Earlier this week one of our admin assistants came to my office and announced that she had responded to a particularly detailed and complex piece of customer feedback by making use of ChatGPT.
I was not alarmed, because the employee in question is a bright, diligent, young individual who I knew would have read through the suggested reply before sending it.
Nonetheless, I looked over her response with some fascination, as I was curious whether ChatGPT would have truly understood what an operator would want to say to a customer who was raising concerns over the affect of some local authority roadworks on the punctuality of a home-to-school service.
What it came up with was actually very good and answered the correspondent’s queries in a professional, measured and informative way.
As someone who enjoys putting pen to paper and formulating a decent standard of letter, I have always been slightly cynical about the capability of ChatGPT, but the text presented to me this week again impressed, as previous examples have.
It is also really good at creating artistic and cartoonish images of company vehicles, in case anyone has not tried it and needs a quick social media graphic to accompany an otherwise text-heavy post…
In a month where Grok has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and numerous videos of Donald Trump’s hand have been circulating to fuel questions about his health and wellbeing – which could have been artificial intelligence generated – it reminds us to consider whether this technology could really be put to good use, rather than the litany of bad uses we read about.
A year or so ago, I travelled on an autonomous bus in Scotland. It was very much emerging technology then, as shown by the sudden and rather inelegant burst of energetic steering at various points.
There was also a driver present in the cab, such was the developmental nature of this ‘autonomous’ vehicle. It did give all onboard some food for thought, though. For certain repetitive journeys that follow the same route each time, a driverless bus is not an entirely unappealing proposition for an operator.
Given that wages and fuel remain the two highest cost lines within a public transport operation, the ability to cut down on one of them is certainly worthy of serious consideration.
Of course, for a large proportion of journeys, the human element is essential and hopefully always will be. Imagine a multi-day coach trip without the witty and good-humoured commentary of an experienced driver, or the compassion of a good tour guide when a passenger feels unwell or trips on the top step of the entrance, etc…
Technology is infectious. I am a firm believer in trying new things and embracing change, but I also keep in mind at all times that our industry relies heavily on people and personalities.
Nine out of 10 commendations I read from our customers relate to a human, whether it be an act of kindness, a good deed, or just a cheerful driver who has made a customer’s day better with a warm smile and a ‘hello’.
There will be a place for automation and robotics as the years progress, but I am not convinced that there will ever be a place for an entirely ‘humanless’ coach and bus operation.
Elon Musk famously once said that AI and robots will replace all jobs. He might be right in terms of science, climate change, environmental issues, etc., but I am not so sure he has hit the nail on the head for our sector.
