A.I. Phone Helplines

 I recently had my first clash with the imbecile known as Artificial Intelligence in quite a while .....

A.I. At Work - Limited Options

This time it was first an unsatisfactory set of web options, then an automated call handling system for Vodaphone UK.

My Question: 'Why was my bank App showing a DD deduction for an amount greater than my contract amount?'  ...... I tried billing ... but as you can see above, just three possible Q and A's selectable, and none relevant.  

Searched Vodaphone For Charges

So I tried 'charges' .... promising choices. So I selected 'What am I being charged for?'

What Am I Being Charged For?

Not entirely enlightening ... the odd charge had been taken, but no bill, and in any event I might still need help. So what about TOBI the A.I.?

TOBI Chat

Some strange English "Our chatbot, TOBY, will help you with any quest your bill and is ready to chat if you need more!"  .... I was particularly struck by "with any quest your bill" ... I assume that should read 'with any request about your bill,' or 'with any question about your bill,' but suggests that this A.I. was developed abroad, but never reviewed before deployment.

However, dodgy semantics aside, the security checks issue meant that obviously, this was now going to be a web sign-in to my account, although via TOBI (as opposed to me just logging in, and opening the latest bill) - but as I am not actually registered as a web customer (its only broadband after all), this was going to be another little saga .... for what after all was a very simple question.

So I thought I would ring .... but despite entering my land line number when requested (I only have broadband), it just kept telling me that it was sorry but 'couldn't see any entry' ..... Grrr .... So frustrated by what passes for 'intelligence' in the computing world, I opted to make a complaint, and with considerably less verbal jousting with the A.I. (complaints it appears, have only three options, broadband or mobile or both), the automatic  call manager actually recognised the land number this time (no obvious reason why this didn't work on the other number, as it was a paste from the clipboard that I had used earlier).

I was then put through to an Indian call centre .... which I admit made my heart sink, with visions of my Dell Hell and Paypal/eBay experiences rising before my eyes, but despite trouble understanding him (local Indian accents are so strong, when they use Inglish), we managed to sort out the billing issue (it was a misunderstanding, whereby they had billed me for two months in advance ... minus discounts and an amount paid already under the old plan .... so all was well) ..... he emailed me a copy of the bill, and showed me the breakdown. Satisfied with his explanation, the call ended, and I emerged from unscathed ..... phew.

But it made me think .... the proliferation of what is described as A.I. answers or ChatBots, is actually a complete travesty of what artificial intelligence should be. They often seem to be limited to what was probably on the old Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages, and of course they are dumb and don't learn as a true intelligence would. 

So for instance, if you have a billing question, that's obviously not covered by FAQ, and then try and ring them, then the subject is probably not covered in the call-handler Bots list of subjects either, so you just go round in circles .... denied any human to sort it out.

Thus frustrated, you turn to the complaints procedure, and that is staffed by humans .... and only have to negotiate one line of A.I. to get to a human being.

So what's the solution? 

Well the A.I. should be logging all questions that are raised, and that are a cause of frustration with the web pages current 'answers,' and then someone should be adding those questions and their solutions to both the web and phone A.I's ...... this would make them evolve, i.e. learn in a way similar to how a human would. That might help cut the 'complaints' section being used so frequently.