Analysis from Forrester suggests that conversation AI chatbots can increase work efficiencies but at what cost for workers?
Automation has been the name of the game for businesses for decades who have used computer tools to increase worker productivity and reduce labour costs. These tools have come a long way since people first started tinkering around with the idea of bots back in the 1960s.
Now, chatbots are a popular artificial intelligence (AI) tool that, among many other uses, are being deployed in customer support roles. While unpopular among some customers, who would rather talk to a person, these bots are now growing even more popular thanks to the emergence of generative AI.
In just the last week, Accenture launched a Nvidia business group to train 30,000 employees in order to boost clients’ AI adoption, while Microsoft announced a $4.3bn investment in Italy to expand its AI infrastructure. And OpenAI, the start-up behind the groundbreaking generative AI tool ChatGPT, recently closed a major investment round at a valuation of $157bn.
Significant developments in a short time
Clearly, there is a lot of buzz around the capabilities of generative AI (genAI), with its ability to make more human-like conversation, and businesses are eager to profit from this potential.
Although, while AI is automating some jobs, there will still be room left for humans, according to Max Ball, the lead author of a new Forrester report, ‘The state of conversational AI’, who added that the advent of genAI tools will affect low-cost labourers, primarily from developing companies.
The Forrester report highlights the risks of modern conversation AI applications for customer interactions and suggests way for companies to make informed decisions about their use.
In 2023, Verint, a US-based tech firm found that using an IVA to answer customer questions saved more than $5 per question when compared to the cost it takes a human agent to do the same. Moreover, 40pc of AI decision makers in the US told Forrester, a US-based market research company, that genAI has increased employee productivity in the past year. However, big businesses are not without fear.
Forrester researchers spoke to 30 global organisations including Amazon Web Services, IBM and Microsoft and found that businesses are worried about privacy risks, staying compliant with the latest regulations around the tools, hallucinations and a lack of trust in AI systems – especially for front or customer-facing interactive AI tools.
Earlier this year, a passenger won a lawsuit against Air Canada because its chatbot provided incorrect information. However, while the company argued that the chatbot is “responsible for its own actions”, a tribunal rejected the argument, ruling that it should be “obvious” that the accuracy of information on its website is the company’s own responsibility.
Despite the risks, businesses are moving forward with customer-facing genAI.
The Forrester report identified that using a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) approach can reduce hallucinations and protect businesses and customers by ensuring the chatbot is only pulling information from a specific set of data.
What happens to the workers?
Conversational AI and IVAs are already in many major roles in finance, retail, healthcare, insurance, IT and telecom sectors, acting in customer self-service, employee help desks and even as sales and marketing assistants.
The Forrester report suggests that in the coming years these tools will take on even more varied and technical roles such as employee digital assistants, personalised content creators for marketing and even as consumer digital doubles that can represent consumers to brands directly.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, Ball says that employees will be working with humans, as regardless of the skill of a chatbot, human empathy and decision-making skills will always be required. “There’s always going to be a need for empathy. Even if the box gets smart enough to do it – we’re not going to be OK with that being with a machine.”
Ball adds that conversational AI tools will not lead to mass layoffs, pointing to the sector’s turnover rate. “The average agent (in customer service) turnover rate is 30pc a year. So what’s going to happen is you’re not going to fire very many people when you automate, you’re just going to not hire replacements.”
However, less skilled roles will be affected, he says. “Where it’s going to be really rough is the business process outsourcers,” says Ball.
According to the International Monetary Fund, 40pc of jobs in emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India, and 26pc of jobs in low-income countries are exposed to and have a high risk of being taken over by AI.
Call centres, Ball says, “where you hire a third party to man (the company’s) call centre … Those jobs are at the biggest risk.”
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