Last year Verizon introduced generative AI into its app and retail experiences for customers and employees alike to benefit from. One year on and it seems that the consensus among Verizon representatives is that these AI tools — Personal Shopper and Problem Solver — just make their jobs even harder.
Both tools are supposed to analyze the profile of the customer that a representative is currently dealing with and provide custom-tailored help. However what Personal Shopper keeps doing instead is adding perks and other extras that the employees then have to remove before going back to what needs doing.
Verizon marketed the tools as something that would help both customers and employees reduce the time it takes to resolve a standard problem. AI would match a Verizon user with the representative that it thinks would be perfect for said user’s specific needs. This sounds really good in theory but some Verizon employees claim that the company is misusing these tools to make up for lost subscribers.
Verizon has millions of users but is losing them at a steady rate. | Image credit — Verizon
Modern AI models — though fascinating technology — are usually met with resistance whenever they’re introduced somewhere. This is usually because these AI models still cannot replicate a human perfectly and also often mean multiple people losing their jobs. The same sentiment is shared amongst Verizon employees who angrily proclaimed that AI needed to go.
This also reminds me of T-Mobile’s app T-Life. T-Mobile recently started making it mandatory for customers and employees to use T-Life. This was a very contentious decision as many users still claim that the app is a broken mess. The AI problem is similar because T-Life and Verizon’s AI tools are meant to eventually phase out the retail experience entirely but both solutions have problems.
Verizon employees are currently having to tolerate using the AI tools because they don’t really have any other options. Some have even found a small workaround that makes it a bit easier to resolve a problem quicker without having the AI keep adding unwanted extras.
As AI continues to seep into every aspect of our lives we can expect many more similar stories in the future. It doesn’t matter how intelligent an AI model may be if it’s told to do something that the user may not have asked for.
Grab a free iPhone 13 from Total Wireless!
Switch to Total 5G+ Unlimited 3-Month plan or Total 5G Unlimited and get a free iPhone.
Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: