[PODCAST] Reinforcement, not Replacement: The First 90 Days at Five9 w/ Anand Anand Chandrasekaran

You go to check in for your flight home, only to find that it has been canceled. So you call the airline, but no matter what you do, you can’t seem to get past the automated menu. 

On the other hand, let’s say you want to know what hours a restaurant is open. You call, get an automated menu with their hours listed, hang up, and go about your day. 

This is why AI will never replace the customer service role. 

Anand Chandrasekaran is on the leading edge of AI integration, but he’s not worried about AI replacing the human. 

Why? Because no matter how perfect your machine learning is, a human customer service rep has one thing that a machine will never have. 

What is it? Empathy. 

It’s why when he hires for his team, he’s focused on hiring people who understand technology AND human psychology.  Because if all you’re focused on is one or the other, you’re only going to be halfway successful. People have different psychological needs, often many different times during the same encounter. 

What might be able to be solved with a chatbot one minute suddenly requires the empathetic touch of a human rep. And so on and so forth. 

Let’s quit resisting AI, and embrace it for what it really is. Not a replacement, but a reinforcement. 

Listen to the whole discussion with Anand here.