This is a the first chapter of a little story following the situation described in my post about AI and Jobs
Paul is an excellent plumber. He has a good reputation for his work, although some reviews are mixed about difficulty in contacting him.
The problem is that he is a one man business, and when he is under a sink he can’t answer his phone.
His wife is a teacher so she can’t help during school hours. His customers can get in touch when he is at home, sorting his accounts, preparing quotes and invoices, and ordering materials. Paul classes this as wasted time.
An old school friend, Alan has recently started a new venture after being made redundant from his job as an IT engineer at Google. They meet for a pint, and Alan explains that he is now an agent for “AIssist” who provide AI secretarial and accounting services. After listening to Alans presentation Paul agrees to try out the free 2 month trial period. He is sceptical, but Alan is an old mate so he feels he is helping out.
A week later, Alan comes to Pauls house and spends all day going through the system. Paul is amazed at how comprehensive the system is.
Six weeks later, Paul is wondering how he managed without it. Calls to him are now answered by an AI with very pleasant voice and manner. It (or she – he calls her “Alice”) takes details, and can handle much of the enquiries without help. If not, she sends Paul a text message who responds as soon as he can. Alice does the accounts, prepares quotes and invoices based on Pauls verbal instructions. As a new job comes in she can order materials, and schedule in the work. And she learns. At one point she pointed out that an enquiry from a “new” customer was actually from a previous customer who had delayed payment and quibbled unjustifiably about the work done. With no prompting from Paul she had noticed that although the mail, email, telephone number, and address were different, the enquiry came from the same IP address.
Paul is delighted with Alice. He can spend more time doing what he calls “productive” work, he is making more money and has more leisure time. When his two months free trial are up, he is happy to sign up for three years at £150 per month. He won’t be paying his accountant £700 to do his tax returns this year, and Alice says she can design his new website so he can stop paying for his current website maintenance.
Next Chapter:- The Obvious Shift
