To me, it seemed that the potential downsides of deploying a gen-AI sales bot outweighed the potential positives, and it seems more prudent and wise to wait, let the technology develop, and see if it works for other people. Let’s take a look at the reasons to deploy now or wait.
Reasons to Deploy Now
One main reason Jeannie is pro release the bot now is that she worries if a competitor successfully integrates the technology into their business then PulsePoint will be “left in the dust.” Additionally, as John points out in his presentation, the chatbots could be more creative and responsive than their human employees. One other major reason that John emphasizes is that deploying this technology would allow the company to majorly cut back on head count. John also really thinks the technology has the potential to serve customers better than people. Even if the technology isn’t perfect, it will learn and grow over time. The proponents also point out that humans have their own risks too.
Reasons to Wait
On the other hand, there are very real risks: hallucinations, privacy failures, model outages, and PulsePoint will have to rely on an external vendor for the service, mitigating their control over it. Additionally, Orion and likely other customers don’t want anything to do with the technology at the moment. Additionally, this “first mover” philosophy is perhaps not the best. There are many examples in history where followers learn from pioneers mistakes, as John points out.
Conclusion
To me, all the disruption this technology would cause just seems unnecessary, without the guarantee that it will work how they think. They should wait, let the technology mature, see if any competitors deploy it, and then integrate it if they are successful. To me, the downside of waiting is minimal.
