AI assistants are replacing people: why companies are returning to real operators.

Customer service and artificial intelligence

According to Vox: Recently, I had an unexpectedly positive experience interacting with customer support. I sent an email, received a quick response, and got my money back. The most interesting thing was that I couldn't understand whether there was a person involved in this process other than me.

This made me wonder: are the prophecies about the use of artificial intelligence in customer service starting to come true? AI really simplifies the complaint submission process in companies and helps achieve desired outcomes. At least, that's what I wanted to believe.

Customer support has become one of those areas where artificial intelligence can really be useful. One of my positive interactions happened thanks to the company Intercom, which uses AI to handle customer inquiries. So why don't all inquiries go through artificial intelligence?

“I'm sure many current workers who do customer support over the phone or computer will lose their jobs, and it will be done better with artificial intelligence,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Altman is not the only one in Silicon Valley advocating for the automation of support services. Last year, Salesforce cut 4,000 jobs in this field in favor of AI tools, while Verizon launched a Google Gemini-based chatbot for customer service. The enterprise Klarna also boasted about how it replaced people with AI but later changed course and started recruiting new agents for support.

Challenges of automation

However, as it turns out, artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, handles simple tasks but cannot cope with complex situations, especially when customers are unhappy and need human empathy. As the protagonist of the movie Anchorman said, “Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.”

Customer support workers have been losing jobs for years due to the implementation of artificial intelligence, both in the US and abroad. Many companies have introduced AI chatbots as the first point of contact for customers, only to realize that consumers do not like this concept. As a result, they are scaling back automation, as Brad Feiger, research director at Gartner, explains.

“The idea of replacing your workforce is actually unfeasible and even unacceptable,” Feiger noted. “The reality is that it just doesn't work.”

Research shows that customers prefer not to deal with AI. One of Gartner's surveys found that 61% of customers prefer companies not to use AI for service at all, and 53% are willing to switch to a competitor if faced with the use of artificial intelligence.

Positive service experience

When contacting Intercom, the company that developed the software, I learned that my issue was resolved by an AI agent. There were no phone trees or struggling with chatbots to reach a person. The AI agent logged my complaint, offered a solution in a human style – even with emojis in the right context – and closed the case before I could get frustrated.

However, it would not be entirely accurate to claim that customer service is finally becoming better due to artificial intelligence. As Koontz and Feiger note, many companies are implementing AI incorrectly.

“You don’t want to wait,” Trainer, co-founder and chief strategist at Intercom, said. “People just want instantaneous problem resolution, and that’s what AI offers.”

Trainer noted that AI has opened a new era of software that has made people question whether it works. As a result, his company has “invested a huge amount of time in developing the AI evaluation engine” and tests every version to ensure AI does not make mistakes.

It is now evident that a transformation is taking place. There are signs that submitting complaints is becoming easier, but there is also clear evidence that many companies will continue to complicate this process even if they strive to simplify it. Artificial intelligence can help improve service quality, but only if it doesn't make things worse first.