It’s been about two years since generative AI exploded onto the mass market and into the boardroom buzzword lexicon. What began as a curiosity has quickly snowballed into a business necessity. It might sound hyperbolic, but those who are not exploring how AI can support their businesses are already falling behind.
But we’ve seen big tech ideas arrive, explode into the mass market and then quietly subside before. Remember when brands couldn’t launch NFTs and Metaverse activations fast enough?
Generative AI has promised similar seismic change but unlike those other technologies, it is actually here to stay. It is powerful and it is changing the way businesses operate. Is it all it’s cracked up to be though? Not yet.
What AI is doing well right now
At Euphoria, we’ve been working with AI tools for a while and their value is clear. From a productivity standpoint, it’s like having a hyper-intelligent colleague in the room. Except this one doesn’t get tired, doesn’t take smoke breaks and doesn’t recoil at the thought of sifting through hundreds of data points on a spreadsheet.
One of the biggest advantages for us has been in customer service analysis. Each day, our system generates hundreds of call transcripts which, when fed into an AI tool, allows us to identify poor tone or negative sentiment. A human, in our case our Operations Director Leonie Stanley, then reviews those flagged interactions each day and uses them as training opportunities. Without AI, reviewing those transcripts would take hours of manual work and problems would probably go undetected.
What AI does exceptionally well is make the invisible, visible. It transforms masses of data, which might be ignored or under-utilised in a business, into useful insights that can help improve operations, drive efficiency or change behaviours.
AI’s improvement areas
There are some exciting generative AI use cases that are emerging but still need maturing. Voice agents, for instance, are improving rapidly and are capable of handling everything from ordering a pizza to directing calls. But there are aspects of the tech that aren’t perfectly seamless yet, like the way even a one second delay between responses feels awkward to the human ear. Maybe it’s because the human brain craves connection, and in an emotionally charged interaction, that delay is a reminder that you’re speaking to an AI agent simulating empathy rather than a human being actually feeling it.
I don’t believe they’ll ever fully replace the need for humans, but in scenarios where there is a choice between an AI agent and no help at all, AI agents can make a big difference.
In call centres, we’re seeing some businesses using AI agents to handle overflow calls and basic triage. This works, because it’s an effective stopgap which removes the frustration that would come from long wait times.
There’s also a strong use case for AI agents in owner-run and small businesses where they just don’t have the human resources to do it all. If they’re missing calls and not getting to customers, an AI agent provides service where previously there was none. That’s a win-win for both the business and the customer and I’m excited to see how small business use of generative AI develops.
The future of generative AI
Generative AI tools are developing rapidly and they’re starting to be integrated everywhere from coding to virtual receptionists. In five years, the technology might be able to do almost anything. But that doesn’t mean it should.
We’re on the brink of changes that will be more profound than the Industrial Revolution and now is the time where we need to decide what we want AI to do, and what we want to preserve for humans.
There is growing evidence that rather than connecting humans, technology is making us lonelier. AI should make us more human, not less. That means handing over the grunt work to the AI, while protecting the value that comes from connection, intuition and creativity.
It’s a thin line to walk but if we want both humanity and generative AI to succeed, we need to embrace technology while always putting people first.
Article written by Warren Hawkins, Managing Director, Euphoria Telecom
