As the recognition and use of AI companies grows, there is a constant debate about how AI will replace humans in various jobs. Research suggests that the role of AI in automating most tasks will be affected, but some analysts believe that the displacement effect will only be temporary, as AI could also create jobs.
David Shim, CEO of conference transcription and intelligence company Read AI, told TechCrunch at Web Summit in Qatar earlier this month that even with the rise of AI tools, humans will ultimately decide the course of action, and their work will matter. He thought of this technology as similar to using a map in your car.
“I think there will always be humans in the middle,” Sim said. “I think over time, the job gets easier. But a good example is driving a car. When we first started working, you had a map. And you took the map out. And you went in and said, okay, I’ll drive. What? I decide what happens. Now everyone uses Waze or Google Maps, and the map tells you where to go, and you just follow its instructions. But you’re the one in the middle who decides what happens.”
Sim acknowledged that AI will have an impact on employment, noting that advertising agencies could lose the role of humans in favor of automated tools. However, he noted that technology platforms will have to do the job of overseeing the automation process.
Abdullah Asiri, founder of Lucidya, an AI-powered consumer support tool startup, said he believes AI will replace tasks, not roles. He said that when his customers use Lucidya, customer support agents often have different roles and responsibilities. He pointed out that some become supervisors, coaching other humans and AI, while others use the time they save to take on relationship-building and business development responsibilities.
Read AI’s Shim pointed out that meeting note takers free humans from taking notes manually.
“None of us here want to sit down and take notes from meetings, but when you start cutting back on that work, you just have a little bit more time to focus on other things. By sending reports a little faster or responding to customers, you actually get better context and can make better decisions, versus spending a lot of time gathering all the information and having very little time to make decisions,” he said.
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Internal use and employment of AI
Technology companies like Read AI and Lucidya are increasing their use of AI tools and want to keep their teams lean. Today, Read AI’s customer service team is comprised of just five people and serves millions of users each month. Shim said the company is using AI tools to improve productivity for small teams, giving them more context to get work done faster.
Businesses are said to be enjoying increased productivity. Read AI said its sales tools use data from CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce to help predict the status of deals. The company said $200 million worth of transactions were approved through the system. Shim said Read AI captures 23% more context with each update and can be used to evaluate what worked and what didn’t on lead calls.
Lucidya’s Asiri also noted that the company uses AI tools such as Read AI to create meetings and marketing assets. He said the company wants to “scale our results without adding headcount.”
“The goal for any company is to hire people who are AI natives and very strong in AI, but you have to be realistic,” Asiri said. “Right now, this skill is being developed. You’re not going to find people with really strong AI capabilities, not just building AI, but using AI.”
Asiri pointed out that it is better to hire people who can build an agency to support their work.
Addressing customer perceptions of AI
Sim pointed out that just a few years ago, many people were hesitant to take AI notes in meetings and didn’t understand why bots would join calls. But people are now more receptive to note-takers, he said, as long as they give them control over recording.
Asiri said Lucidya will disclose to users when it is communicating using voice AI. He said that for users, solving the problem is more important than the fact that an AI bot is handling the call.
“It’s all about problem solving and finding and solving customer problems,” Asiri says. “As long as the AI agent is actually focused on that part, the customer is happy that the problem is resolved. The customer doesn’t care at all whether the problem is fixed by an AI or a human, as long as it’s fixed quickly and accurately.”
