Seems like a good case for some kind of handshake protocol where the caller and recipient can negotiate if they want to use AI or not, and have the AI talk to the other AI if both side agrees.

The tool itself seems like a fine response to companies that uses AI to take calls. If they want to replace their human interface with an computer interface, then the user have the same option. In practice it means that the customer uses their own computer interface to communicate with the companies computer interface. It not much different from the experience of a website where the customer can do the exact same thing, like scheduling an appointment, paying a bill, or checking their balance. The only difference is that the website is now replaced with two AI interfaces that communicate through the phone like old dial-up.

This is an overly harsh take. I don’t mind talking to a bot, it’s just that most bots suck balls and don’t get what I want to achieve.

I do mind talking to a bot. If I've called your business and an AI picks up the phone, I'm hanging up.

If I have to call your business, I already don't want to do business with you. I want self service online as far as possible, and email beyond that.

I'm unclear if that's a statement in support or against my take that this tool will waste businesses' time?

There are some rough edges now, but I see them resolved and definitely not a waste of time anymore in just a few years, if not sooner.

A bot that calls 30 businesses to find the best price or the soonest availability is definitely wasting 29 businesses' time.

But a human doing the same wouldn't be? It's not really wasting their time either, it's just business they failed to get, that happens.

Except you just gamified something which is unlikely what would have happened in the past.

Usually how these interactions go is:

1. Ask your circle for a recommendation

2. Call the first recommendation, if they are friendly and in the ballpark for price deal done

There was no 30 businesses called, most of the time only 1 businesses got called

Not you have an AI spamming 30 businesses with calls, in 3 years time you will complain that none if the businesses are any good because those that are just immediately drop AI calls and you never get a quote from them.

A human doing the same is investing effort on their end. That means they will be somewhat selective about who they call, and are unlikely to call 30 businesses. Maybe they'll call 6.

The actual sweat-effort that the caller puts in is the evidence that they aren't being frivolous with the time of the call. When that goes away, and the cost to the caller of making 30 calls is the same as making a single call, then it quickly becomes a waste of time for the business, rather than a valuable opportunity worth pursuing.

It’s taking spam out of the inbox, and moving it into real life.