How close are automated phone systems to understanding real emotions?
I’ve been dealing with a super long insurance issue this week, and their automated phone system kept “apologizing” whenever I sounded annoyed. It made me laugh a bit because it felt like it almost got what I was feeling but not quite. I’m curious—are these systems actually getting better at reading emotions, or is it just clever scripting with timing? Has anyone else noticed them reacting in a more “human” way lately?
I’ve noticed the same thing, especially with customer-support bots that try to adjust their tone based on your voice. From what I read on https://www.zmescience.com/tech/the-technology-behind-smarter-more-human-like-call-center-systems/, a lot of companies are using emotion-detection algorithms that track pitch and speech patterns. In my case, I once had a telecom bot slow down and speak more gently after I started explaining my frustration. It wasn’t perfect, but it did feel less robotic than older systems. I think they’re getting closer, but not enough to replace actual empathy.