Tag Archives: Customer Care

September 26, 2026 · 16:39

TradeDelicious

Yes, a difficult word and not one I understand all the time, that blissful feeling that oozes over me comes with a shortage and it is shared by all with a weak understanding of economy (not something that happens to people like Mark Carney), but I (the one and only) an at times blissfully ignorant of the economic condition. As such, at times, I fear that ‘weakness’, but I do not fear being weak on this, as such I try to keep awake (as like, not sleeping) on the economic condition. And I was ‘made’ aware of an article in TradingView by the headline ‘Michael Burry Warns Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle Could Face AI Write-Off Shock’ where we see “Burry said net capital investment by S&P 500 companies reached 2.07% of GDP at June 30, a level he described as the highest in nearly four decades outside the period following the 2000 Nasdaq peak. He estimated that Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Meta (META) and Oracle (ORCL) have about $3 trillion in commitments and other exposures linked to AI infrastructure, including leases, construction projects and purchase obligations.” So, whilst we also see that these are the firms that ‘eloquently’ dismiss staff members all over the globe, the idea that 5 firms have over 3000 billion invested on fake AI settings (my personal view) is a little too shaky to consider and that needs to be taken into consideration. You see, I don’t care about Microsoft, they did this to their self, but I am concerned about Google and Oracle. They are the massive backbone of larger IT. And they are firms where I would have liked to have been part of and part of me still are. I deliver support and customer care and as such I believe that these two firms are part of what most of us really like. But I also see that if support and customer care diminish in these two parts of IT, customer care will really falter on a near global foundation and as such places like TradingView are making me aware of hardship coming our way and don’t take the words of Satya Nadella as some kind of gospel. A little less than 15 hours ago he basically proclaimed “Nadella thinks the AI industry is too self-obsessed to explain why anyone else should care. “I think we are way too self-obsessed as an industry about, look at us, how glorious we are,” he tells me. His prescription is to let the people using AI speak to its benefits and demonstrate that it creates economic opportunity for workers and the communities hosting data centers. More pronouncements from tech CEOs won’t do it: “Any amount that I say or any one of us say is not good enough anymore, I feel.””, I say that anyone claiming that a fake setting is glorious, I have said so again and again. And the ‘doubt’ (brought like a second hand car salesman in a championship voice) will not cut it and the people are figuring this out, right now, the world is figuring out that that AI is a sliding scale whilst more and more are realizing that this is over a decade away, so that issue with Trust is a hidden trap. He, in the near past stated that he “envisions a future where enterprises manage millions of AI agents working alongside human staff”, really? Microsoft cut more than 15,000 jobs across two major rounds in 2025 to reallocate resources toward massive artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investments and 4800 jobs in 2026. That is massive and the claim that “An autonomous “always-on” digital teammate running on cloud servers that can work 24/7 without waiting for a prompt. Users assign it a name, role, and goal to track project decisions, watch channels, remind colleagues, and manage multi-step workflows” I reckon he got that ‘Always on’ from Don Mattrick and you know what happened there. It basically costed him the entire gaming branch Microsoft ones had and now that is basically gone. And then for the longest time he ‘proclaimed’ that “Microsoft and industry research project that more than 1.3 billion AI agents will be in operation across global business systems by 2028” and whilst we can see that 1.3 million (a 0.1% part is coming true, the idea that the 99.9% comes within the next 14 months is laughable to say the least. It is predictive speculation (which is nothing like predictive analytics) and he better adjust his point of view and I saw that even before he made that claim. I speculatively am considering that he has been sniffing the Microsoft glue too much. So as we all take notice of this, we also see that people Like Oracle have been footing the hardware and software bill and the makes sense, because no matter how I see things, even in predictive analytics, whomever holds the hardware and software will become undisputed rules of that field and that is where I see Oracle going, as such “Oracle has cut approximately 21,000 jobs globally (about 13% of its workforce) over the past year as part of a major corporate restructuring to fund massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and data center infrastructure” (source: BBC) makes little sense. In all earnest, if people are to embrace the data centre vibe, Oracle needs more, not less people. Because all these dim witted  IT population out there needs to come massively aware of the shortcomings of data centres and with that the people who are learning that trinary beats binary in that field will take massive undertaking and even as Oracle is one of two players to be aware of that (Snowflake will be the other one) we can see that the world will undergo changes and massive ones. As such I felt that my ‘expertise’ in training, tech support and customer care would be my asset when all this hit and that current population of ‘yay’ sayers will undo itself in a haze of confusion when the world gets the setting that they had been betting on the wrong horses all along. It basically would set me up for a better job in the currently near future in Canada, the UAE, EU or other commonwealth places. Because the truth is that when people are figuring this out, the people they fired at Oracle will be worth their weight in gold and I feel that I would be on the ‘good’ stack of people discarded a little too soon and the was making me happy. 

So to see the View of TradingView where we also see “Burry expects investment to keep rising and said write-downs could emerge around 2028 or 2029 if AI capacity exceeds demand. He compared the current spending cycle with the late-1990s telecom buildout, when heavy investment was followed by excess capacity, weaker returns and substantial depreciation. He also questioned Oracle’s treatment of customer prepayments and cited rising financing concerns surrounding its large data-center projects.” But consider that he states that “when heavy investment was followed by excess capacity, weaker returns and substantial depreciation” comes with shortage of staff and the ‘figment’ setting of 1.3 billion AI agents. The pure waters will require tens of thousands of support staff, because when that part goes, the global customer care and customer support stations will be empty of people and anyone not ready there will be requiring that group of people to be fought over and quite hard. And in all this, no one is looking at the requirement of IBM at that setting and it will acquire as many ex-Oracle staff as they can for the mere need of support for its IBM Bob (basically the IBM Watson AI branch) coding agents and that shortage needs to be filled up fast, because as we are given “IBM Bob Powers Faster Innovation, Higher Productivity & Modern App Development. IBM Bob Accelerates Development by Automating Complex, Time‑Consuming Works. Earlier Risk Detection. 100K+ visits in past month” Yes, there is a market for those who are putting in the time and the hours and that is where (at present) IBM will surpass all others and whilst I hate to see that Oracle is to be surpassed, they did this to themselves. But as I see it, the market is ruled by those who steered firm and clear past the ‘AI BS’ that the world is drowning in and IBM is one of the few who seemingly did this. So whilst Oracle, Amazon and Google will require strong readjustments before 2027 cones to an end, they will feel the heartache (preceding their own upcoming coronary) and I felt that as I took all settings of training, customer care and technical support in strides, feel that I am in a really kosher place. Whether this is in Mississauga, Abu Dhabi, Sydney or Stockholm. I felt that I would end OK is a pretty cool feeling and as I see it, Oracle and IBM are pretty good bosses to end up with. So I saw that other who saw this too, because they were actively hiring the fired Oracle staff members and that is fine with me. There is a whole world that will scream “Who can we hire?” And I am merely listening to the sound web for the right signals. And that is more than all he wrote. And the ‘end’ quote on “The remarks center on future capital intensity, with the impact depending on how quickly AI demand develops relative to new capacity.” Sounds right, but it is not. Well, perhaps for Michael Burry it either is or might be, but the larger setting is that whoever have the stuff to guide whatever the larger population of IT sweeps need, the stronger that firm will be and I reckon that Snowflake is in a decent place and IBM soon will be and after that I hope that Oracle reattaches the needs it has, but the others? They will become canon fodder and consider that someone (not saying who ;-)) claimed that someone claimed that 1.3billion AI agents are doing the work in 2028 and then fires over 20,000 people and leave someone to rehires and retrains them was a little of his game. But when you rely on your own marketing to tell you the story, that is where you are heading. But that is merely my own (and optionally wrong setting). So whilst I am ‘considered’ the false prophet and I have been stating the same thing for over 5 years, all whilst the ‘adjusting impressionable’ influencers adjusted their own story each and every wave and I am still in the setting that this AI (or super intelligence) is still over a decade away, all whilst my setting of advocated predictive analytics is now shown to be a correct view is now accepted by the IT community at large is the stage you should be considering and Michael Burry is seeing a different part, but this adjustment of over 3 trillion is coming and whoever is caught in that wake will face serious considerations and whilst I am still dreaming of a nice apartment in Mississauga or Toronto is seeing where the power will soon reside, is showing a massive setting that might come with hard work, but I reckon that these places will prefer a person who saw this in the first place instead of a YAY sayer who is adjusting their view for the umpteenth time is feeling like the proper boss to work for. 

So as I see it, my time of cakes, putting and a nice warm living room is about to see the light of near luxury. And it merely took my smarts, which is what any Uni graduate will like from the get go. Have a great day all.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 12, 2026 · 13:43

From a deceptive mind

Yup, that’s me. I saw an article and the sneaky mind went to work. All because some words gave me ample reasons to do so. But lets start at the beginning. It all started with a story in the Microsoft Source Australia (at https://news.microsoft.com/source/asia/features/how-commonwealth-bank-and-microsoft-are-reimagining-the-future-of-customer-service/) where we see ‘How Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft are reimagining the future of customer service’ really? Reimagining? I get that Microsoft sees a blanket of opportunity, because as I see it, on a near global scale Technical Support and Customer Care will take dives and the need of clear quality is to be found nearly everywhere. But here is the kink in this cable. There already is a supplier. It is called NICE, an Israeli cloud supplier. I saw several options for Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I wrote about it in the story ‘Dominoes’ on December 4th 2023 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/12/04/dominoes/). I didn’t give the entire setting, but they were here first as such the solution ‘reimagined’ is not seen by me here.

So when I saw “Martin Lindsay had a bold vision to reimagine the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s contact center architecture using an approach that did not yet exist. As Executive General Manager of Customer Service Direct at the banking group, Lindsay set out to bring together multiple legacy systems supporting voice, messaging and digital interactions into a single, AI-powered omni-channel platform. The goal was to create a more intuitive, conversational experience for customers, while supporting frontline teams with better tools to serve them.” I had to giggle, because that is basically what the NICE CX One platform does and in several other ways. As such is this an attempt to plagiarise an already excellent idea, or are these people making sure that the “The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) serves approximately 17 million retail, business, and institutional customers across the country, representing nearly two-thirds of the Australian population. Of this total, the bank has over 1 million business customers and 8.3 million digitally active users.” (Source: Oogly Googly Google) fall straight via Microsoft into the Cloud Act capturing settings of the United States of America? Yes, people seem to forget is trivialize that cloud act and someone needs to take a longer look at this. For example an optional pretentious Martin Lindsay who had his ideas close to 5 years after NICE did. Nice started in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering and that’s evolved into the setting we see now. As such what is the setting of imagination at Microsoft? (optionally at the CBA too). And as I see it, it is an Israeli company, but NiCE is an American technology company specializing in customer relations management software (NiCE CXone), artificial intelligence, and digital and workforce engagement management. OK, as I see it the cloud act is not avoided, but the fact that some (read: Microsoft Source Australia) might want to peer their sugar coated story. So when we get to “The catalyst came in early 2024, when Lindsay partnered with leaders from Microsoft to co‑engineer the solution. The timing was driven by a rapid shift in customer expectations for instant, always-on support, while the bank’s existing virtual chatbot was being wound down.” One might have a Conspiracy Theorist mind (that would be me) seeing that I saw this a year before him, that he had an idea to take the idea from NiCE and give it a swirl and optionally he saw Microsoft as a partner in alleged crime. Alleged, because I have no idea how this went, but as we look at Nice (at www.nice.com) you can see how evolved that idea already is and as such why reinvent the wheel? I have my doubts on this idea. Especially as we can see a massively evolved system, it seems to go even further than when I saw it in 2023 (which makes sense). So as I see that setting I also see “We wanted to work with Microsoft to shape their products and deliver a platform aligned to our future strategy. We knew that meant working with Microsoft as a co-creator in our vision from day one.” But I read it as “We needed a Microsoft tainted solution where I get the credit, the commission and I call Microsoft a ‘co-creator’ so that I can get my coins”, so am I pushing the conspiracy theory setting? I might be, but this is how business is done in this modern age. Because if NiCe was rejected, the story would be “We saw a solution that didn’t match with our vision, so we talked to Microsoft and see if they would help us out” and at this point you see the consultancy solution that NiCE could offer and was rejected for a much bigger bill.

Apart from that there is nothing. As I see it, the world will have a massive Technical support and Customer Care issue from 2027 onwards. As people are fired all over the place they can hire people with a telephone voice and a good setting towards data entry, both are essential in these fields. But what do I know, I have merely be set into the Technical Support world and Customer Care world since 1992. So I know a few things, which is also why I saw the essential needed setting of NiCE. 

The rest of the story was too self adoring for me to adhere to, as people see that Customer Care has a low tolerance for failure, It is essentially humorous to see that Microsoft is clearly not using their own solution. Why? Perhaps Clippy objected? That Is a mere speculation on the matter and even in this case speculations tend to matter, because the idea is seemingly nice and merely seemingly because someone else saw that sight first and as I see it, the CBA never seemingly saw it as they went shopping at Microsoft. But what do I know? 

Have a great day you all, time for some coffee.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

July 6, 2026 · 12:08

History marks arrived

That is what I see, there are two settings. The first one was not new, it was three weeks old when I saw (at https://www.wired.com/story/a-court-has-ruled-that-google-is-liable-for-false-statements-generated-by-ai-overviews/) ‘A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI Overviews’ it is not entirely undeserved, but it also sets Google up for people fleecing them, so some will ‘cater’ to the need of supporting a setting that set Google up for a trap. We cannot see this directly from “Germany has issued a ruling that could reshape the operation of search engines and artificial-intelligence-based chatbots worldwide. The Munich Regional Court preliminarily ruled that Google is liable for a series of false statements generated by its AI Overviews feature, requiring the company to prevent the dissemination of erroneous or inaccurate claims through its search engine.” So, whilst some will cater to the need of false feeing that search engine, we are left with a more than slightly vulnerable Google. Whilst we see (at https://www.rmit.edu.au/about/schools-colleges/media-and-communication/industry/rmit-information-integrity-hub/the-repost/june-2026) ‘Should AI be liable for its mistakes? A German court says yes.’ Where we see “Jeannie Paterson, a law professor and co-director of the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne, said the decision was “potentially very important” and could have ramifications for Australian consumers. The decision hinged on who is responsible for the content of AI search results. The law has traditionally considered social media platforms and search engines to be mere conduits for information, Professor Paterson told The Repost, meaning companies “only become liable if they knowingly participate” in sharing information that proves to be wrong.” I personally believe that Professor Paterson is setting up loaded dice. You see, in the first AI does not yet exist. And the second part is “who is responsible for the content of AI search results”, that answer has two stages. The first is the programmer who ‘created’ the analytical setting of predictive analytics, because that is part of any DML/LLM setting. It is not AI. And that data is also a side, because there is a massive failure of validation and verification. We see it all the time and whilst some are ‘whisking’ it away through ‘hallucinations’ I have seen the Grok side of things on data that I created and it take all without any reference other stories I had written, as such we see a programming failure. And through that the stage of “who is responsible” gets a new life and makes the water pretty murky.

That is what I see. And anyone saying I am wrong can take a long walk of a short pier. As I saw that, another stage was handed to me.

Last week we were given ‘Ford rehires human engineers after AI fails to match quality checks’ (source: BBC), this is not new, I saw this coming a mile away and I present (as pseudo evidence) ‘Is it more than buggy?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/01/05/is-it-more-than-buggy/) and I wrote that story in January 2024 (over 2.5 years ago), as such it should count as evidence and I gave the clear settings of “On May 27th 2023 the BBC reported (at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65735769) that Peter LoDuca, the lawyer for the plaintiff got his material from a colleague of his at the same law firm. They relied on ChatGPT to get the brief ready.” Which now intersects with the AFR (at https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/ai-use-in-dismissal-claims-borders-on-contempt-of-court-judge-warns-20260705-p60cob) ‘AI use in dismissal claims borders on contempt of court, judge warns’ and considering that this failures car in May 2023 when the BBC reported on this, we see a larger immature failure of other branches as well. You see, that it was tried is OK, and it failed three years ago, as such others should have stopped this as soon as they came aware. These settings all intertwine, because validation and verification is all part of these failures. As I see it, they were never made. I would be in favour of a separate tier of verifying all it produces, and these sources need to be validated. As such “after one claimant’s chatbot cited large swaths of evidence that did not exist, in a case showing the technology bedevilling the workplace umpire is now hitting the courts.” So, evidence that did not exist, where have I seen that before? (Small giggle inserted afterwards). This is why I feel that my services n technical support and customer service will be needed soon enough. When Fake AI fails to this degree. It is one small step for the AI agent to tell the customer “just press the carrier online button on the right side of your device” for this to fail and when that happens a few times, these ai agents will be pushed into the land of the Dodo soon enough. And that (until there is an actual AI) with proper validated and verified data is where that agent remains. You see, it was never rocket science. Some sales person saw the DML/LLM setting and started to call it AI, but Alan Turing had some clear settings on it all and this is not it. I believe in DML/LLM solutions, I saw an amazing application for lost and found in an airport reducing days in optionally less than an hour and there are more, but it is the, not AI, no matter how sweet they mention AI, it is the trap the salespeople set up and now that the class actions are setting in all kinds of field and personally I keep a high note on ‘Unauthorised Training Data’ and ‘AI washing’, whilst an alleged Anthropic settled for $1.5 billion for using pirated books to train its Claude AI model, I see my data transgressed upon and whilst some state that this is $1.5M per work, I was transgressed over 1700 times, as such I should be a billionaire (we can all dream can’t we?) But clearly I am not on that setting yet (to be clear I just confirmed with my wallet and my wallet is moaning due to a lack of green bills of $100. 

All these factors add up and whilst some are already seeing the lack of data, the lack of verification and the lack of validation. There is an overdue stage of properly aligning the settings we should be seeing. And that is why the class actions continue and whilst some will whip them away in settlements. And whilst we wonder why it took so long (over 3 years) for law firms to see that stage, we will see a lot more, because as I see it, the law interns believe that true time savings could be made with any ChatGPT/Claude the reality is slightly different and soon these clients will set up clauses that no AI is to be used and that is the larger failure in all this. So whilst Ford saw their failings in the early age, big software firms  aligning with what they call AI Agentic solutions will soon learn the price of that failure. And this is not just Microsoft, this is likely to effect all large software vendors. As such thousands will be hired once more and some who were pushed out in a slightly disgusting way will seek any other employment, as such these ‘embracers of Fake AI’ as I tend to call them will have a new problem and employment agencies are no longer able to get any, some who used their Agentic solutions from day one. And the fallout is soon spreading all over the world. So as I have seen these markers all over 2025, I see opportunity (for myself) and other technical support people in 2026 and 2027. The question for these firms becomes, did they treat their support people proper, or were they (as the teams goes) ‘dicks in reducing their staff members’ in this I love the quote from Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) “This thing that you do, Ted, where you come into a place and push people out, you should know those people worked really hard to build this magazine. They believed in the motto. And I get it, you’ve got your marching orders and you have to do what you have to do, but you don’t have to be such a d*ck. Put that on a plaque and hang it at your next job.” And those who loved the part Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott) played in all this, because he was so managemently will now have a much larger problem, because I am still in contact with buddies who did my job 30 years ago and we all talk. So they now are unlikely to find anyone. So whilst they are learning that all AI is Fake AI and they could wait for for 2 decades (for True AI), but their KPI based is not that long, they now have a problem. And the is all before they figured that all data required revalidation, verification and attune it to a newer system, the markets will suddenly experience the bubble setting, that according to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who called the current artificial intelligence boom a “bubble” is an insult will be forced to do an about turn on that setting, of course those investors will have faced the write off if trillions, so they are unlikely to send Masayoshi Son a Christmas card in 2028, but that is merely my view on the matter. 

What matters is that is that these evangelists and influencers screaming “AI” are about to be found out as the new evil. There is also the groups that properly set the AI field in a DML/LLM setting, and they will be OK. If they had properly prepared their customers and aligned them with what is, I reckon that they will be OK (still a personal view on the matter).

So where are we now?
As the news is giving us more and more failures, more and more about turns from larger companies. We are seeing what could become the implosion of that bubble. The problem is that is will not implode all at once (some are unable to survive that), it is more likely then not to manifest itself as group implosions. Not all at once, but (for example) 10 explosions of 10% and when they are apart enough, some of the larger player will survive. In one setting when these judges consider that this setting was going on from 2023, making the decision that all AI assessed briefs are regarded as “clear contempt of court” we see that it would become a setting of staggered failures and when the time between these events are enough apart, the write off is optionally limited, but that is me just hoping for a reduced heartache. It is unlikely to affect me, but hoping for the worst setting is just uncivil. 

There was actually more, but I am somewhat exhausted and I have written part f all this before, just browse through my blog. I am still in a setting where I want to see who used my blog for scraping and AI washing. I doubt if I will ever find evidence that holds up in court, but with a (massively delusional) $2.55 billion which was 1700 times 1.5M at stake, one might be willing to waste a few hours on this. Anyway time for men to continue a written adventure in Abu Dhabi, time for more there too.

Have a great day. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Law, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 28, 2026 · 02:07

Out of the blue

So, I was attending a setting where I was dependent on customer support. I am being intentionally vague here, because the youthful young sprout side nothing wrong. She was just young (about my age millennia ago), but before you start judging her, and she did nothing wrong. I got to think “What if we had customer support settings on a DML level?” Consider this (overly exaggerated example) 

Tech help: Good morning, how can I assist you?
Customer: My house is on fire
Tech help: Please take a moment to assess how we can help, how can we assist?
Customer: It’s freakin hot, my house is on fire

As you might expect, this will not go anywhere useful soon. And you might think that this is an exaggeration, but when you are assisting a customer and he cannot get to his data, his life figuratively ends. So we need to get tech hardware to assist us. So what if we had a voice measuring setting? Not to interpret (even thought this might help too), a setting where the voice can be measured for stress levels. The technology exist, but consider that this might be overly expensive. How can this technology be made cheaper? Now consider a DML engine that parses the stress level and considers alternative responses so instead of “How can we asses you problem”, state “let us assist you too get your data to you”, but the system gives the tech help options, and the setting gives the 4-5 responses in colour. Red would be ‘Don’t do that’, but others might become options, Orange, Yellow and Green would be available. There will be moments when the Orange is the only one that makes sense, but Green would optionally be the best. And the learning setting that a DML/LLM support system has is that it can keep track of the answers and how it affected the customer. You see, I have been in tech support for decades and there are a few handles you can apply, but the scripted answer is never a great option (I never showed that to my bosses), they had too tender an ego to risk it. 

So when this system would be deployed, optionally with bells and whistles like zendesk, but most of these products are about recording data, not a setting that actively supports the Helpdesk to record and adjust scripts for aiding the tech support. And even if all these AI systems are fake AI, the data for customer service, customer care and technical support exists, there is plenty of it. So these systems are fake AI, but it is based on DML/LLM systems and they could bring a much larger change in this field. And as I see it, change will be required soon enough. The old guard of these systems are retiring and the new generation mostly lack experience. So why not let the DML/LLM system tweak the system? 

These were just a few settings I was looking at and at present I have no idea what there is, so I ned to look into this, because I might have developed an idea here, but perhaps so did someone else and I need to look into this to see what there is. So it is a little out of the blue, but I have been involved with customer care and technical support for decades, so I might has an idea or two to help this along. So, I need to mull over a few things and as I had nothing to offer DARPA (they are all in drone mode) I need to find a new hobby in the non-drone setting. Although destroying the Iranian railway systems are done based (as was my handle to destroy their refineries). And as DARPA is in delusional mode (as I personally see this) to get a drone carry twice the weight of the drone, is simply ridiculous. The Cessna 408 SkyCourier couldn’t do it, the ATR 72-600F couldn’t do it and the BAE 146-200QT couldn’t do this, and they have people in place who tried that for a life time, so why push the cogs of a civilian setting? I felt pretty proud that I as a non-expert in drones found a way to destroy Iranian railway lines and refineries. But I do believe that DARPA is taking this to a delusional stage. 

Still for now lets see what we can do to improve customer carer lives and reduce the stress they are confronted with. A much more rewarding result. Don’t you think so?

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 5, 2026 · 16:25

The setting we hope for

That is a given, we all hope that certain settings come to play and I am no different. Part of it is banked on settings that are realistic and then there are those that are not that realistic. Before I start with this, one little update. I made mention of a new movie that would scare the nasty cloth out of the NSA (GCHQ too) and I just gotten the first few scenes out of the way. It makes me happy, but now I realise that it is not going to be a two hour event. At present I’m sitting on the first part, but the continuing story will not be a lot more than a short film some define this as under 40 minutes (including credits), That is what I am looking at. Perhaps a TV film? It wouldn’t be much longer and lets be clear. If you need two hours to scare the pants out of the NSA, your not doing a particular good job, but I might be wrong. So the script will be ready a lot sooner than I bargained for. 

So back to the matter at hand. Realistically the employment game is definitely changing because (at https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/23/oracles_new_aienhanced_support_portal/) we get told that ‘Oracle’s new AI-enhanced support portal leaves users fuming’ which was released just before Christmas, so I missed out on this initially, but we are given “Oracle’s new AI-powered support portal is frustrating customers and support engineers who are struggling to find the basics, such as old tickets, links to database patch programs and release schedules for current databases.” It works for me as I have worked my whole life in customer service and technical support. As such it seems my streak of bad luck is ending and when a company like Oracle gets it wrong, there is not much hope that the others are fairing better, which would work out well for me.

I miss customer service and I remember when I was ‘made redundant’ all whilst others were saying that the new technologies were making my job obsolete. And I have reason to smile. When I am shown “Greg Parikh, Oracle veep for information development and operations, said in a blog post that the MOS portal offers new features, including AI-powered interactions, streamlined navigation, improved search capabilities, and enhanced knowledge access.” And as I see it, those who live according to the sweet spot of cheap revenue now see that others aren’t having much luck either and they need to consider their sales track and how they can salvage what can be salvaged and now it turns out that they will need manpower as the most defining resource and that is good news for me. And as I see it (in case of Oracle) that looking at “Users pointed out IDs had completely changed, such that searching for 888.1 — the Primary Note for Database Proactive Patch Program — or 555.1 — database 19c Recommended One-off patches returns error message KA912 as the top result. “Links to other documents, which still reference the old IDs, are currently failing for me,” one user said.” Gives the indication that their knowledge base isn’t doing any better and if the programmers cannot make it work, their manpower setting will drastically change and this is just Oracle. As I see it, there are hundreds more firms who have that very same escalating problem, as such I expect that places like ADNOC (Abu Dhabi) might soon require their own corporate service division and their own technical support making short work of the available resources. I reckon that this works out nicely for me. 

So we have the realistic settings, and the dreamy station of a new movie, or at least whilst I am still applying for jobs, it will have to do and it keeps my but this creativity high, an undervalued ability in customer service. But this is merely one setting. Is it that bad? Well you judge, but a little over a year ago we were given ‘16 technical support tools to look out for in 2025’ (source:outsource accelerator) and some do work, but if didn’t grab the right one, the setting is a precautious one. Do you switch and take that chance or reinvest in your own knowledge base and that setting is dangerous, because you could lose a lot more than you bargained for. So whilst some went into combinations of SaaS, Paas or IaaS, your customers are in a tight setting where they demand service or they walk. Larger firms have even a more robust setting and in this age of fake AI, revenue lost is a large setting of shareholders giving up on you. That is the upside for me and as I see it, my time is not worth its weight in gold. 

So whilst we are given ‘IBM Is Laying Off Thousands of Employees as Its AI Business Surges’ they are also cutting a single digit percentage which in case of their 270,000-person global workforce which implies that up to 25,000 people are being laid off. Now consider where they are and that is not a given, but technical support requires certain people to stay in place and when that is messed with nearly anything can go wrong. Now IBM and Oracle are two of the big boys and they wold have their ships in place. And in that setting we see the Register giving us the setting above. 

So, who else and how much is being slid down the pipeline because some people think of their trolley and forget that other trolleys require assistance. It is in that setting that I think that the larger players need to hold one and rehire their old staff a lot faster before that knowledge goes somewhere else and in both these settings I get to win a better place in the work atmosphere.

Am I right? Am I wrong?

That is usually the question, but I personally believe that I am right because I never expected a player like Oracle getting that part wrong, as such things are looking up to the people who worked their lifetime in Technical Support and Customer Care. Even if it goes more towards a player like Zendesk. The knowledge that they have requires expansion because that knowledge is about to go the way of the Dodo. In other views, they are not the only one and the one who has the most diverse software takes over the others who are lacking. And as I see it, these systems are not enabling systems. They take it all and that is fine, but when we see the kind of failures that Oracle is showing the world, we see a growing set of barriers that could (merely a could here) define the needs for the next decade because all these cost crunchers require AI (which does not yet exist) and now that they are getting nervous, they need to concentrate on what works and what is merely bling for show. As such I feel vindicated is probably the best word. My knowledge is about to get a value upgrade, so I start 2026 feeling rather happy. And of course I could be wrong and I need to consider other venues. Time will tell.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 8, 2024 · 12:00

How to measure success?

That is the question is was facing today. It wasn’t about my success (or lack thereof). It was about the olympics. One member (a fellow Australian) was happy because we had two additional gold members over the United Kingdom. But there was something wrong with that train of thought. It was too American. Don’t get me wrong, as I see it it is great to have more golden medals, but in my old fashioned way of life (and thinking) it is weird that the runners up get to live. I must be going soft in my old age.

You see with Australia grasping a 14-12-9 achievement and the United Kingdom holding onto 12-15-19 at present this list could go into any direction. However, this got me thinking. How do you measure success? Don’t get me wrong the gold number are nice, yet it is not a true list of achievement, is it? I have been pondering this and my mind took me to the old 1,2,3 squared allocation. So Bronze counts as 1, Silver as 4 and gold as 9. Now we get to 183 for Australia and 187 for the United Kingdom. UK won by a nose-hair as jockeys tend to say. So is this actually fair? How can medals be universally set? I don’t think that a boxer will accept equal points to an equestrian, in support, the horse will not go along with that either. Still there is a need to give some level of equality especially as the best of the best of the best in any of these disciplines are competing, yet the simple set to look at the golden medals seems wrong (possibly Canadian Summer McIntosh might agree but she just got 3 golden and one silver medal), at 17 she got (as far as I know) a tied second place with a few others all with three golden medals in the French Olympics. 

However I still ponder, is my formula the right one? It seems to be, but it might be my own shortsightedness to think so. 

Still, the question remains, how do you measure success, and not just in sports. In the 90’s I was subject KRA’s (Key Result Areas) and I accepted them as I had no knowledge on how to measure success. Even in customer care and Technical Support these numbers (when applied to the field I was in) made perfect sense. At some point you need to consider what to measure and how to measure it. Medals are a finite point of achievement, customer care is a little bit more fluidic. So how to go about it? The Olympic medallist might have kicked this off, but my brain takes into all directions. So with one movie script under my belt (for assessment with Dubai Media) am I more successful in scripting then all my friends (both of them)? They are not in that field, so how to generalise some metrics? You see we can grab Z-scores but as far as I can see that is a near obsolete approach to matters (perhaps what the people call AI use this) and now we get to the next bit and why I used Summer McIntosh as an example. These were her first Olympics, so how could there be a Z-score of her and how would it be reliable (or relatable)? Previous competitions? These were her first olympics and even in global events the pressures are different. 

And the field becomes even more complex, you see whatever they call these systems based on LLM’s and Deeper Machine Learning, it is either set by a programmer, or set by data and there the problem becomes a lot larger as both are used. Without proper verification and a number of constraints the equation becomes a GIGO rule (Garbage In Garbage Out).

I wonder how much some players consider success. Most will measure success by their ability to bring home the bonus funds. To some extent I accept that, but when you consider how they went about getting that success becomes a larger issue. In this I take the conceptual setting of Awareness versus Engagement in market research. Awareness could be shown how many impressions (or clicks) something gets, whilst engagement requires interaction with the solution. As I have always stated Engagement wins every time, but the large companies often herald views per thousand (or clicks as a secondary). So who get the price turkey at the end? Large Language Models with (Deeper) Machine Learning what some call a version of AI has issues and the world is waking up to Nvidia (not meant in a bad way). You see there is currently no AI, not yet anyway. What there is (the LLM and DML reference) is awesome and it can do great stuff, but it has issues like the legal sector recently saw. There is a lack of verification and that will be an issue in plenty of fields. 

Have a successful day.

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 4, 2023 · 23:05

Dominoes

That is the game, well it is not THAT game exactly, but the expression should be noted with you all. When things go wrong (and at times that will happen) the events fall like domino stones. One starts the next and so on.

It is here that I found myself after seeing ‘Saudi Arabia Pumps Another $100M Into Aviation As It Targets 250 Destinations By 2030’ (at https://simpleflying.com/saudi-arabia-aviation-investment-december-2023/). You see, this is all connected to a much bigger frame. Gaming, the Line, the Cube, the winter sports and so on. They have put up and they have put up the better part of well over a trillion. But the customer care person in me (did that for well over two decades) is looking beyond the frame.

If there is one software company well versed in support and customer care than it is NICE CX software solutions. It is the most complete solution I have EVER seen and there is one hitch. It is Israeli. Now, that doesn’t make it a deal breaker, but it might require Saudi Arabia to make adjustments (like with any other software solution). It needs to become Arabic (it might already be) and it needs to cover several areas and there is a bigger hitch. It needs to survive and offer multiple settings towards deployment and customer service. 

So why now?
The simple setting is that something that big will need time and testing. Adherence to a larger station a well as a larger setting in more fields. Hotels, locations, trade shows, events, airports and so on, that list will not stop for some time and setting this up will take well over a year. Beyond that the creation of a book of ceremonies to capture even more, include even more will have certain settings. Settings for telephone, fax (some still rely on that), internet, CAPI, CATI, form scanning and collecting and verifying data is a much larger issue than most realise and now it is in one hand, in one organisation. I reckon before we get to that setting places like Aramco and SAMI will see additional benefits as well. And if goes well, a lot of it will be complete by 2028, with 2 years of testing before the larger corporations like Saudi Airlines and hotels are connected to that solution. 

Time is an awesome partner when you have this. When this is started in 2029 it will be too late and Saudi Arabia will be cleaning house and answering complaints for well over a year AFTER the solutions are deployed and in that case I always go with, being early is essential, especially with customer care issues. You can only make a first impression once. The rest becomes repair and catering to a howling mess of complaints and that never has ever gone well.

I am curious what could be done and when we get to connect these systems and see how we can serve the customer consider that any international visitor to the The Mukaab, that person flew there, that person is in a hotel and that person could be visiting Trojena as well. Three options to possibly fix something, or to make the visit of that person even more amazing and now multiply that by 100,000,000,000 visitors. Also consider that Riyadh Expo 2030 will be then. When you consider all this, is there any doubt that such a system will be required to keep events in line? There is a second issue. I doubt if Saudi Arabia ever faced events to this amount and to that amount of visitors ever before, but that could merely be me.

Enjoy the day, for most it is about to become Monday, I have completed that day already.

1 Comment

Filed under IT, Science, Tourism

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,