Welcome to the first edition of ‘The Last Mile’ 😁
This is the follow up to our Teaching Robots to Talk series, because robots learned to talk, now we need to put them to work! That’s a bigger challenge that cuts cost across AI, CX, and IT, but we’ve got you covered: I’ll be publishing weekly at The Dualist, and my boss Fish, and long-term collaborator Dan Aslet will be posting fortnightly at Outside Shot and Daichotome.
Our AI-native content captain: Damian Mathews will share his take and the best bits from me, Fish and Dan here in The Last Mile, along with a quick survey of what’s bleeding edge, what’s leading edge, and what’s off the ledge!
It’s been a pleasure writing Teaching Robots to Talk for 5 years but it’s time to pass the baton so we can broaden the insights we share. Over to Damian 👏
Hi, I’m Damian!
I recently spent seven hours at The Harvard Club of Boston, at a conference that married private equity with the rapidly changing state of AI.
A lawyer admitted he’d slipped a clause into the registration form, giving him “the right to sell our Zodiac signs to nefarious actors.” He asked why we weren’t all running contracts and agreements through AI. One pass through ChatGPT and the trick lit up like a flare. Reading small print used to be an impractical chore, now it’s easy. Where else might you apply that thinking? Proof reading? Quick fact checks? Inspiring quotes?
A young analyst then showed how AI summarizes earnings calls while he sleeps – something he’d previously employ interns for.
Later, a veteran SEO writer shared how he thought ChatGPT would take his job until he used it to shrink his ten-hour article workflow to one. A reminder that you need only fear losing your job to AI if you don’t use AI for your job!
The message from the conference was clear: from legal, to marketing, and finance, AI empowers us to do more and be more. It’s replacing certain roles, but it’s not replacing humans.
In his recent article: How to grapple with AI as an army of (Superpowered) Interns, Fish nails the point: today’s models are fast, tireless, but over-confident until we play Happy Hogan and give them guardrails.
Who wouldn’t want an army of AI interns making you look (and feel) like a hero? But getting there is a journey.
If you’re not already deeply integrating AI into your personal workflow, Kerry’s piece on getting from ‘AI curious’ to ‘it feels like cheating’ is a great place to start.
Yesterday on LinkedIn Live, we discussed MCP and what it means for automation in CX.
Damian
PS: Each week we share insights from Waterfield Tech experts. If you like what they’ve got to say, you can subscribe directly to their Substack blogs: Kerry posts weekly at The Dualist, Fish and Dan post fortnightly at Outside Shot and Daichotome.
Here’s what went down this week.
Bleeding Edge
Early signals you should keep on your radar.
iOS 18 adds hold-assist and voice call screening. Apple’s new AI features take customer wait time off your plate by sitting on hold for you. If it works, hold music might finally be dead.
Zoom launches AI-powered contact center agent. Zoom’s new “Virtual Agent” tackles real customer queries across channels and can complete more complex tasks.
Leading Edge
Proven moves you can copy today.
Freshworks deflects 70% of tickets with AI. Its new Freddy AI platform now resolves most issues automatically, freeing up teams to handle the rest. No-code deployment and real ROI – this is how you scale support.
Solidroad raises $6.5M to coach agents, not replace them. Crypto.com cut handling time by 18% and boosted CSAT by 3 points using Solidroad’s AI-powered training simulations. The goal? AI that trains, not replaces.
Off the Ledge
Hype and headaches we’re steering clear of.
OpenAI faces complaint after ChatGPT alleged man murdered his sons. ChatGPT falsely accused a man of murder again. Regulators say “we warned you,” and the logs better back you up.
Asking chatbots for short answers can increase hallucinations, study finds. GPT-4, Claude, and others got less accurate when told to be brief. Turns out, “be concise” is not a safety feature.