I appear to be waging a one-woman ’See Something, Say Something’ campaign where I write to companies to register my displeasure when they use AI to enshittify customer service.
-
@CiaraNi What kills me is the loss of confidence. I can never be 100% certain the answers I get are correct. Yes, I know humans make mistakes too but humans will always agree to double check with a colleague or supervisor when you ask.
@psneeze This bothers me too. So much AI-generated misinformation about everything from bus routes to what an insurance policy covers.
-
@CiaraNi I use WordPress.
@CiaraNi Even worse: I'm a Democrat.
-
@psneeze This bothers me too. So much AI-generated misinformation about everything from bus routes to what an insurance policy covers.
@CiaraNi Zakly. Then you hear the hoors talk about "when AI is rolled out in medicine".
-
I appear to be waging a one-woman ’See Something, Say Something’ campaign where I write to companies to register my displeasure when they use AI to enshittify customer service. And when their app is only available to Google & Apple customers. Their AI wastes my time with useless ’customer service’. I take time to word constructive customer feedback. Their AI reads it. I spend time reading a useless AI reply. AI increases productivity my bollix. What a waste of human time.
@CiaraNi i did the same recently to a sports training app. They infused it with AI and it no longer worked well. So I left and told them why. And then I was surprised, lots of others did too. All their recent reviews on Google Play Store say the same, which made me take heart: others feel the same
-
@CiaraNi No, seriously - research has shown repeatedly that customers who have a complaint & feel acknowledged by customer service are significantly more likely to shop again, *even if their problem wasn't solved!*
In other words, having bad customer service was already counterproductive to business & they're just making it so much worse with AI .
And yet despite this kind of idiocy, people are still taught at business school that business rationally optimizes itself for profit & growth...
@jwcph Great point. It's a positive experience to just be taken seriously as a customer, to have a problem handled competently without time-wasting. I absolutely have had that experience myself - genuinely praising a company because their staff quickly and happily fixed a serious error the company itself had made. If they'd dragged their feet or thrown AI at the problem, I would have had an entirely different attitude afterwards.
-
@CiaraNi Zakly. Then you hear the hoors talk about "when AI is rolled out in medicine".
@CiaraNi And here's another thing: I am convinced Googles has deliberately broken normal search to forced us onto their AI shite.
-
@CiaraNi Even worse: I'm a Democrat.
@dannyman Haha - well thank Odin for that, I'd be worried if you were one of that other lot over there
-
@CiaraNi I use WordPress.
@dannyman I have never blogged, but I have a fondness for WordPress because when I first started following a few blogs in the early days of book blogs, they were always WordPress blogs. So I have a nice association there.
-
@CiaraNi another cool thing you could do is to give a shout out to your insurance company over here so that other people know that it's a good company to work with.
@dannyman I'll take my chances here in the heart of the reply thread and say: the insurance company is Gjensidige Forsikring. Norwegian, with a Danish subsidiary. I have never heard anything unethical about them. I sent a mail to them today, praising them for customer service and for their competent staff. And for instant human accessibility without an AI barrier at the start.
-
@CiaraNi @kimlockhartga @RealGene try the fried gummy bears. It's a crispy-chewy match made in heaven. Big hit at the county fair.
@Nead @kimlockhartga @RealGene Fried gummy bears. And I thought deep-fried Mars Bars were the final frontier.
-
@CiaraNi Had that experience with AAA when I had a flat tire.
@MakeAppPie That's awful. Exactly the kind of situation where you need help quickly and efficiently. It's also a simple, standard, You Have One Job task to solve for the customer - it's bananas to make it complicated for all human parties through unncessary AI.
-
@CiaraNi @JD_Cunningham Trust me: we like happy customers! They make me smile.
@SorenMRiis @JD_Cunningham I do really hope that our little individual emails of praise do get through to the right people at the company at a strategic level, and that they also praise the staff involved.
-
@CiaraNi we have it the other way around - the company I work for doesn't use AI (yet) but the clients all do. We provide support and consultancy for their websites but daily now have to wade through ai slop sent in by the client's to put on their webpages and blogs. It's awful - dull, mind numbingly repetitive, just lists, nothing thoughtful or original. I feel so utterly depressed by it all.
@webidebi Oh that's awful. Soul-destroying. Society-destroying, the way we're going. I am hearing this more and more often from people in different jobs and industries. Customers and contacts sending in slop, sending 20-page AI-generated mails with lots of irrelevant questions even for a simple query. Such a waste of everyone's time. Utterly depressed - yes, that resonates, I feel that way too.
-
@CiaraNi Zakly. Then you hear the hoors talk about "when AI is rolled out in medicine".
@psneeze It's both depressing and terrifying.
-
@psneeze It's both depressing and terrifying.
@CiaraNi Very and very.
-
@CiaraNi i did the same recently to a sports training app. They infused it with AI and it no longer worked well. So I left and told them why. And then I was surprised, lots of others did too. All their recent reviews on Google Play Store say the same, which made me take heart: others feel the same
@ronanmcd Ah, this is good to know. I have been feeling very Skibereen Eagle-ish, writing my little mails of complaint to the AI-wielding companies. I am comforted to hear there are quite a few of us. The more the merrier, if we're to have any chance of getting companies to notice, let alone listen.
-
@webidebi Oh that's awful. Soul-destroying. Society-destroying, the way we're going. I am hearing this more and more often from people in different jobs and industries. Customers and contacts sending in slop, sending 20-page AI-generated mails with lots of irrelevant questions even for a simple query. Such a waste of everyone's time. Utterly depressed - yes, that resonates, I feel that way too.
@CiaraNi yes we get those too, an absolute waste of time! ....And at such a cost to the planet!
-
@CiaraNi And here's another thing: I am convinced Googles has deliberately broken normal search to forced us onto their AI shite.
@psneeze That sounds extremely likely and greed-driven.
-
@psneeze That sounds extremely likely and greed-driven.
@CiaraNi We know they deliberately broke it to sell more ads. The theory was if you got the wrong results first time you'd search again with slightly different terms. This way they doubled the ads you saw.
-
@CiaraNi yes we get those too, an absolute waste of time! ....And at such a cost to the planet!
@webidebi Yes! Even if AI were efficient and accurate and the best thing since the bee's knees and the cat's pyjamas and sliced bread, it's still unethical and an environmental catastrophe.
