Cons Of ChatGPT For Customer Experience

It’s nearly impossible to read the news or scroll social media these days without hearing about ChatGPT.

The powerful AI tool has seen incredible growth and is expanding into (and changing) nearly every industry. Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has been used in work settings by nearly three-quarters of Americans familiar with the technology.

But not everyone is on board with the rapid adoption of AI. As the race to further develop AI increases, many researchers and experts are warning of the societal risks of unleashing the massive technology before it’s proven, tested, and can be governed. An open letter signed by Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, among others, asks companies to pause “giant AI experiments” until they can better manage the risks.

40% of workers familiar with ChatGPT are worried it will take their jobs entirely, and another 38% fear it will make them less useful in the workplace. Clearly, there is some trepidation about its expansion across companies.

For all the talk about ChatGPT being the future of customer experience, it isn’t without its flaws—some of which are major. Here are just a few of the downsides of AI for CX:

#1: The Information Isn’t Always Accurate

ChatGPT answers questions with authority, but that doesn’t mean the information is always correct. ChatGPT will sound confident in its responses, but that doesn’t mean they are always correct, which can lead to confusion for customers. Even its makers openly acknowledge the bot’s shortcomings, stating: “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.”

#2: It Doesn’t Have Any Special Training

ChatGPT can comb the internet for information, but it doesn’t have special training or access to internal resources to provide personalized responses. If answers to customers’ questions aren’t available online but require industry or company knowledge, ChatGPT won’t be able to answer correctly—but that won’t stop it from responding.

#3: It Provides Different Answers Every Time

One of the lauded benefits of ChatGPT is that it offers a new response every time. But that creates an inconsistent customer service experience. Companies can never count on the bot to provide a specific answer, making monitoring customer needs and requests challenging. One of chatbots’ most common use cases is repetitive questions, such as order status or account information. These questions require a set answer, which ChatGPT can’t provide consistently.

The Takeaway

ChatGPT is an incredible technological advancement, but it has its faults. To capitalize on the pros and limit the cons, the best use case for ChatGPT in customer service is to augment human employees for a convenient and streamlined response with the human touch. Human oversight can limit many of ChatGPT’s faults and be available to jump in for complicated customer issues. The future may be here, but it will take some experimentation before chatbots, and AI really take off.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist and the author of The Customer Of The Future. Sign up for her weekly email here.