😵💫 Is an AI Backlash on the Way?
In Minneapolis this week, a CEO of a very large wholesale distribution company asked me a great question after my keynote:
"Jay, do you think there will be a societal backlash over the use of AI?"
Today, there is a big gap between business' enthusiasm for AI, and customer enthusiasm for it.
More or less 65% of businesses say that AI improves customer experiences, and around 20% of customers concur at the moment.
But most of consumers' issues with AI are theoretical, not practical.
There's a lot of 🤖"I don't want my problem to be solved by a robot."
Or "I want
to deal with a PERSON with feelings and empathy."
Or "What happens when the robots take over and enslave us all?"
I get it. AI is freaky. We don't REALLY understand it (even the people building it). And that scares us - rightfully so.
But what the current research shows is that customers' objections to AI usually melt away once they actually encounter and use AI successfully.
Put more plainly: people dislike the IDEA of AI more than the OUTCOMES of AI.
I spend a lot of time with AI customer experience solutions (see the session from NICE mentioned above). And I can tell you first-hand that the capabilities of AI to solve many customer problems already exceeds
human capabilities, in many instances. And we're in like the 2nd inning of the AI baseball game.
Don't get me wrong. AI is not infallible. It
remains troublesome in terms of accuracy, ownership, privacy, ethics, inclusion, and a bunch of other aspects.
But the genie is NOT going back in the
bottle, regardless of how much we might wish it to be so.
The efficiency gains provided by AI are so profound that some manner of AI
implementation will essentially be required for most organizations to remain in business within two years.
And while the path to get there is
admittedly difficult and somewhat frightening, the projected outcome is fantastic: ~ 25% more efficiency in your business. And as it improves, customers will begrudgingly set aside most of their AI objections.
Social media travels a similar path. So much debate (for good reason) about social media privacy - not to mention what it does to create angst and division. Yet, social media usage continues to increase and accelerate.
I'm not suggesting the relentless advance of technology is necessarily a net societal gain. That's a question for a bigger thinker than me.
But do I beleive there will be a backlash against AI that would fundamentally slow or halt its adoption? Nope.
We brought this puppy home, now we have to raise it together.
