Are you open today? What’s the number of your Ayala branch? Answers to these questions are easy to program as chatbot routines. Instead, here I am, after more than an hour of calling and searching on mobile on my way to and now attending an event, and none the wiser as to whether any of Union Bank’s branches in Cebu are open today and until what time.

Nobody answers the phones of the different branches I called (may be an indicator) and the branch listing on the site is a non-responsive table and text is garbled. I went to the Facebook page to send a message but saw the indicator “typically replies within the day.”

It is in use cases like this that show the value of deploying a chatbot. Delivery of information as well as certain transactions can be instantaneous. (If you want a chatbot, do contact our team at InnoPub, we can deploy it for you).

Filipino tech pioneer Dado Banatao says AI will obliterate frontline BPO services in the next 2 to 3 years. Many workers will be displaced but new types of jobs will open. These jobs – such as making sense of data – will require retraining on at least basic engineering skills.

Meanwhile, AI failed me now. People, is the UnionBank branch in Ayala open today and until what time?