Google’s Duplex technology designed to work with Google Assistant to make calls to restaurant and salons has become a major concern for many. Organizations fear that Duplex could replace human callers and take-away calling jobs.
Duplex can reduce the amount of time that we spend on the phone each day. Making reservations at a restaurant, chatting with customer service or taking care of annoying phone-based tasks are supposed to be streamlined with Google Duplex. What users did not consider is how Google can look for more commercial ways to employ its AI assistant.
According to a report from The Information, Duplex can possibly replace human callers. The report further notes that Google is in negotiations with at least one potential user that will seek Duplex into its operations. The company is said to be interested in employing the AI assistant not as a marketer but rather as a customer service agent.
The technology sounds more human than the automated service calls that you receive. Duplex is designed to cut down on the amount of time that both customers and agents end up spending on a phone call. An unnamed insurance company is exploring ways to use Duplex in call centers to handle customer service.
However, Google has denied this news. The company’s spokesperson said, “We're currently focused on consumer use cases for the Duplex technology where we can help people get things done, rather than applying it to potential enterprise use cases. We aren't testing Duplex with any enterprise clients. Duplex is designed to operate in very specific use cases, and currently, we're focused on testing with restaurant reservations, hair salon booking, and holiday hours with a limited set of trusted testers. It's important that we get the experience right, and we're taking a slow and measured approach as we incorporate learnings and feedback from our tests.”
The whole idea of calling a customer service representative and not knowing whether you are talking to a robot or human is a little unsettling for most. Google assures that it is not the case yet.