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When Google introduced Google Duplex, its AI assistant designed to speak like a human, the company showed how the average person could use technology to save time booking and whatnot.
What has not been addressed, it is the possibility that Duplex can have a use on the other side of the line, taking over the employees of the call centers. and telemarketers.
A report from The Information suggests that Google could make a room to find other apps for its human-sounding assistant and has already begun experimenting with ways to use Duplex for coping with the roles currently played by humans
Citing a person familiar with Google's plans, The Information indicates that the company is already in conversation with at least one potential customer who would like to integrate Duplex into its operations. This firm, a large unnamed insurance company, would be interested in using the voice assistant to handle simple and simple calls to customer service.
If Google can find its way into the business of automated phone calls for businesses, it could fight its way into a massive profit center. Research firm ResearchAndMarkets predicts that the cloud-based customer call center market will reach about US $ 21 billion (US $ 28 billion) by 2022, compared to US $ 6.8 billion (US $ 9 billion). dollars) in 2017.
As is the competition, and Google is not the only major technology company that sees the opportunity to enter the call centers.
Last year, Amazon started selling a version of its very popular Alexa voice assistant specifically designed to answer phone and text questions. Companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Cisco have also already gained a foothold in this business, The Information .
While there may be significant profits waiting for these companies as conquered call centers, they come with a cost: humans will inevitably be jostled for jobs. Most companies are already outsourcing work in countries where they can pay paltry wages to reduce customer service costs, and AI would probably reduce those costs even more.
It would be devastating for a nation like the Philippines, which has 1.2 million workers in call centers according to The Wall Street Journal .
Historically, one of the biggest hurdles in eliminating the human aspect of customer interactions is the fact that AI is a little too difficult to manage. A survey conducted in 2015 by Boston University found that the vast majority of people – 90 percent of those surveyed – appeal to customer service in the hope of talking with a human. About eight out of ten people said they accelerated the automated portion with the intention of talking to a person, and only 10% said they were satisfied with so-called "interactive voice response systems."
Google Duplex could have a problem solution by making automated interactions less robotic and more realistic. Google seduced people with its Duplex demo that included the AI wizard inserting "um" and "uh" sounds to make the conversation smoother.
This can also have a completely opposite effect on people. Some people have found the scary Duplex demo as hell and worried about the ethical concerns of AI seeming to basically pretend people by claiming to be human.
Backlash finally made Google promise that Duplex will tell people that they are talking with AI, but the company still has a way to fix it to relieve everyone's worries.
This seems to be a blockage for Google's efforts. call center activity, as well. According to The Information "ethical concerns" overshadowed Google's demonstration of Duplex technology, and the company interested in the assistant hampered the proposed project.
[The Information]
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