Covid-19 is accelerating job losses in an industry that was already automating work at a rapid pace.
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Brian Pokorny had heard of AI systems for call centers before. But as the IT director of Otsego County, New York, he assumed he couldn’t afford them. Then the pandemic hit, and the state governor ordered a 50% reduction of all government staff, forcing Pokorny to cut most of his call center employees. Meanwhile, inbound calls were rising as more residents began seeking reliable covid-related guidance and medical information.
So Pokorny picked up the first solution that landed on his desk: Watson Assistant for Citizens, which IBM had started offering to governments, health-care organizations, and research institutions in a 90-day free trial. Within days of his signing up, the Watson team helped him deploy a chatbot to address callers’ most common questions, such as how to identify symptoms or how to get tested. The software also made it easy for him to update and expand the chatbot’s responses as queries evolved.
Soruce: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/14/1001716/ai-chatbots-take-call-center-jobs-during-coronavirus-pandemic/