Artificial intelligence pretends to be a difficult customer, teaches employees how to deal with it

(Dan Tri) - A company in Japan has used artificial intelligence to train employees on how to deal with difficult customers.

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has brought unexpected results at the company.

Hypothetical situations in communicating with difficult customers are set out (Photo: QQ.com).

This move is intended to help employees increase their ability to adapt to work and stress. Nowadays, having to constantly interact with customers makes many employees in the service industry feel pressured, overwhelmed, discouraged and leave the profession, leading to a persistent labor shortage.

It is known that the above-mentioned AI "training officer" is called iRolePlay, invented by technology company Interactive - Solutions, with the function of supporting units in training employees through simulated conversations.

Working similarly to ChatGPT (AI developed by OpenAI and launching in 2022), iRolePlay provides lifelike dialogue with intelligent text responses.

The tool can simulate customers with different personalities to create different scenarios for employees to respond to. Each training session usually lasts about 30 minutes.

AI customers behave just like real customers (Photo: QQ.com).

During a recent training session, a female employee was tested on how to handle a situation where a customer complained about a computer not being able to connect to the Internet.

Accordingly, iRolePlay opened with a very real lament: "I've told you so many times, my computer can't connect!".

The female employee then started the conversation in a calm voice: "Can you try to restart the device?". The AI-simulated customer replied in an angry tone: "I tried that and it didn't work!".

The employee tried to be patient, suggesting that the AI ​​reboot the router. Immediately, the angry customer's tone changed: "Okay, I'm connected."

Kiyoshi Sekine, who is in charge of researching training programs for the company, shared that AI will help new employees practice how to handle unexpected situations.

“Experiencing how to deal with difficult customers through AI helps new employees at the company prepare, while reducing stress and confusion when exposed to real-life situations,” he said.

Many netizens believe that this AI tool is very useful for training human resources in particular and strengthening labor resources for the service industry in general.

A recent survey found that nearly half of service industry workers in Japan regularly face angry customers, such as unreasonable demands, verbal abuse, violence and social media harassment.

For example, recently, public opinion was stirred up by the way the assistant manager at a supermarket in Tokyo (Japan) handled a customer’s complaint about spoiled tofu. Even though the spoiled tofu the customer brought had been in the refrigerator for 2 weeks, past its expiration date. Yet the assistant still had to kneel down to apologize.

Since then, public opinion has been very supportive when companies apply AI to help employees learn how to get acquainted and handle situations.

In July 2024, Japanese supermarket chain AEON applied an AI system to evaluate and standardize employee smiles. Previously, a company in Tokyo also used AI to predict employee intentions to quit, through data analysis such as timekeeping records and content during job interviews.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/tri-tue-nhan-tao-gia-lam-khach-hang-kho-tinh-day-nhan-vien-cach-ung-pho-20250106141235341.htm