Mayors Beg, ChatGPT & ChatBots for Support Calls and ECS Roars Back

Greg Walters|February 3, 2023|

Mayors Beg, ChatGTP & ChatBots for Support Calls and ECS in Roars Back

AI to Boost Customer Satisfaction?

This week, Executive Connection Summit(ECS), ChatBots eager to assist you, with how anyone can use OpenAI, and why mayors are begging for people to come back to the office.
As ECS goes, so too, should the industry.

The Executive Connection Summit (ECS) took place last week. Contrary to some, it wasn’t just a bunch of old guys playing golf, comparing chunky watches, and expecting A4s to roam the landscape for the next one hundred years. The conversations were anything but “how to sell more copiers,” and office technology didn’t stop at toner hitting paper. It is a new day, again.

Now you’re hearing it all again, “The way of work is different. The new normal doesn’t include print, copy, printers or copiers, and may not even include employees.”

So be it.
The overall theme and takeaway? Our resident gap intelligence Senior Analyst, Valerie Alde-Hayman saw this,

“The print industry as a whole, especially dealers, should embrace change. And this change affects all levels of the business – from changes in customer purchasing journeys to changes in how to grow beyond pages and everything in between.”

I know, I know, I know…you’ve heard it before. This time it is different.

A few highlights from a buddy who was there, West McDonald:

AI is going mainstream and is expected to revolutionize how we access, manage, and create content.
Diversity was a central topic at the event, with a panel of female leaders discussing ways to improve diversity in the workforce.
One of the most innovative technologies showcased at the event was a device that acts in similar ways to a Cochlear implant without the need for invasive and complicated surgery.

What should you be doing?

Follow future content regarding ECS.
Strongly consider attending next year.
Look to HP, especially if you are not an HP reseller, for examples of the new way of work and how to provide data-driven, customer-focused office technology.

Customer Service/Support ChatBots

Speaking of shifting from devices to customers – customer service is taking a turn into artificial intelligence as more companies start linking ChatBots with ChatGPT.

Fanatics Inc, for example, plans to use a customer-service chatbot fueled in part by GPT-3 when it launches an online sports-gambling division this year. The company hopes a fast, reliable chatbot will be a differentiator for customers and that it will help to improve the overall customer experience.

Points about AI-based customer service chatbots:

Businesses are using the artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT to make customer-service chatbots smarter. Your Level One support calls are perfect areas for this level of support.
The technology is new, but viable, conversational, and getting better with every question answered.
Developers will have access to the OpenAI API to embed OpenAI technology into their own products like data collection agents, CRMs, and other database applications.

What should you be doing?

Learning all you can about artificial intelligence, OpenAI, and other AI programs.
Use whatever AI application you can find and learn how to be proficient at asking the correct questions.
Learning more about ChatBot’s resellers and providing this service for your customers. The market is new, and growing, and applies directly to office technology.

Anyone can use ChatGPT

The key to good AI response in customer service is access to your specific data. Cap Gemini discusses how AI can be integrated into existing and new applications through simple APIs and web services to make them smarter, more autonomous, and more valuable to users.

It’s simple: AI utilizes an ever-growing and evolving set of algorithms focused on your data. All that is needed is the proper ‘hooks’ – what is commonly referred to as APIs.

Quick points:

AI can be integrated into existing and new applications through simple APIs and web services.
Although it is close to plug-and-play, new and existing application portfolios need to be systematically reviewed to find added-value opportunities – and there are plenty.
Once AI is connected to legacy systems, the lifespan of existing applications increases, remaining manual activities become automated, and a more compelling user experience is created.

What should you be doing?

Learn more. This is a common theme, but right now there are no experts. Become one in artificial intelligence in the office technology space.
Get your OEMs on board. AI is new to everyone, but your first-line OEM has some experience with AI, internally. Dig that resource up and begin an in-depth conversation.
If you don’t have a managed IT practice, partner with one now. If you do, push artificial intelligence to the top of the whiteboard list.
Do not spread the fear of losing a job to AI. Although it is inevitable that repeatable job functions will be eliminated, the potential growth into other areas of interest will spur new positions and jobs.

Mayors Want You Back

It was bound to happen – Cities are losing millions of revenue and the pain is just starting. First, the New York City Mayor pleaded with businesses, now the mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, has called for “decisive action” by the federal government on the return-to-office plans for the federal workforce, in order to help revitalize the downtown area of Washington, D.C.

The impact is predictable and severe.

Highlights:

D.C. Mayor Bowser is requesting the White House to take action on the future of federal offices in order to revitalize the downtown area of Washington D.C. by either having most federal workers back in the office or relinquishing their properties to local concerns.
The objective is to bring back the downtown area’s economy to the pre-pandemic level.
The Federal Government represents one-quarter of pre-pandemic jobs and owns or leases one-third of office space in the city and the Mayor’s goal is to increase the population in by 15,000 residents in the next five years.

What should you be doing?

This is happening or will be happening in a city near you. Monitor and investigate your local and federal accounts in terms of office technology and budgets.
Reach out to your OEMs for guidance and marketing to position yourself as the government office technology specialist in remote and hybrid office technology.
Offer learning sessions leveraging new office technology’s role in revitalizing cities.

It’s another great week in the Office Technology realm. Have a great one.

Productivity

ECS is Back

Tami Beach from HP and Brian Evergreen from Microsoft shared their thoughts on the topic and how it will change the workflows of the future. Reasons for the diversity problem in the channel and ways to work together to make it a problem of the past were discussed, and a new ocular device was well-received, reviewed, and is expected to come to market soon.

New Services

Customer Service ChatBot

Businesses hope the artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT can turn ordinary chatbots into impressive fonts of information, potentially transforming customer service.

Read the entire article, here.

Cool and New Releases

‘Robot’ Lawyer Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Represent Defendants in Court for the First Time

Anyone can integrate existing databases and applications with ChatGPT, making them smarter, more autonomous, and more valuable, with a positive impact on society and the environment.

Through simple APIs and web services – every application can benefit from touches of ‘smart’, without any black magic involved. AI disrupts every industry with intelligence. Read more, here.

Mayors Want You Back

Efforts have been underway for a while now on return-to-office strategies and real estate assessments for the federal workforce, following maximum telework during the initial phases of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayors Beg, ChatGPT & ChatBots for Support Calls and ECS Roars Back