The Register®  Original URL:  IBM puts supercomputer Watson to
work in ROBOT CALL CENTRE  AI goes to war with angry customers
human staffers  By Jasper Hamill  Posted in HPC, 21st May 2013
16:59 GMT  It's clever enough to beat humans on quiz shows and
diagnose illnesses, but is IBM's artificially intelligent
supercomputer tough enough to cope with angry consumers who've
been on hold for three hours?  IBM certainly seems to think so,
as it has just given Watson a new job as a customer service
manager.  Rather than phoning a company and having your query
dealt with by the usual call centre cast of teenagers,
simpletons and ex-convicts, you can call Watson, who will deal
with your increasingly angry enquiries with all the calmness
you'd expect from a machine.  The new service will be called the
Watson Engagement Advisor and will allow customers to ask
questions using real language, either on the phone or through
webpages, email or instant messaging.  According to IBM, their
customer service-focused equivalent of