I read a very good piece by Bertrand Maltaverne of Spend Matters this week.

It galvanised me to put metaphorical “pen to paper” on the subject.

Titled “No UI, No Problem? The False Promise of GenAI Chatbots”, Bertrand’s article makes some perceptive points.

A very common use-case for GenAI is the chatbot.

As with all technologies on the left-hand side of the “Hype Cycle”, we need to examine the promise of GenAI as a silver bullet that will replace the traditional user experience / user interface.

GenAI-enabled chatbots provide a conversational experience, which some claim is the future, hence the phrase “No UI is the new UI.”

At first glance, the idea of replacing a classic customer/user experience with “conversation” seems a smart and natural move.

However, are you starting to get frustrated with the Shakespearian narrative of ChatGPT (other LLMs are available 😉)?

I am not finding that this experience is always productive. It is sometimes, but many other times I would rather have a succinct and accurate answer.

Jason Aten, tech columnist at Inc. makes the point, that in theory it all sounds great but “in practice, no one likes chatting with an A.I. bot when they have a real problem they need solved. They’d much rather talk to a person.”  

This is a big challenge for customer service, and brand loyalty, today.

The promise of a conversational interface to eliminate the traditional learning curve “is a fallacy” claims Bertrand

“Despite the intention for more intuitive interaction, there are challenges. One is related to the absence of familiar visual cues (buttons, icons, etc.) in conversational interfaces. Another is that conversations are not the most efficient nor effective approach to many activities and tasks. And, lastly and more importantly, talking to a bot is not something people are used to. Anyone who has played with, for example, ChatGPT has learnt and now knows that prompts have a huge influence on outputs.”

Consequently, two customers / users seeking the same information may get completely diffferent answers depending on their prompt.

We should be cautious when promising a nirvana of ease of use, experience and adoption from GenAI chatbots.

It’s just not that simple.

There is a rich seam of food for thought on the role of GenAI. I had a fascinating discussion with Dr Tom Gruber, AI expert, advisor, researcher, and AI designer of Apple Siri fame, and he also described the allure of a linguistic “idiot savant” and provided some recommendations. You can catch that discussion here . . . . 

As a customer, I don’t want to be the “sandbox” for a poorly thought out experiment.

I want my problem fixed or I will go to someone or something that can.

Consumer brand loyalty is at a crossroads.

You can read Bertrand’s piece, “No UI, No Problem? The False Promise of GenAI Chatbots”, here . . .

Thanks for reading . . . .