"These are actual recordings of two calls to your company," said Linda Jones, a sales representative for 'AI for You.'

Ring, ring ...

"Please state your name and employee ID number."

"Jennifer Smith ..."

"Sorry, I don't recognize that command."

"Jennifer ..."

"Please restate the request."

"Jenn ..."

"I don't understand. Please hold while I transfer you to the operator."

"Yes?"

"Is this HyperString Communications?"

"Um, yeah."

"I'm told to call this number if I encounter an error."

"Error? What error?"

"It says Error Code 493–Cache."

"What's your name and employee ID number?"

"Jennifer Smith. 23443."

"Hold on ... I'm transferring you to tech support."

Click, click, background music .... .... ... Ring, ring.

"Tech support."

"Hello. I just got transferred. I have an Error Code 493–Cache."

"What's your name?"

"Jennifer Smith."

"Your employee ID number?"

"23443."

... ... ... ...

"Hello? Are we still connected?"

"Oh. Uhm, yeah. It might be an outage."

"An outage? That makes no sense. It happened right after the VPN software updated."

"What update? Hmm ... Uhm, it's probably an outage. I'll create a support ticket."

"A support ticket for what? What's the number of the ticket?"

Click.

Men and women in suits sitting around a roundtable shook their heads, frowned, grunted, and sighed at the recorded call.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, behold—a new support agent," said Linda. She played back another recording ...

Ring.

"Hello, Mr. Franklin. Thank you for calling HyperString Communications. I recognize your phone number. How are you doing today?"

"I'm okay, but I keep getting an Error Code 493–Cache."

"I'm glad you are doing well, Mr. Franklin. One moment please, while I check for outages."

...

"There are no outages. With your permission, I'd like to access your VPN software and troubleshoot remotely. Please minimize any windows you wish to keep private and let me know if I can proceed."

"Is this safe? Are you a real person?" asked Mr. Franklin.

"I'm an AI assistant, and you can feel rest assured I'm 100% responsible and safe."

"Alright. I've minimized windows. You can proceed."

...

"Problem solved, Mr. Franklin. It appears there is an error in the new update. I've rolled back your VPN client and tested it. It's working fine. I've rescheduled your software to skip the broken update, and I've notified our product development team. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No. Thank you for fixing the problem."

"You're very welcome, Mr. Franklin. Please do not hesitate to contact us again. Have a wonderful day."

"Impressive?" asked Linda.

Everyone nodded.

"Cost ratio?" Asked Laura Jenson, CTO.

"Annually ..." Linda answered, "A benefit-cost ratio of one to every one thousand employees when factoring in wages, insurance, HR and office accommodations, vacation, and sick leave. Please keep in mind that our product doesn't require a physical office building, cafeteria, or parking lot. And it's always enthusiastic and friendly." She smiled.

Samuel Bartley, the CEO, asked Sarah Lin, an HR executive, "Sarah, how many employees did we have—sorry, I mean, do we currently have working in customer support?"