One of the benefits of using AI to reply is faster replies... which values a customers time.
I think that good customer service can use AI. It's not AI composed replies that makes the customer service bad.
It may burn off customer support engagement among customers who don't have the capacity or patience to keep pushing for help (this is a bad outcome for customers, but looks deceptively positive in vendor-side metrics), but for the remaining customers it just adds latency and work.
But that is true whether it is a human or an AI replying.
Proper AI can do a good job, just as proper customer support reps can.
The issue is in the overall value the company places on supporting their customers, not necessarily the means by which they do so.
But it failed to do a key step (generating a shipping label for me). I went back and forth over 21 messages trying to get it to do it. Then I wrote "escalate to a human" and an hour later someone replies with a shipping label directly.
I would much rather have had a slow but correct response than a fast but confidently-wrong response.
The chat would go like this:
- I have a question about "no vehicles in the park" policy. Does it include motorized wheelchairs?
- To guarantee safety and blablabla our policy is that no vehicles are allowed in the park.
- so can i go to the park with a wheelchair with a battery and electric engine?
- To guarantee safety and blablabla our policy is that no vehicles are allowed in the park. Please see our safety policy (link).