An AI took my drive-through order. It worked, but it was not a luxury experience. Is human interaction going to be left to the luxury firms?
When we think of luxury, we think of exceptional customer service. We think of organizations that go out of their way to make the customer feel special.
The other day I went through a drive-through to get a drink and found myself talking to an AI that took my order. It worked. But it wasn't what I would call a luxury experience.
So here is the question. Is human interaction going to be relegated to the luxury firms?
As the cost of providing customer service with AI declines, more and more companies will move their customer service, and their human interaction, to agents. As agents take a bigger and bigger share of customer service, talking to a real human may become a hallmark of luxury. Employing people to do the job may become the essence of what a luxury experience is.
You can already see this in hotels. Luxury hotels have more people. They are more fully staffed, and the staff take the time and attention to understand your needs and solve them. At a budget place the people can be perfectly wonderful, but there are fewer of them, and they are focused on their tasks, not necessarily on your happiness.
So as we figure out where AI will shift markets and drive change across the economy, the question is whether that change lands mostly in the lower market. The upper market may hold on to human labor, and maybe embrace it. More and more companies may use people to show that they are serious about customer service and want to be seen as a luxury brand.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years. The companies to watch are the bellwethers, as they work out what customer service means to them.