The Future of Customer Service: Human Intelligence (HI) or Artificial Intelligence (AI)

I have been slow to accept that, from a service perspective, humans will ever be replaced by computers. I've suggested that customers will resist "robots" and I've based my thinking in part on the "uncanny valley" hypothesis which postulates that the more robots look like humans the less humans will feel comfortable with them. I am starting to rethink my assumptions and my conclusion. While humans may not be fully replaceable, I do believe artificial intelligence and robots will displace a lot of service providers. Café X is now open in Hong Kong and San Francisco.