Forum: AI customer service chatbots should not block access to human help
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Artificial intelligence can handle routine customer inquiries quickly, but when an automated system fails, organisations must provide a clear, timely route to a human officer.
This is critical in high-stakes sectors like banking, healthcare and public services. Customers reporting urgent issues or billing errors should not have to navigate endless menus or repeatedly explain their problem. After a few unsuccessful exchanges, the chatbot should automatically transfer the query – along with the conversation history – to a live agent.
The goal is not to remove AI, but to ensure it does not become a wall that prevents customers, particularly seniors and less digitally savvy individuals, from accessing essential human assistance.
Pang Chong Liu