We’ve all had to make an angry call or two to customer service and felt bad for letting loose on a call center worker. Eventually, there will be help for them, as AI software will cancel the emotion in an angry caller’s voice, allowing the worker to deal with the call more appropriately.
AI Tool Alters Callers’ Voices
You’ve just unpacked a new tech device you’ve been waiting for, only to find it’s not working properly. Your next logical step is to call the customer service line to ask for help. Unfortunately, the people answering the phones aren’t trained in using the device you just bought and are only working with scripts to answer your questions. It can be a bit frustrating.
SoftVoice is being developed by SoftBank, with the goal of changing the tone of callers’ voices so that the worker at the call center can more easily handle the issue. It can be challenging to listen to that anger.
In the contemporary call center environment, customer service representatives often have to deal with frustrated and angry callers, which can be emotionally draining and challenging. SoftVoice aims to mitigate this issue by moderating the emotional tone of the caller’s voice, making it more pleasant and easier to handle for the workers.
This technology will, essentially, “cancel out” the negative emotions conveyed through the caller’s tone, enabling the service representative to focus more effectively on resolving the issue at hand. By reducing the emotional strain on the workers, SoftVoice will not only enhance the quality of customer service but also contribute to better work conditions for call center employees.
The development of this emotion-cancelling software represents a significant step forward in improving the work environment in call centers and enhancing customer service quality, by effectively addressing the emotional challenges faced by call center representatives during their interactions with frustrated or upset customers.
The only problem is that SoftVoice is still a work in progress. It probably won’t be canceling the emotion in callers’ voices for another two years. If you’re a call center worker, you’ll have to keep dealing with frustrated callers, at least for a few years. Or you may be lucky enough to reach a call center now that uses AI chatbots.
FYI: learn how to make free phone calls anywhere.
Beyond Call Centers
But this emotion canceling technology could extend to beyond customer service complaints. It could move on to a much more important call center: first responders. How many times have you listened to a 9-1-1 call on the news and heard the operator asking the caller to calm down so that they can understand them?
With this software, or technology like it, more emergencies could be handled without the loss of life. Addresses and names could be delivered more clearly, and certainly, the reason for distress could be more easily understood.
Again, this software isn’t going to be ready for a few years, but perhaps other developers could create similar software that could be released sooner. Perhaps it could reach other ways of helping, rather than just call center workers.
We just have to make sure the voice-altering AI technology isn’t used to help scammers disguise their voices.
Image credit: Pexels
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Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.
