Have you ever seen an expanse of grass with paths worn down to dirt where people walk to short cut the provided sidewalks? I was once told the Walt Disney Company looks for these patterns to understand how people move and where they need to re-think access, often replacing the grass with a new walkway. People find their own solution when one isn't provided, and that reality is a threat to the adoption of AI for customer services in the world of retail.
I've had the same issue crop up multiple times over the past year with Amazon, and all thanks to their use of AI. As happens on occaision, a package out for delivery from Amazon never arrived. Yesterday I went online to follow up and was given the option to cancel the order. I clicked the link and was dumped into the customer support Bot. I explained I wanted to cancel the item selected because it never arrived. Amazon's AI had other plans. Instead of cancelling the order, it informed me the item was en route and asked if I'd like help with anything else. Uh, yes. I want to cancel the item that never arrived. Instead of helping me, I was presented a list of recent purchases, excluding the one in question, and asked which one I wanted help with. Irritated, I started over again. This time the AI informed me the item that didn't arrive on the 19th would arrive on the 20th despite it being the 27th.
Even more irritated at having my time wasted, I sought out a customer service agent via chat and was finally able to get cancel and get a refund for the item that never arrived. That the AI decided my probelm was solved initially with no input from me was irritating. That I had to fight the system only to give up and go to a humn was very irritating. But the ultimate irritation is this repeated "experience" when trying to use Amazon's return process as implemented. What I've learned is not to waste my time, their AI isn't ready for prime time and I'm not a beta tester.
But it's not only Amazon who's failing. Enter Target.
Our family loves the game Catana, so much so we needed another copy to keep here at the house instead of always chasing down our daughter to bring hers home on visits. My wife was notified that Target had it on sale for 20% off, an AI generated message. Awesome! She ordered it for pick up at our local store, but when the pick-up ready notification arrived, it was out of stock and she was asked to choose another store. A second option, about 15min further away, showed 6 in stock so we drove over. Nope, not a single one in stock. The explanation? Their AI can only see what was in stock recently, not real time. Wonderful. At that point she gave up on the garbage AI and got her refund, and we stopped at a third target on the way to dinner and picked up the game.
My third immutable law of AI is that AI always gives an answer, no matter how nonsensical. It's not enough to implement AI and pray; the customer experience has to matter too! Any organization who wants to make effective use of AI needs to recognize it's limitations, and until it's proven infalible, provide alternatives.
Retailers would we wise not to expect people to continue using a broken process. Customers are too smart not to see the dirt paths criss-crossing the landscape.
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