. take a hit to their bottom line).

I'm not asking for altruism but I am asking for them to drop the pretense and quit bullshitting me.

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#34

Post by elevaet »

ygouzerh wrote: post #22
flax wrote: post #11

I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. That is something that AI is not giving us today. By design. Companies are not switching to AI customer service because it's better or cheaper for the same service. They are choosing to replace customer service with AI chat bots that simulate the customer service experience without act…

Definitely! One exemple is Grab, in all Southeast Asia: what people like is that the app is fluid, and will get you from A to B. There is no marketing like Uber did sometimes of like: "personal service, free water bottle", and it's still killing it. Of course, I personally always enjoy a chat with the driver, but many people I know prefer actually not talking.

Or Gojek!

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#35

Post by drob518 »

kentm wrote: post #33
flax wrote: post #11

I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. That is something that AI is not giving us today. By design. Companies are not switching to AI customer service because it's better or cheaper for the same service. They are choosing to replace customer service with AI chat bots that simulate the customer service experience without act…

> I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. Every time a business tries to make a "connection" its really just an avenue to exploit or manipulate me. I've never had them making a connection for my benefit (i.e. take a hit to their bottom line). I'm not asking for altruism but I am asking for them to drop the pretense and quit…

Then they’re doing it wrong. That’s a faux “connection” that just serves the business and not you. I would bet that if you experienced true connection, you’d love it, but you’ve been scammed by fraudsters so many times that you are suspicious of anything that doesn’t feel strictly transactional.

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#36

Post by enraged_camel »

flax wrote: post #11

I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work. That is something that AI is not giving us today. By design. Companies are not switching to AI customer service because it's better or cheaper for the same service. They are choosing to replace customer service with AI chat bots that simulate the customer service experience without act…

>> I'm probably in the minority, but I do not want a "connection" with a business. I want transactional interactions that actually work.

I do want a connection. Because connection is what ensures that the transactional interactions continue to work outside of the "happy path". Connection is what ensures that you can return those expensive headphones you bought because extended use makes your neck hurt, even though the return window has passed.

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#37

Post by drob518 »

outlier99 wrote: post #15
mdorazio wrote: post #5

An AI written post talking about the importance of human connection in the age of AI is hilarious.

Yep https://www.pangram.com/history/d3fd8f73-af8a-4cdb-968e-7346...

Oops… gotta say that I agree with the general message of the article, though.

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#38

Post by smallerize »

_gmax0 wrote: post #19
LanceJones wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder how people can tell. For this particular article, was it the thirty-four occurrences of em dashes with spaces on either side? Something else obvious?

When did "X is built one marble at a time" become popular? Maybe search analytics can tell us.

Well, this isn't what I expected. (And it only goes up to 2022.) https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=one+marble+at+...

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#39

Post by majormajor »

> He called the restaurant. He was put on hold for thirty minutes. When someone finally answered, they were apologetic but firm — the restaurant was fully booked. No warmth. No conversation. Just a long wait and a closed door.

> In trying to humanise the process, he’d made it worse.

> Here’s where most stories would end with “so they moved everything online and fired the reservation staff.” That’s not what happened. They did move to online booking, but they kept the entire reservation team and repurposed them. These people now spent their days learning about the customers coming in that night. Who was celebrating a birthday? Who was on a first date? What had a regular not finished on their plate six months ago?

I have questions...

a) how does moving to online reservations help with "it's fully booked" if it's booked even before then?

b) what was "the entire reservation team" even doing that a phone call takes 30min to service and then just results in "nope we're full"?

In a lot of businesses, online reservations or tickets are scalper-prone, so I can absolutely see a desire to avoid that, and would be fully supportive of moving those things to phone or in-person. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, the story is just "He wanted the ritual of a human voice, the small exchange about an anniversary or a first date, the warmth of being recognised."

Which is plausible enough, but the details don't seem to add up. Is it even a true story? (Or is it the sort of plausible-but-internally-inconsistent thing you might get if you told an LLM to generate such a story about a restaurant?)

Re: The Competitive Moat That AI Can't Replicate

#40

Post by jameslk »

> If every company uses the same AI tools to optimise the same metrics, the optimisation itself becomes commodity. Everyone has the same chatbot, the same personalisation engine, the same churn predictor. The floor rises for everyone simultaneously, which means relative advantage disappears. The only remaining differentiator — the actual moat — becomes the irreducibly human: genuine empathy in a crisis, a person who actually cares, a brand that feels run by real people who listen.

Yes, this is what every article proclaiming AI will be the end for human jobs completely misses. Ultimately businesses must compete and things that become scarce or harder to attain, such as human connection, will become their real differentiator. Businesses are still selling to humans at the end of the day.

This article was great and provides a lot of wonderful examples of how to build high touch businesses. It reminds me a lot of Delivering Happiness by the late Tony Hsieh and his experiences building a high touch culture for Zappos to differentiate with the ecommerce businesses he was up against who all resorted to bad customer support, poor return experiences. A famous example being Tony calling into Zappos' support line pretending to be a customer ordering a pizza as a joke, and his customer support actually caring enough to ensure a pizza was delivered to him. Probably a book more relevant than ever

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