I’ve been a bit frustrated with some companies AI agents recently. I needed to book a hotel room. I used one of the booking apps which went smoothly. Then the plane was delayed and I wanted to let the hotel know I’d be arriving 4 hours later. I used the booking app to try to send an email, but the email address they had for the hotel was incorrect and it bounced. I could not contact the booking app and their “AI” agent was so poorly designed it was impossible to get an answer. All I wanted was to ask them for another email address, but their agent was unable to give an answer, or pass on a message.
A second story: I had to go abroad, so purchased a SIM card from one of the largest service providers. I put it in my phone, a HUAWEI (this is relevant). It didn’t work. So I went on-line, spoke to the AI Agent and it gave a whole lot of potential solutions. None worked, but I spent a good part of 2 hours trying to sort it out. I phoned the call centre, waited the usual 25 minutes for the call to be answered. The agent told me to try some things, which did not work. I called again and once again waited the requisite 25 minutes. This agent asked what make and model phone I had and immediately told me my phone did not meet their new specs so would not work. It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but gave me an answer I could understand. My phone is 4 years old, so it is understandable, but the hassle to get a proper answer is not!
3-4 hours of wasted time could have been saved by their AI Agent being regularly updated. This was also a waste and cost of their call centre time.
In both cases, the AI Agent was designed, but not updated. It proves my point that an AI Agent needs a knowledge manager, not an IT person to manage it. Someone who understands the business!
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