The Future Of Customer Service Isn't As Simple As AI Or Human

Automation and artificial intelligence are transforming the customer service industry and raising difficult questions about the role that humans will play in the workplace of the future. For years, pundits have been largely relegated to one of two camps: mass unemployment predictors and budget-minded capitalists (paywall). But recently, more and more thought leaders have shifted into a third camp, which argues that the future of customer service and business in general will be rooted in AI-human collaboration. As the cofounder and VP of a support automation platform that leverages human experts to improve AI, I believe these pundits get a lot right, particularly in their exploration of how AI and automation can help human workers. However, this discussion often frames AI-human collaboration as a simple side-by-side partnership in which AI systems handle easy cases and humans tackle those that are more challenging or require some form of emotional intelligence.