Will Artificial Intelligence Help Or Hurt Customer Interaction?

Artificial intelligence can write poetry. Police forces are utilizing it to help forecast where crime may occur. Doctors can use it to help determine if a patient is going to have a stroke or a heart attack. And autonomous vehicles are getting closer to solidifying themselves as an everyday reality on many main streets across the world. But as the advancements in AI continue to grow, it seems that people’s skepticism of their abilities and advantages do, too.

Though the public consciousness does seem to be quite skeptical of AI, a staggering 66% of high-level IT decision makersview the willful neglect to adopt more AI into business models will result in customer loss and a lack of competitiveness. But in a world that has been saturated with doomsday AI films like Terminator and I, Robot, is it all that surprising that so many lay people find themselves skeptical of AI? The questions become whether or not these concerns, both of the integration of AI into modern society and the fear of a lack of it, are indeed grounded? Let’s take a look.

AI and Business

The argument for AI in the workplace is actually due to a desire to see businesses personalize their services to customers more than they are currently doing, as opposed to the skeptical claim that it derives out of a strict want to move to an entirely automated service. Leading IT directors are positing that, unless businesses can incorporate AI to enhance and tailor-fit user experience, a company may suffer because of it. For instance, businesses can use AI to determine what a visitor on a website may want to see (i.e., advertisements, product offerings), which may even result in a more personalized and user-friendly experience.

The question comes down to how personalized the AI is that a business is utilizing. Afterall, the service is only as personal as the programmers develop it to be, so the responsibility for a personalized customer experience falls back on the programmer, and in a broader sense, back on the human-beings programming AI.

Possible Solutions

For advocates of increased integration of AI, one possible solution to remedy the general public’s hesitation would be to release more information on the logistics of AI. People are often fearful of what they don’t understand, and the uncanny designs of many AI robotic systems, coupled with the immense power that can come from machine development, simply does not help to enforce a positive image of AI into the minds of many. Understanding that AI may be able to provide a friendlier, satisfying and more personalized user experience may help many to open their minds to the benefits of limited automation.

The truth is, no one is sure yet if a lack of AI will hurt or help a specific business as of yet. But in a culture that sees consumers increasingly wanting products that are better and faster, utilizing AI may be the only viable option in delivering at least the facade of a personal and efficient experience.