In 10 Years All Cold Callers Are Out of a Job

[ApparentHorizon]

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Argue]

Oh sh*t o.o

 

[minivanman]

I hope it works better than my iPhone because it doesn't ever understand me when I talk in to it for texting.

 

[Tom.V]

Very cool. But to say all cold callers will be obsolete in 10 years is a huge stretch. Now, with that said, there is a huge amount of time that could be saved by having a system like this work on your behalf to get to your point of contact (navigating gatekeepers, voice prompts, and directories) if utilized in a semi-auto fashion. The effectiveness of inside sales reps on the phones could be increased by a factor of 10 or more by allowing real human beings to interact only with decision makers.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Fastlane Liam]

I actually made something like this, but the other way round. So the person answering was a chatbot,

I integrated it with Twilio and worked with a mobile, you could call the number and "book a taxi" as it were. But you could set the chatbot up to be anything really, with it retrieving the relevant information.

Honestly I thought it was a kind of dumb idea and never reached out to businesses and wasn't sure how to sell it,

Is it not that bad?

 

[ApparentHorizon]

Very cool. But to say all cold callers will be obsolete in 10 years is a huge stretch. Now, with that said, there is a huge amount of time that could be saved by having a system like this work on your behalf to get to your point of contact (navigating gatekeepers, voice prompts, and directories) if utilized in a semi-auto fashion. The effectiveness of inside sales reps on the phones could be increased by a factor of 10 or more by allowing real human beings to interact only with decision makers.

The position will slowly fade like factory jobs in the early 00. No one actually taking notice until it's too late.

3 places will still have them:

1. The 1-2 offices that have, done it this way for decades, so why should we change. Or We're authentic around here, we use real humans.
2. People just starting out who need to hustle their way in.
3. And perhaps executive level outreach that requires more complex human interactions. Like video conferences and dinners.

It only took 20 years for the internet to revolutionize and completely change the way we do business. From a 1% usage rate across the world in the late 1990s to 60% today.

If Moor's law continues to hold true (repurposed for AI), then a 10 year timeframe is more than plausible.

Bit of a stretch? Yeah.

Huge stretch? History leads me to believe otherwise.

I actually made something like this, but the other way round. So the person answering was a chatbot,

I integrated it with Twilio and worked with a mobile, you could call the number and "book a taxi" as it were. But you could set the chatbot up to be anything really, with it retrieving the relevant information.

Honestly I thought it was a kind of dumb idea and never reached out to businesses and wasn't sure how to sell it,

Is it not that bad?

M8 if your bot could actually pick up what people are saying, you'd be a hero. A rich one, at that.

Banks in the US use automated bots you speak to, for commands. Those things are worse than trying to talk to an uncontacted tribe in the middle of the Pacific. At least you can point to a coconut and agree on a similar sound, in that case.

The robot just hangs up on you lol

And these are multi-billion dollar companies, mind you.

/rant

 

[458]

Great! Now how about you pick up the phone for the next 10 years and stop talking about Google glasses.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApparentHorizon]

Great! Now how about you pick up the phone for the next 10 years and stop talking about Google glasses.

That sounds like work.

Let me borrow a couple mil to hire a few researchers and programmers instead.

 

[Formless]

10 years to pick up the phone and make enough money not to worry about the next 60 years after that.

 

[Fastlane Liam]

The position will slowly fade like factory jobs in the early 00. No one actually taking notice until it's too late.

3 places will still have them:

1. The 1-2 offices that have, done it this way for decades, so why should we change. Or We're authentic around here, we use real humans.
2. People just starting out who need to hustle their way in.
3. And perhaps executive level outreach that requires more complex human interactions. Like video conferences and dinners.

It only took 20 years for the internet to revolutionize and completely change the way we do business. From a 1% usage rate across the world in the late 1990s to 60% today.

If Moor's law continues to hold true (repurposed for AI), then a 10 year timeframe is more than plausible.

Bit of a stretch? Yeah.

Huge stretch? History leads me to believe otherwise.



M8 if your bot could actually pick up what people are saying, you'd be a hero. A rich one, at that.

Banks in the US use automated bots you speak to, for commands. Those things are worse than trying to talk to an uncontacted tribe in the middle of the Pacific. At least you can point to a coconut and agree on a similar sound, in that case.

The robot just hangs up on you lol

And these are multi-billion dollar companies, mind you.

/rant

Those bank IVRs were the inspiration, the difference with mine is that it speaks back to you,

My friend, Text to Speech is easy to implement. You have access to Google/IBM Watson/Free open source Text To Speech api's which are Machine Learned an ready to go. Its the same stuff used when you say "Ok Google" on your smartphone.

I then feed that string to a chatbot api

The hard part was to get it to work over a phoneline, after about of month of trial and error I resulted in tweeting Twilio Developers (who were actually super helpful so props to that company) and got it to work..
Its a little shaky but the hard part is,

How do I sell this/Find customers?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jpanarra]

YES YES 1000x YES... this will be a massive tool for someone like me!! I can't hear so making cold calls for my website business is the bane of my entrepreneurship experience, I'm even trying to build a sales agency to solve this problem. If this comes around to put that out of business I'll welcome it because I'll beneifit from it so much more myself as a deaf person that faces challenges in those calling situations.

 

[ApparentHorizon]

How do I sell this/Find customers?

Have you tried cold calling?

 

[craig1928]

10.1 years until it's illegal to spam cold calls using robots, awesome tech otherwise, really impressive demo.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApparentHorizon]

10.1 years until it's illegal to spam cold calls using robots, awesome tech otherwise, really impressive demo.

Those terrible robocalls that don't even try to hide the fact, have gone crazy over the past couple of years.

The do not call registry works for consumers but not businesses. Nevermind the scammers.

Keep in mind it's perfectly legal to cold call a business.

But when the average person can barely tell they're answering to a prerecorded message, how would you stop something with a natural voice, natural vocal mannerisms, and contextual responses?

At that point you can't. You've entered the realm of what was only recently considered scifi. Alan Turing proposed a test to determine whether people can distinguish between interacting with a computer or a person. And we're just now starting to see machine pass that test, to a significant degree.

A lot of people were saying the only way to stop these is to replace the archaic phone system that allows the calls to come through.

Ironically, algorithms are now being developed to combat these. And they're built by other AIs.

ProTip: if you're in the US, and they're ignoring your requests to stop calling you, you can take action: National Do Not Call Registry

That's just the FTC, and if they pursue the company, you're not entitled to any compensation. You have to take them to court if you want anything.

ProTip2: You can get your number blacklisted from the scams by being a PITA. Keep them on the line and waste their time. They'll swear at you and never call back.

 

[Process]

**In 10 Years All Fastlaners Are Able to Scale Much More Efficiently and Cheaply and The Value Cheaters Will Be Double Stuffed**

FTFY!

Oh and remember people show the best side of what they offer during presentations. Think of how the graphics and gameplay on videogame presentations or how a movie trailer never matches the actual experience.

 

[theresgot2bemore]

While it may take some time to start vigorously being implemented (probably right now) it won't just be sales affected. Mother Jones did a nice article on automation about this change to society. Regardless of its slant the considerations automation will have in the near future, about 5 years, will be drastic.

An easy example is down here at the local Sam's Club. Earlier this year I noticed they started handing out cards saying you could scan and pay through an app. It shocked me how nonchalantly it was being passed out by workers as if it was no big deal. There are a lot of workers out there who don't realize the looming threat to their jobs that is right around the corner.

Amazon has a cashier-less system from what I remember in WA and I presume they are going to try to implement a full scale scanner so you never have to deal with a human again. Think of the square things you see at stores that make a noise when something is taken without being paid... now imagine that being the system that charges you upon leaving. If you think that sort of thing won't be implemented when Amazon perfects it then I've got some bad news for you.

The good thing is that it gives more motivation for the hustle. I want to be Fastlane before that sort of stuff hits because it will be one hell of a game changer. I'd like to be in a better off position to take advantage of it instead of the dreaded "what do I do now?" experience that Detroit factory workers experienced.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ApparentHorizon]

An easy example is down here at the local Sam's Club. Earlier this year I noticed they started handing out cards saying you could scan and pay through an app. It shocked me how nonchalantly it was being passed out by workers as if it was no big deal. There are a lot of workers out there who don't realize the looming threat to their jobs that is right around the corner.

Well, it's not like they can say no. Either hand out the cards now and get fired later. Or don't and get fired now.

The good thing is that it gives more motivation for the hustle. I want to be Fastlane before that sort of stuff hits because it will be one hell of a game changer. I'd like to be in a better off position to take advantage of it instead of the dreaded "what do I do now?" experience that Detroit factory workers experienced.

5-10 years is definitely plenty of time to build up and cash out, with enough to retire.

Then there's the part afterwards. No jobs is really safe. Not even AI programming itself.

But that's 20 or more years out. In the meantime, we have the prefect opportunity to be the first disruptors in an industry.

Think back to when the app store was new. Easy money with the first apps, even if newer and better ones came after.

 

[theresgot2bemore]

Well, it's not like they can say no. Either hand out the cards now and get fired later. Or don't and get fired now.



5-10 years is definitely plenty of time to build up and cash out, with enough to retire.

Then there's the part afterwards. No jobs is really safe. Not even AI programming itself.

But that's 20 or more years out. In the meantime, we have the prefect opportunity to be the first disruptors in an industry.

Think back to when the app store was new. Easy money with the first apps, even if newer and better ones came after.

Its not about questioning the cards but rather the people themselves don't realize how serious it is. I know from asking locals here and the folks at Sam's Club themselves. They see it as a joke since it seems so far away. They've got another thing coming.

I like the way you think! I, too, would like to be cashed out by the time automation happens. No way in hell would I stick around to find out how much the marketplace will be disrupted by this.