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If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#41

Post by beeboobaa3 »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #28
FL410 wrote: post #12

The general trend of insulating the human customer away from human customer service is just a horrible thing that keeps spreading. It was bad enough outsourcing customer support to overseas agents who have their hands tied to only read from a script and generally do nothing, and now we're just talking to computers that can generally do nothing. The message is the same: we don't actually care about our customers. I ow…

It's rather simple. If you don't pay enough money for a product that would sustain good customer service, you won't get it. Especially if you pay nothing and the product business model is ad-based. If you pay enough money, you usually can get good customer service, but you might pay a lot.

Yeah, that's how it is now. Didn't used to be that way. But think of the shareholders, we must maximize profits at all costs!

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#42

Post by beeboobaa3 »

uniclaude wrote: post #36
FL410 wrote: post #12

The general trend of insulating the human customer away from human customer service is just a horrible thing that keeps spreading. It was bad enough outsourcing customer support to overseas agents who have their hands tied to only read from a script and generally do nothing, and now we're just talking to computers that can generally do nothing. The message is the same: we don't actually care about our customers. I ow…

Customers are generally not willing to pay for trained cs reps that could actually be helpful. As far as startups are concerned VCs would therefore not like you to use their dollars to pay cs reps when an LLM could do the job in their eyes. I agree with the sentiment of TFA but I think this is a battle that we have no chance of winning at scale. Very similarly to hoping for an ad-free web.

LLM support bots have literally never been helpful, their only purpose is to save costs and to drive you away

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#43

Post by snakeyjake »

UrineSqueegee wrote: post #21

Is this thread comprised from bots or just plain ignorance? AI Chatbots have been outperforming human agents in every category imaginable. Why wouldn't you want to talk to an AI agent until it can't help you and routes you to a human? Human wait times have always been insane, upwards of 30 minutes for any service i've used, why not just talk to an AI NOW until a human can come online?

> why not just talk to an AI NOW until a human can come online?

There is no difference between talking to an AI and getting nothing accomplished and just waiting on hold and getting nothing accomplished.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#44

Post by godsinhisheaven »

breezeTrowel wrote: post #19
godsinhisheaven wrote: post #15

The thing is, he was having trouble with his WiFi. He, like most computer scientists, is dedicated to the True Name of Things, which I can respect, but also, in this day and age, WiFi == Internet. I know it literally doesn't, but the uh, vector embedding, for WiFi and internet? Very similar.

He wasn't having trouble with his WiFi since he was connected directly to the device. Although it might have helped to specify an Ethernet link. Still, chatbots are generally a terrible user experience.

Totally agree with you on chatbots, but you just committed the same "sin" as him! To most people, and probably to that chatbot, WiFi == Internet == Ethernet. Actually, I doubt specifying Ethernet would have helped him at all. When it asked him if he was having trouble with his WiFi, he should have just said yes, and then "spammed 0" if that didn't help. Or maybe he should have just immediately started spamming 0. Now that I think about, for anything more technical than unplugging the device, you should probably start with asking for a human.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#45

Post by viraptor »

tarruda wrote: post #22

Would be good if companies using AI chatbots had some sort of technical quiz to filter technical from non-technical customers. If they pass the quiz, assume the user knows what they're talking about and that the problem won't be solved by router/WiFi restart (or whatever simple solution they have in the book). Instead just connect directly to specialized technical support.

Shibboleth https://xkcd.com/806/

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#46

Post by 8b16380d »

mattpavelle wrote: post #27
FL410 wrote: post #12

The general trend of insulating the human customer away from human customer service is just a horrible thing that keeps spreading. It was bad enough outsourcing customer support to overseas agents who have their hands tied to only read from a script and generally do nothing, and now we're just talking to computers that can generally do nothing. The message is the same: we don't actually care about our customers. I ow…

I remember in the early days of the web people said similar things about online shopping. The LL Bean catalog had more photos in higher resolution than their early e-commerce website, and you would call a phone number and talk to a person who knew the clothing in order to purchase from the catalog. No one would want to buy on a website… We are in the beginning days here. I expect chatbot advances to similarly start w…

Well, the bar is pretty low so I suppose you’re right.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#47

Post by kcatskcolbdi »

UrineSqueegee wrote: post #21

Is this thread comprised from bots or just plain ignorance? AI Chatbots have been outperforming human agents in every category imaginable. Why wouldn't you want to talk to an AI agent until it can't help you and routes you to a human? Human wait times have always been insane, upwards of 30 minutes for any service i've used, why not just talk to an AI NOW until a human can come online?

>AI Chatbots have been outperforming human agents in every category imaginable.

Would love to see a source for this claim.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#48

Post by zarathustreal »

FL410 wrote: post #12

The general trend of insulating the human customer away from human customer service is just a horrible thing that keeps spreading. It was bad enough outsourcing customer support to overseas agents who have their hands tied to only read from a script and generally do nothing, and now we're just talking to computers that can generally do nothing. The message is the same: we don't actually care about our customers. I ow…

This is easy to say as a consumer but on the other side of it you’ve got to realize, most people are not like your average HNer. In my experience, customers are unwilling to dedicate even 60 seconds to reading documentation, FAQs, bright blinking banners, etc. The majority of “customer support” is answering questions and solving problems that have extremely simple answers and very obvious and well-documented solutions. It’s not something you want to spend money on, it’s usually worth it to throw an LLM at them and let go the ones that refuse to read. Even on the employee side, no one wants to be on calls all day dealing with people that are intentionally ignorant, it’s rage-inducing.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#49

Post by mewpmewp2 »

xg15 wrote: post #39
uniclaude wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Customers are generally not willing to pay for trained cs reps that could actually be helpful. As far as startups are concerned VCs would therefore not like you to use their dollars to pay cs reps when an LLM could do the job in their eyes. I agree with the sentiment of TFA but I think this is a battle that we have no chance of winning at scale. Very similarly to hoping for an ad-free web.

> Customers are generally not willing to pay for trained cs reps that could actually be helpful. Has any business actually tried?

Average people would switch to a $10/month service instead of $12/month. For internet, mobile plans, people in all sorts of circles brag about what a deal they were able to get with a service provider by haggling. Even when it's a $2 monthly difference. They are proud about their negotiation skills and how they pitted the service providers against each other to make the lowest bid.

Maybe once after they have received unsatisfactory customer support, they would consider switching, but passionate, skilled, caring and creative customer support would cost far, far more than that. Even if you employ enough customer support to provide a human out of the gate for everyone, you would only get people following the same script as the basic chatbot would. People and especially creative people wouldn't stay at this job for long, dealing with entitled customers. In most cases, it's mostly a thankless, dead end job that will get to your mental health.

Re: If AI chatbots are the future, I hate it

#50

Post by bux93 »

FL410 wrote: post #12

The general trend of insulating the human customer away from human customer service is just a horrible thing that keeps spreading. It was bad enough outsourcing customer support to overseas agents who have their hands tied to only read from a script and generally do nothing, and now we're just talking to computers that can generally do nothing. The message is the same: we don't actually care about our customers. I ow…

The general trend is towards customer contact that does not have any agency. At least if you're connected to an AI, you can feel less guilty about hating their guts.
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