Losing the Human in the Loop

I spent over an hour trying to schedule an appointment with a VA doctor.

My family hasn't had this many problems with VA healthcare since 2011. To the VA's credit, things had really improved over the last decade…which is why what’s happening now is so incredibly shocking. 

Since the rapid rollout of AI into everyday operations, I've watched organizations that were once becoming more efficient (like the VA) somehow become less communicative, less accountable, and far less capable of solving basic human problems.

After multiple days of failed attempts at scheduling a VA doctor’s appointment, I got in my car, and drove more than an hour to speak with someone about making an appointment - something that was supposed to be handled electronically. The person behind the desk looked at the computer in front of them and essentially told me, "I don't really know how to use this thing. It's supposed to have AI that handles appointment requests, and then I just get notified."

That was it. No solution. No ownership. No accountability. (Still) no VA appointment. 

I thought AI was supposed to make our lives easier, our work more efficient, our organizations more effective. Instead, for months now, I've found myself spending more time trying to accomplish simple tasks that used to require a two-minute conversation with another human being.

And it isn't just healthcare.

This fall I'll be back in the classroom, and I'm already dreading the mountain of AI-generated assignments I'll have to sift through just to find the handful of students willing to share their own original thoughts.

At work, I review dozens of resumes every week. They all sound identical. The same polished buzzwords. The same personality-free paragraphs. I learn almost nothing about the actual human applying for the job.

Even remodeling my bathroom turned into an AI disaster. I spent nearly three hours at Lowe's trying to pick up bathroom fixtures I'd already ordered. Associate after associate stared at a handheld device, saying, "The system says it's here... but we can't find it."

I miss the days when I'd walk into the local hardware store, tell the owner what I needed, get three good enough recommendations, chat for a minute about the weather or high school football, and head home.

Life wasn't perfect, but was/is a whole lot better when there’s a functional human being in the loop.  

There's a growing myth that AI can replace us - that it can take over all the tedious parts of life while we simply supervise. Instead, many people have opted to delegate responsibility itself - to a very much untested machine. When something goes wrong with school records, medical referrals, loan applications, or insurance paperwork, nobody owns the problem anymore.

The answer is always the same: "I don't know," "The system was supposed to do this," "You'll have to find someone else to help."

Twenty years ago, I waited tables to put myself through college. During the Great Recession, if you worked for tips or commission, mediocre customer service wasn't an option. If you wanted to pay your bills, you solved problems, took ownership, and made wrong things right.

Somewhere along the way, we decided to trade accountability for piss-poor automation. Organizations proudly announce that they're "AI-enabled" while customers spend hours chasing down problems the technology was supposed to solve. Employees have become operators of systems they neither understand nor feel responsible for addressing when those systems fail.

The technology isn't the full problem - the biggest Charlie Foxtrot is that we opted to remove humans from the loop. We accepted a future where critical decisions, essential services, and baseline customer care could be delegated to an unaccountable auto-text predictor system with a few bells and whistles to get the VCs in Silicon Valley humming.  

The consequences of our lapse in responsibility are very real, and not confined to a network of AI-enabled chatbots. People miss medications because prescriptions aren't processed correctly and no one notices. Disabled veterans wait weeks or months for appointments because the electronic appointment requests go unanswered. Patients lose precious time when test results never reach the specialist because each person believes someone - or something, such as AI - else is responsible.

Actions have consequences, especially in an AI-enabled world where capabilities are (in theory) rapidly expanding.

At its core, technology should amplify human functions, not eliminate human responsibility. If AI frees us to spend more time thinking, caring, solving problems, and serving one another, that’s great; but when it becomes an excuse to stop thinking, stop caring, and stop being responsible humans, we've built something that doesn't just make for customer service nightmares - we've ushered in a culture of extreme apathy.

And that’s not good for anybody. 

Click here to read more ramblings on how AI is impacting a very-human world.