I began life in a house that did not have electricity, indoor plumbing or telephones, but by the time I was 5 years old all of those were installed and people knew how to use them. I tell you this because I want to point out how fast, and how much, life has changed over just my lifetime, and how much faster it is changing now.
And I want to comment on the nature of that change. So, stay with me because it may take me a minute, but I really do have a point to make here.
I am at a coffee shop in Tempe, Arizona reading a marketing and customer service white paper on “Getting personal…”, and I hope we all agree that sounds like a good thing, right? Don’t we all want to deal with companies, and professionals that we like, that consider what we really need, and actually care about us?
The article goes to great length to point out the “gold standard” of the customer experience is personal contact on a “one-on-one” basis, and I agree with that! But then they go on to develop how best to utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to essentially simulate the personal experience. And how do you really make the experience “seem” personal? By collecting and tracking people’s data online, know their likes and dislikes, and then digitally customize your contact with them!
Am I the only old curmudgeon still living that sees some problems with that?
Well, consider this. When I got my first job in insurance, I was going to people’s homes to sell them life insurance. And I did not like the process, but it was entry level for most people who started when I did, and I learned a lot about people, and myself, in those years. At a morning sales meeting I discussed listening to a long story about a family’s horrible last two years, and why they needed the life insurance that they purchased from me that evening. Our manager stopped me and said to all of the salespeople “See, you need to make them think you actually care.” I left that agency a few weeks later because we disagreed when I said, “No, you really do need to care!”
So, what is my point here today? There is always the real thing, and then there are a lot of things that look real but are imitations. Imitations are usually cheaper and easier but often fail to produce when you really need them. And isn’t that what you’re looking for, something that does the job when you really need it? Somebody who listened and actually understood and helped you?
Artificial Intelligence is exactly that – Artificial! Is this really how you want to protect those you love; let alone all the stuff you own and rely on?
I recently made the colossal mistake of trying to call the post office. I am not a denigrator of the post office, I am a fan, because in reality they statistically rarely make a mistake, and they deal with a mind-numbing amount of mail. But – have you ever tried to actually call them? They use an AI platform that pretty much guarantees you will not get anybody on the phone. When I went physically into the post office, I met a real person who was very helpful, but the AI system gave me a very bad impression of the system before I met that person.
And then there is almost any really big internet-based company (ever try to call Microsoft or Nuance?). I have been told “We really cannot take all the service and complaint calls we might get, so we screen them out with the AI process.” How about producing a reliable product so you get less calls?
“Hey Bill, are you ever going to get back to where you grew up and why that was relevant?”
Ok, here we go.
AI has a value, especially in ordering car parts, or locating a group of similar restaurants or auto repair shops. And technology improves products and has extended human life expectancy. Getting indoor water delivery, electricity, and a telephone changed life as we knew it when I was a child. Mobil phones and computers have opened access to the whole world for most people. But as AI progresses what is missing from this rush to less actual human connections?
Human interaction, and appreciation of the beauty and power of the human mind are being left behind. AI can make you “think” somebody cares but in reality, it is a cold representation of human caring. And worse, it tracks how you react and then creates programming to react to you.
A psychologist I know mentioned how many people use computer mapping to get where they go. They had asked a patient why they rely on the cellphone maps. The answer was “Because then I don’t have to think!”
And there is the tragedy! People are willing to abrogate not only their freedom but their very ability to think, and be human, to AI and a computerized process.
We are Focus Benefits Group, and we answer the phone, listen to real people and we know the difference between real insurance and an imitation.