There is a lot of hype, hand waving and ink being spilled about artificial intelligence (AI) in business. The amount of coverage of this topic in the trade press and on shareholder calls is evidence of a large change currently underway. It is both awesome and terrifying.
What started as an inquiry into how executives can adopt AI to harness the best of human and machine capabilities turned into a much more profound rumination on the future of humanity and enterprise. It is a wake-up call for business leaders across all sectors of the economy. Not only should you implement AI regardless of your industry, but once you do, you should fight to stay true to your purpose, your ethical convictions, indeed your humanity, even as our organisations continue to evolve. While not holding any punches about the dangers posed by AI, today’s guest uniquely surveys where technology is limited, and where the true opportunities lie amidst all the disruptive change that is currently underway.
Weak Human + Machine + Better Process > Strong Human + Machine + Inferior Process
More about John here:
Todd Rimes
11 June 2020 at 1:56 pm
Interesting that John says Google is ‘doing’ humachine well. I challenge anyone to try to find a phone number that returns a human Googler on the line. I found a bug in YouTube’s content copyright ‘bot’ four years ago (which locked my account) and it took over six months of emailing YouTube employees from LinkedIn to get a human to review it, agree that it was indeed a bug, and unlock my account.
Today, I want to disconnect my Apple watch from my AT&T mobile account. No way to do it (but I can ‘suspend’ and continue to be charged [WTF]), no phone number to call, no open AT&T stores because of COVID-19. So for three months, I’ve been paying for my watch connection with no recourse. This is customer service?
Aidan McCullen
16 June 2020 at 2:42 pm
Great point Todd. I was thinking about this today.
While the service in an Apple store is great, the online service with products and services is not at all.
This is equally the case with Google.
There does not seem to be a reliable support function.
Great point.
Aidan