Why don’t these startup CEOs believe that AI will replace human roles?

As AI companies increase in size in terms of valuation and usage, there is an ongoing debate about how AI will replace humans in various jobs. Studies indicate that roles where Artificial intelligence can be influenced by the automation of most tasksalthough some Analysts He believes AI may also create jobs, although the displacement effect is only transitory.

David Shim, CEO Meeting blogger and intelligence company Read AIEven as AI tools emerge, humans will ultimately be the ones deciding the course of action, and their job will matter, he told TechCrunch at Web Summit Qatar earlier this month. He equated technology to using maps in the car.

“I think there will always be a human being in the middle,” Shim said. “I think the task will get easier over time. But a good example would be like driving a car. When we first started, you had a map. And you would pull up the map. And you go in and say OK I’m driving. I decide what happens. Now everyone uses Waze or Google Maps, and the map tells you where to go. And you just follow that order. But you’re the human in the middle who can decide what happens.”

Shim acknowledged that AI will impact jobs, noting that advertising agencies may lose human roles to automated tools. However, he noted that technology platforms will need jobs to oversee the automation process.

Abdullah Asiri, founder of an AI-powered consumer support tools startup LucidiaHe said he believes AI will replace tasks, not roles. When his company’s customers use Lucidya, customer support agents often take on different roles and responsibilities, he said. Some become supervisors who guide other humans and AI, while others take on the responsibilities of building relationships and developing the business using the time they have saved, he noted.

Read AI’s Shim noted that meeting note takers have freed humans from taking notes manually.

“No one here wants to sit down and take meeting notes, but when you start taking that job away, you have more time to do other things that you can focus on,” he said. “You can send that report a little faster, or you can respond to the client and get better context to make better decisions, versus spending a bunch of time gathering all the information and having very little time to make a decision.”

Internal use and employment of artificial intelligence

As technology companies like Read AI and Lucidya increasingly use AI tools, they want to keep their teams agile. Currently, Read AI’s customer service team consists of just five people, serving millions of users per month. Shim noted that the company is using AI tools to make the small team more productive and give them more context to help them do their work more quickly.

Companies are said to reap productivity gains. Read AI said its sales tool helps predict deal status using data from CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce. The startup said it has seen deals worth $200 million approved through this system. Shim said the Read AI captures 23% more context with each update, which can be used to evaluate what worked and what didn’t in a lead call.

Lucidya’s Asiri also noted that the company uses AI tools, including AI reading, for meetings and creating marketing assets. The company wants to “scale results without increasing headcount,” he said.

“The goal of any company is to hire people who are experienced in AI, and very strong in dealing with AI, but we need to be realistic,” Asiri said. “Today, this skill is being developed. You can’t find a lot of people who have very strong AI capabilities, not building AI, but using AI.”

Asiri noted that people who will be able to build agents who can help them do their work will be more willing to hire them.

Dealing with customer perception of artificial intelligence

Shim noted that just a few years ago, many people were reluctant to have AI note-takers in meetings and didn’t understand why there would be a bot on the call. However, he said people are now more receptive to note takers as long as you give them control over the recording.

Asiri said that Lucidya reveals to users when it is using voice AI to communicate. For users, problem solving is more important than the fact that an AI bot is handling their calls, he said.

“It’s all about problem solving and finding customer problems and solving them,” Asiri said. “As long as the AI ​​agents are really focused on that part, the customers are happy that their problems are fixed. The customer doesn’t really care whether it’s fixed by the AI ​​or by a human, as long as it’s fixed quickly and accurately.”