Do you use AI for your job?

[BigMoaner]

I looked to get a takeaway yesterday in the Just Eat app and they have an AI assistant. Why the fuck would I want an AI assistant to order a kebab. in the end, I made my own tea.

Hope at the end of it they said “you want chill sauce mate?”

 

[xenon]

Hope at the end of it they said “you want chill sauce mate?”

Honestly, it was just a button at the top. Use our AI assistant. It immediately made me think what the fuck. I can’t see any way why I want want an AI some algorithmic dinner choosing shit. Might as well just have a robot squirt pre-constituted meat or noodles in your face. Some people might like that I suppose.

 

[xenon]

I made my own kebab type thing. Corned beef garlic mayo, sauerkraut onion and pita bread. Don’t judge. It was good.

 

[xenon]

even if you don’t work, the AI stuff is getting involved. mentioned on the jobseeking thread, a website applied for jobs on my behalf, unbidden. i’m not gonna make a great baggage handler at the airport TBF. Waste of everyone’s time.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

3 years ago I don't think anyone foresaw what would happen to the design industry, this quickly. And yes, AI can actually write replies to briefs/RFPs. Im interested though to see how it will impact your industry. It's destroyed us so quickly so I don't see why it couldn't to architecture, no doubt someone's working on that right now.

Can't remember when, exactly, but might've been early last year, or late the year before that, I'd posted a comment in a Facebook group for journalist/media types, expressing concern about the impact of AI in terms of replacing journalists, and a few people replied along the lines of 'Nonsense!' Within 6-9 months other people were commenting that their copywriting side hustles were being adversely impacted by the increasing use of AI to generate content. I'd seen articles in mainstream media outlets with footnotes saying something along the lines of content had been generated by AI but checked by humans, and some jobs ads that were quite open about using human journalists to check the AI-generated output.

It seemed like within the space of a few months AI had gone from something that maybe media companies' in-house developers and perhaps some keen tech journalists might've been playing around with and exploring its capabilities, behind the scenes or in the fringes of journalism relating specifically to tech, to something that was now being openly embraced and its capabilities exploited.

 

[Dom Traynor]

Also my old supervisor said “they’ll never get rid of receptionists, they like the human touch” and I think she’s right.

What?! Receptionists have massively declined everywhere thanks to the use of
sign in tablets that notify the person you're visiting. Or it means the reception job can just be a task allocated to someone on top of other work. We deleted our receptionist role 5 years ago when the last one retired and have never looked back.

Concierge type roles in big corporate buildings and medical receptionists might last a bit longer but even then apps and online booking systems and virtual assistants can already replace most of it. Once the boomers have died out I think we will see the end of medical receptionists. I'd rather book an appointment via an app than ring a receptionist.

Edited to add I regularly visit a large government agency to meet with individual people and attend meetings and the automation of sign in with tablets and facial recognition and short codes is much more efficient in my experience than dealing with humans to access the building.

 

[Maltin]

What?! Receptionists have massively declined everywhere thanks to the use of
sign in tablets that notify the person you're visiting. Or it means the reception job can just be a task allocated to someone on top of other work. We deleted our receptionist role 5 years ago when the last one retired and have never looked back.

Concierge type roles in big corporate buildings and medical receptionists might last a bit longer but even then apps and online booking systems and virtual assistants can already replace most of it. Once the boomers have died out I think we will see the end of medical receptionists. I'd rather book an appointment via an app than ring a receptionist.

Edited to add I regularly visit a large government agency to meet with individual people and attend meetings and the automation of sign in with tablets and facial recognition and short codes is much more efficient in my experience than dealing with humans to access the building.

I don’t agree with this at all. When you go into a building you want someone to help you, not click a computer. Most places I go fortunately still seem to have this approach rather than your soulless, unhelpful system.

 

[BigMoaner]

I had a really, really strange experience the other day. I forgot to pay my dartford crossing charge, and I had to call someone about it because i didn't know if I was exempt (first time offence). I rang the number and within three or four rings, a human being answered the phone.

I looked online, investigating why this happened to me. No real answer. Really odd experience.

 

[Dom Traynor]

I don’t agree with this at all. When you go into a building you want someone to help you, not click a computer. Most places I go fortunately still seem to have this approach rather than your soulless, unhelpful system.

Really?! When you go into any building? Can you give some examples of what buildings you're talking about?

 

[Maltin]

Really?! When you go into any building? Can you give some examples of what buildings you're talking about?

To name a few I have been in over the past year or two: Hospital, medical centre, dentist, gym, solicitors, accountants, bank, hotel, restaurant, leisure centre.

If I could do the thing I needed online I wouldn’t need to go to the building.

 

[Petcha]

Concierge type roles in big corporate buildings and medical receptionists might last a bit longer but even then apps and online booking systems and virtual assistants can already replace most of it. Once the boomers have died out I think we will see the end of medical receptionists. I'd rather book an appointment via an app than ring a receptionist.

While I basically agree with this, I would use an example of the receptionist at the hospital I have to go a couple of times a week, who gets me follow up appointments quicker than most as I've sweet talked her while waiting for the inevitable late doctor. I doubt I could charm an app.

 

[Dom Traynor]

I don’t agree with this at all. When you go into a building you want someone to help you, not click a computer. Most places I go fortunately still seem to have this approach rather than your soulless, unhelpful system.

Yeah but doctors / hospitals aside is it receptionists you're engaging with or general admin/support people? I'm not making a case against them purely against receptionists as a specific seperate role.

 

[Maltin]

Yeah but doctors / hospitals aside is it receptionists you're engaging with or general admin/support people? I'm not making a case against them purely against receptionists as a specific seperate role.

I don’t know what their official title is but they all have people who sit at a desk who help deal with people who come in to the building and I don’t have to interact with a computer to see them.

For the gym, the person I have to see to access the gym does other tasks so isn’t a receptionist. Their process could be made easier for me as it is for their members but with the current set up it is a pain for me that they aren’t always at reception and therefore it delays my entry.

I’m sure at the bank, hotel, accountants and lawyers that they have others tasks too but generally they are there at their desk to greet you.

I have noticed that Premier Inn have placed computers at reception presumably to try to get people to check in that way but most people seem to ignore them. It seems much quicker and better to check in with a human. The machine just issues you your key card/receipt; doesn’t tell you where your room is, where breakfast is, what’s nearby; where you should park etc.

There was one instance when there was a massive queue at one Premier Inn and I and others tried to use the terminals to check in sooner but many of us failed and ended up still having to wait for the receptionist.

One pub/restaurant I went to the other day showed how badly trying to combine two roles can be. There was a big line for people to get a table and there seemed to be one person doing this but then when she showed them to the table she also had to take their drink order which meant the queue kept getting longer as no one was dealing with getting people to a table. In this type of scenario I suppose they could let people sit where they want although presumably some people have reservations and also allocating tables gives them more manageability of space. If they are going to have someone greet and seat you, others should take their drink order or, as I did, just get them to go to the bar!

At the dentists, they check you in, sort out payment and rebook you.

While I’m fine with “receptionists” doing other tasks, from a customer perspective they are they to support me not do other tasks and they should be where I can find them rather than the customer having to wait for someone to deal with them or find them.

This is the same argument as for retaining train ticket offices. As a customer you need somewhere to go to speak to someone. You don’t want to have to hunt round a station to find someone, especially someone who might be in areas you can’t access because you haven’t got a ticket yet.

 

[newme]

In the gym ours was 24 hours so there was just a card to swipe to get in.
For most places that are open to the general public and offers some form of public service someone is going to need to be there for people who can't use whatever the automated solution is to meet various accessibility requirements and I can't see that going away.

Doctors sign in via the screen thing is quicker, tho as soon as I did it I then thought great I've just used something every sick person in here touched and theres no sanitising stuff here. Plus if there was its usually alcohol based and will then fuck my hands up as I get quite bad eczema is they aren't taken care of properly. Need to moisturise after swimming, showering, washing my hands ideally.