Call Center Workers Are Tired of Being Mistaken for AI
By the time Jessica Lindsey's customers accuse her of being an AI, they are often already shouting. For the past two years, her work as a call center agent for outsourcing company Concentrix has been punctuated by people at the other end of the phone demanding to speak to a real human. Sometimes they ask her straight, 'Are you an AI?' Other times they just start yelling commands: 'Speak to a representative! Speak to a representative!'
Lindsey, whose work involves selling and answering questions about credit cards for American Express, a Concentrix client, has developed her own tactics to try to calm customers. 'I tell them, 'I promise, I'm a real human.'' To demonstrate, she might cough or giggle, vocal tics she believes AI can't replicate. 'I even ask them, 'Is there anything you want me to say to prove that I'm a real human?''
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