I don’t know about you, but I dread having to call any company or retailer these days. The phone is usually answered promptly by an AI customer service bot. The bot has a cheery female voice and typically says: “Hi, I’m ___(fill in a name)_____. I’m your helpful digital assistant. How can I help you?”

Then you need to summarize your issue to the AI bot, which usually doesn’t grasp it. For me, anyway, the AI bot repeats verbatim the offer to help. That’s when I start to get annoyed since I know that the only way to resolve my issue is through human intervention.

I begin what usually takes repeated efforts to request a person. I ask for a “person” or an “agent”. (I’m not 100% sure what the magic word is to get a human being on the phone. I would have thought “person” or “agent.” Perhaps there’s another word I’m missing in the AI bot’s vocabulary. Human?)

Each time I ask for a “person” or an “agent,” my tone gets more impatient. When I’ve had to call Lowe’s, for instance, I’m practically shouting into the phone.

Eventually, after 5-7 minutes, I succeed. I’m not sure if the bot is programmed to detect the caller’s emotional state. Perhaps you have to be having a nervous breakdown before it will get a person on the phone. Whenever I do, I deal with the reason behind my call but I also make a point of saying that their AI assistant doesn’t work very well, and to pass that fact along to the powers-that-be. It’s my small contribution to try to keep people in the workforce and customers from losing their minds.

Good luck to us all in this new AI powered world.