Every day, call centers process thousands of calls using live operators. This has a number of disadvantages such as customers spending a long time waiting on the line, low customer satisfaction and a high cost of service relative to other means of communication. The growth of popularity of voice assistants and other NLP (natural language processing) solutions like speech analytics give us a feeling that we can totally automate contact centers without any negative consequences. But what are hidden pitfalls? And how not to get to slippery slope? IVR and IVA -- what and when to use? IVR (interactive voice response) are very popular from 70s.

A few years ago, I was listening to a vendor pitch with a group of enterprise IT veterans. The sell focused on features of an intrusion detection software product and the value of artificial intelligence. The vendor said AI techniques allowed the product to automatically detect threats. Discussing the pitch afterward, the general sentiment of the group was "I don't buy it. There is no such thing as magic!" Based on our past software experience, the vendor pitch seemed like snake oil.

The sell focused on features of an intrusion detection software product and the value of artificial intelligence . The vendor said AI techniques allowed the product to automatically detect threats. Discussing the pitch afterward, the general sentiment of the group was "I don't buy it. There is no such thing as magic!" Based on our past software experience, the vendor pitch seemed like snake oil.