The robots are coming

27cool

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Mark Carney robot already being designed and built somewhere.

spadoosh

27cool wrote: »

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Mark Carney robot already being designed and built somewhere.

Unfortunately hes the current model the older one was much more reliable. Dont make them like they used to....

Wayne_O_Mac

DomRavioli wrote: »

I clearly meant the referendum vote. Apologies for working long hours, being visually impaired and severely stressed. Who put 50p in you.

Wow, way to over-react.

denisehilton

I think there still may be many years before that is actually going to happen but inevitably it will. And most of the call center job will almost be 100% replaced with robots.

motorguy

denisehilton wrote: »

I think there still may be many years before that is actually going to happen but inevitably it will. And most of the call center job will almost be 100% replaced with robots.

They said that online customer service would replace call centres - of course that was back in 2000, and it still hasnt happened.....

"Robots" wont replace people in call centres, though there may be some voice automated computer programme you could talk to. The real problem there is getting a computer to understand all the regional dialects and understand some attempt at communication other than Yes / No type answers.

I've seen voice automated systems and used them and they're fairly !!!!! to be honest. A long long way off being able to have an intelligent conversation with someone.

I blame TV programmes like "Humans" and Westworld for this "its all just around the corner" belief. Really, its not. Whilst advancements have been made we're a long way off any sort of robot that could even remotely pass itself off as humanoid.

Jodie+Matt

You might find this interesting, or disturbing?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc

Pennywise

motorguy wrote: »

They said that online customer service would replace call centres - of course that was back in 2000, and it still hasnt happened.....

I've seen voice automated systems and used them and they're fairly !!!!! to be honest. A long long way off being able to have an intelligent conversation with someone.

As a higher proportion of the population become internet-savvy and as more areas get fast broadband, people will be able to "self serve" and do most things via online forms. They shouldn't need to phone up, so the voice-recognition systems are probably already obsolete before they've really become mainstream.

asajj

Automation has been replacing jobs for many years so nothing new in that sense. Role descriptions change and roles evolve.

motorguy

Jodie+Matt wrote: »

You might find this interesting, or disturbing?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc

Yes I've seen that.

Hugely expensive to roll out. Amazon have a very small amount of stores right now doing that - just a handful.

It would take 20 years for that to become mainstream.

Huge amount of very expensive technology behind it.

And how many staff are they really removing there? I bet there are still "customer support staff" at hand in the store, they still need the shelves stacked, the store cleaned, the products delivered, the items stored before going on to the shelves, etc.

motorguy

Pennywise wrote: »

As a higher proportion of the population become internet-savvy and as more areas get fast broadband, people will be able to "self serve" and do most things via online forms. They shouldn't need to phone up, so the voice-recognition systems are probably already obsolete before they've really become mainstream.

They've been saying that - genuinely since 1998 when i first started working in call centre IT.

Yes, a lot of forms can be filled in online, and theres a load of "self service" stuff, but call centres havent declined. If anything they're on the up - just the most mundane stuff has been removed - or moved online, etc.

98% of the UK has fast broadband as is - or fast enough to be capable of clicking on an online form (not very resource intensive). Most people under the age of 60 use laptops, tablets, mobile phones and apps however there are still times when you need to ring someone.

"Customer Service" still needs an intelligent (!) voice at the end of the call, and they're nowhere near anything that can replace that.

This is one of my areas of knowledge BTW - i did a lot of IT contact centre work for some of the big players and still know my way around it, and my wife is head of a big outsourcing centre with 1,000 or so staff under her across various big contracts.

Their clients arent pushing for automation / "robots" / purely online solutions because their customers dont want that.