A HOT POTATO: Customer service is one of those corporate functions that consumers love to hate: long hold times, incorrect answers, and less-than-pleasant interactions are all-too-familiar issues. AI could solve all of these problems, at least in theory, and save companies money to boot. But customers hate the idea, according to a recent survey by Gartner. The main reason is that they think AI will make it much harder to reach a human agent.
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A majority (64%) of 5,728 people surveyed by Gartner in December 2023 said they would prefer companies not to use AI in their customer service. Additionally, 53% of customers hate the idea so much that they would consider switching to a competitor if they found out a company was going to use AI for customer service.
The survey is timely because customer service leaders are eager to use AI, with 60% under pressure to adopt the technology, according to Gartner senior principal Keith McIntosh.
The respondents said their top concerns were that it would become more difficult to reach a person, AI would displace jobs, and the technology would provide the wrong answers. Other fears are that their data would be less secure and AI biases would not treat customers equally.
“Many customers fear that GenAI will simply become another obstacle between them and an agent,” McIntosh said.
One solution for companies itching to try out the technology in their customer service operations is to promise customers that they will be connected to an agent in the event that the AI cannot provide an answer, McIntosh said. “It must then seamlessly transform into an agent chat that picks up where the chatbot left off.”
Consumer disapproval of AI use in customer service is unlikely to keep firms from deploying the technology as the cost savings are just too great. AI in general can automate routine tasks and inquiries, and this applies to customer service as well. To be fair to companies, AI can also be used to augment human customer service reps by providing them with answers faster than they could look up themselves.
But there are some human touches that AI simply can’t fake for customers. AI is no doubt efficient, but it struggles with responding to complex emotional situations that require human empathy. And like human reps, sometimes it just flat out gets things wrong.
One recent example is McDonald’s decision to discontinue the use of AI in some of its drive-thrus due to the errors it was making – errors that found their way onto social media.
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