AppleCare Support Advisors Testing New ChatGPT-Like Tool 'Ask'

[MacRumors]

Apple is internally testing a new ChatGPT-like generative AI tool that will enable employees to offer faster technical support going forward.

Apple recently launched a pilot program that provides select AppleCare support advisors with access to a new tool called "Ask" that can automatically generate responses to technical questions they receive from customers, according to information obtained by MacRumors. Advisors can then relay the info to customers in online chats or on the phone.

"Ask" will automatically respond to a query with relevant information from Apple's internal knowledge base, and advisors can rate an answer as "helpful" or "unhelpful." Advisors can ask up to five follow-up questions per topic. Apple said it plans to make the tool available to more advisors in the future, after collecting feedback.

Apple encourages participating advisors to use "Ask" before using traditional search methods or consulting a senior advisor for info, and it says the tool is useful for solving complex or unfamiliar issues. As the tool is linked to Apple's internal knowledge base, the company ensures that the responses are factual, traceable, and useful.

An example of a query that "Ask" can respond to: "A customer is unable to update their device to iOS 13.7. What can be done?"

Apple is expected to adopt generative AI in a major way this year. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said iOS 18 will include many new generative AI features across Siri, Spotlight, Messages, Health, Numbers, Pages, Keynote, and more, and he was first to report that the AppleCare team would use generative AI to speed up customer support. This is the first time that details about Apple's internal "Ask" tool have been reported.

On an earnings call earlier this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company was working on generative AI and would share details "later this year." iOS 18 is expected to be announced at Apple's annual developers conference WWDC in June, and the update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.

Generative AI surged in popularity in late 2022 when OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that can respond to text and voice prompts. The chatbot is trained on large language models, allowing it to respond like a human. OpenAI has also developed tools that can automatically generate images and videos based on text prompts.

Article Link: AppleCare Support Advisors Testing New ChatGPT-Like Tool 'Ask'

 

[turbineseaplane]

Ugh

Chatbots are already miserable

Maybe this will make them better I guess? I hope?

 

[chineseguy38]

AppleCare support is bad enough with human. Now with machine. GREAT!

 

[treacher]

This is interesting. Hopefully this will smooth out support sessions for everyone.

 

[till]

This is probably similar to NVIDIA's "Chat With RTX", which is basically just an intelligent search engine that can answer questions based on the documents you provide. It can't create anything new. It's pretty cool.

 

[GrayFlannel]

Like a talking paperclip?

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I've never met a chatbot that helped me with tech support. Though I would say this reader base is more resourceful than your average tech user.

 

[KaliYoni]

a new tool called "Ask" that can automatically generate responses to technical questions they receive from customers

I hope I can figure out how to do a six-fingered gesture on my trackpad the next time I call Apple Support!
;-)

 

[ACHD]

AppleCare support is bad enough with human. Now with machine. GREAT!

considering something like 98% + are all vendors with like 2 weeks of training AT BEST and thousands being trained and quitting within any given month. Yep

 

[Adoniram]

The support reps are literally training their replacement. Fascinating…

 

[CarAnalogy]

I gotta say I have been surprised to find the newer "AI assistants" on some services to be useful. They apparently never could get simple search right, but they now can at least bring me to the correct web page.

 

[Verified Whiskey]

This.. is actually very smart. Having a controlled dataset is great for accuracy and search ability. A computer can search through a knowledge base much faster than a human could. As long as it doesn’t eventually phase out human jobs, and instead enhance them (multitasking?) I’m all for this.

Not to mention the mandatory rating afterwards, that will help it improve its reliability.

 

[entropys]

This is probably similar to NVIDIA's "Chat With RTX", which is basically just an intelligent search engine that can answer questions based on the documents you provide. It can't create anything new. It's pretty cool.

Yeah, not sure why this is called “AI”.

 

[Rradcircless]

This is probably similar to NVIDIA's "Chat With RTX", which is basically just an intelligent search engine that can answer questions based on the documents you provide. It can't create anything new. It's pretty cool.

As a writer, I would love a feature like this, to be able to ask what my existing notes say about an event or a character. It can be daunting to backtrack to find my notes when I’m working on something.

 

[HiVolt]

Yeah, not sure why this is called “AI”.

It's the buzzword of the year.

 

[goonie4life9]

I wonder what Apple is going for here, considering their “go-to” steps are already established: restart the device, force restart, reset settings, erase and reinstall, and RTA to Engineering, to be told, “Keep your device up to date.”

 

[Promostyle]

Supervised learning… ugh.

 

[chineseguy38]

considering something like 98% + are all vendors with like 2 weeks of training AT BEST and thousands being trained and quitting within any given month. Yep

I thought a lot of people thinks Apple is the dream company to work for? 😂😂

 

[7thson]

Full AI Applecare Support is not far off. Not sure how I feel about it, but it doesn’t matter because Apple‘s gonna do what’s best for their bottom line. It‘s possible it could just be as bad as it is now, so that means it has the potential to be an improvement.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

I remember chatting with a Lufthansa chatbot. I explained my problem in Detail and the responds was basically "I don't understand your question. Could you ask something simpler?".

I feel not taken seriously if I have an issue with a product or service and the company does everything to avoid talking to me in person.

 

[turbineseaplane]

As long as it doesn’t eventually phase out human jobs, and instead enhance them (multitasking?) I’m all for this.

You’ve just articulated “the plan” from the C Suite

 

[kwikdeth]

That's fine by me. Go ahead and replace the front line support with AI. Most front line support I've dealt with in the last couple years has been utterly useless, including apple. Elevated support hasn't been much better either.
I second the notion made by an earlier poster that the input you can get from people on this forum is better than any you'll get with the official source. People on here are actually using their stuff and not just reading legal-approved scripted responses designed to cram in as many calls as possible in any given shift.

 

[Darren.h]

MORE tech jobs probably cut at Apple. swell.

you can not repair an iPhone or an Apple silicon Mac at home. your at Apples mercy.

right to repair too expensive and your still at apples mercy for serialized parts that need to be activated to work.

 

[svish]

Hoping that the customer support quality does not reduce due to this. Expecting to see Apple use AI across their software this year.

 

[Wanted797]

So now the offshore consultant will copy and paste me pretty much the same response as chat gpt.

Got it.