The Expert Podcast

In our various businesses, we get a lot of phone calls, and people tell us all the time, "I just wanted to call because I want to talk to an actual human being. I don't want to talk to a machine; I want to deal with a person directly." Well, is that really true? According to this article and survey from The Hill, many people prefer robots over humans. Is that true, and what do they mean by "many"? What's the percentage? What do you think? Do you rather deal with automated systems or an actual human? Let's look at the details.

According to the article, the survey was conducted in a grocery store checkout area. A customer approached the checkout area, scanned the options, and decided to wait in line for the automated checkout instead of walking right up to an available cashier. They started doing surveys, and the response said that they didn't want the human cashier looking at what they were buying. They didn't care for the cashier's opinions on what they were purchasing. So, is interaction with a person more of a negative or positive experience? Well, I think it depends on the environment. With a cashier, you don't need their help really; you don't need to ask them questions or interact with them.

But what about areas where you do need to ask questions? Maybe a professional's advice—an attorney, an insurance agent, or some other type of technical profession. Do you prefer to deal with a human or automated responses from email, chatbots, or online? What do you prefer as a consumer? There seems to be a trend where a substantial portion of the public wants to deal with robots because humans can be opinionated, and machines leave the impression that they are not.

Some of it is about minimizing the time consumed, as you can go through automated systems faster. But a lot of it has to do with the fact that you don't have to deal with the drama of talking to another person. So, is it about context? Is some automation preferred, and some not? In what areas would you prefer to talk to a human versus having to talk to a robot, chatbot, or some other automated system? Which is better?