Generative AI at work – everything is getting better

Generative AI at work – everything is getting better

San Francisco, October 4, 2023

As companies increasingly use AI chatbots for customer service, the question arises as to whether this, if it becomes widespread worldwide, will not destroy millions of jobs.

Some Asian countries are currently most affected. We learn that companies in India are experimenting with replacing customer service and call center agents with voice models.

In the Philippines, Senator Imee Marcos called for an investigation into technology-induced workforce displacement, particularly in the outsourcing sector.

Virginia L. Doellgast, a professor of industrial relations at Cornell University, tries to allay fears by arguing that technology won’t make call center work harder because AI chatbots will solve simpler customer service problems and leave more complex problems to humans.

The new study by MIT and Stanford researchers can be cited as the trigger for this discussion, which is affecting more and more countries. They found that customer service agents in a call center increased their productivity by 14% when they had access to an AI conversation assistant. Over the course of a year, researchers found that agents using the tool solved 13.8% more problems per hour.

What probably surprised the scientists most was this result: the least qualified people benefited the most, completing their work 35% faster using the tool.

The authors summarize the essence of their research, entitled “Generative AI at Work,” as follows: “We provide compelling evidence that the AI model spreads the potentially tacit knowledge of more capable workers and helps newer workers move down the experience curve to get. Additionally, we show that AI support improves customer sentiment, reduces demand for management intervention, and improves employee retention.”

Hits: 6