MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3 | 11
(or Kaylee or Bailey) was a real person
when his overly confident trial-and-error
trouble-shooting method wasn’t enough.
Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron
It’s right there in the name: it’s artificial in-
telligence. After decades of research and
billions of dollars poured into that re-
search, robots still can-
not think. Many people
might take exception
to that statement,
but the fact remains.
Being learned, gaining
knowledge and apply-
ing it at record speed
does not mean your AI can turn an angry
customer around in 7 minutes. Why should
you hope your AI can do it? This customer
is getting ready to write the worst review
anyone’s ever read on Yelp and tell her
5,000 Facebook friends that your company
is “actually” the devil. Yet, why can’t your
AI do it? Because an artificial brain does
not read emotions or urgency. That’s what
makes it artificial. Facebook’s original AI
program, touted as able to identify suicidal
thoughts, essentially turned out to be a fil-
ter for flagging posts that human handlers
must then interpret and respond to. Quite
often, AI is just a very focused computer
program—with some programs (as in this
Facebook case) designed with nobler pur-
poses than others.
Self-learning algorithms are impressive and
can even beat humans in games of logic.
Still, to be intelligent is one thing. To live in
the reality of the human experience is a
different thing entirely. Intelligence that
does not feel or have empathy is by its very
definition artificial. As phony as some peo-
ple can be, they can still have an emotional
connection to a motive.
An AI mechanism may
even perform well on
an IQ test; it just
would not know why it
was taking the test and
would not care about
the result.
Keeping and attracting talented people is
job 1
I’m not saying that we’ll never have tech-
nology that can replicate human intelli-
gence and behavior 100%. I’m sure some-
one in Florida will invent the first robot to
be arrested for a DUI. I’m just saying the
return on investment for artificial intelli-
gence does not include anything beyond
programming, at this point.
The future of customer relationship man-
agement is still dependent on the acquisi-
tion and retention of talented employees.
Those who are highly skilled at making the
customer feel valuable are themselves the
most valuable asset the organization has to
offer.
“to be intelligent is one
thing. To live in the
reality of the human
experience is a different
thing entirely”