Let AI do the hard parts of your holiday shopping

"you can save time by asking Google to call stores on your behalf."

I might have to make popcorn to watch the fallout on this idea.

i'm still waiting for the first recording of an interaction between two AIs that each think the other is a human

>Hello and greetings! I am a customer at your store and would very much find it ingratiating if I were to purchase a gift for my mother -- a piece of jewelry or a small trinket would be great.

>Hello! What a wonderful idea! Let me see what's available in our inventory. Would you perhaps like an ottoman, or some floor mats for her car?

>An ottoman is a great suggestion! It is not, however, a piece of jewelry. One could potentially call an ottoman a trinket as there is no clear definition of "trinket" that eliminates small furniture.

>You're absolutely right! Floor mats may be jewelry but an ottoman is not!

etc...

This was promised at Google I/O 2016. Still waiting.

as someone who used to work in a store, i think i'd cry.

One old lady/man calling to ask if we can hold something, completely fine, happy to help them.

100s of able people making the phones unusable with calls they would never make if they had to do it themselves, unsustainable.

I believe you are looking for the "Annoy Customer Service Bot" and "Bureaucrat Bot" combo discussed here

https://medium.com/luminasticity/services-of-illuminati-gang...

As someone who also used to work in a store, I'd just hang up. I barely had time to answer the phone most days, ain't got time for this bullshit.

When I worked in a store I never answered the phone. Why would I prioritize someone's call over helping people there in the store who actually bothered to come in person.

Drives me nuts when I'm at a store trying to talk to someone and they step away to answer a ringing phone. I usually walk out when that happens.

Yea, it was far down my priority list. Only responding to emails was lower. At the end of my shift there'd usually be 40 to 60 unanswered calls if I was alone at the store.

God that place was awful.