Do we really need artificial intelligence instead of phonelines?

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

It’s a wet evening, a thought pops into your mind: “What if I went to see a movie this Friday?”

The cinema’s schedule has not yet been released, so you make a quick call to your local Odeon chain’s phone number, but instead of being greeted glumly by a helpful member of staff, you are greeted by a dour robotic voice.

Odeon, it tells you, “no longer takes guest queries by phone” instead directing you to its website for a “live chat” or to contact the company on social media. Navigate to its website and you shall find its live chat is – outside 10.15am to 4.45pm – operated by “Odi, the Odeon AI assistant”.

Nobody asked for this.

This is not even the complaint of an older generation – artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, full of hallucinations and a horrific contributor to climate change – are not only a poor substitute for speaking to a human, but they are also very frustrating.

Cantillon’s frustrations of movie-booking aside, this is a symptom of the current business environment. Everyone is adopting AI in an effort to cut costs and show their company is deploying AI-driven customer engagement solutions to elevate service efficiency and scalability … or whatever other buzzwords seem popular in the moment.

As well as an innovative and disruptive technology, at least parts of the AI boom are likely to end up being just a trend. It is being added to nearly everything, often for its own sake.

It is conceivable that soon you will wake up in the morning, walk over to your coffee machine and spend 25 minutes trying to get AI to understand your accent long enough to get it to make a coffee.

Oh wait. Bosch has already launched that product, with the Personal AI Barista it featured at CES 2026. It is to be hoped that “Don’t talk to me before I’ve had my coffee” does not extend to the coffee machines itself.

Customer service is the most conspicuous casualty of the internet age. Older generations will be the ones to struggle.

For many, it will remain more convenient to make a quick call than to turn their new “AI assistant” for help.