Recently, I sent a Christmas package to a relative in another state. Usually, I have no issues with my faithful local courteous postal workers and I am always given a tracking number and toll-free access to follow the item as it is delivered down the line.
This day, however, there was a replacement employee in the office and she apparently typed in the wrong delivery address. I found out that in this day and age, mail is scanned and the number printed on the postage charge at the upper right hand of the package is where the package is sent. Never mind the hand printed address I put on it. Human reading of an address is obsolete.
“To err is human, but to really screw things up, it takes AI and a computer.”
Fortunately, our regular postmistress came to the rescue and stated, “Even if it comes back here, I will just put the correct information on it and it will get sent to the correct address with no extra charge.” Real customer service is rare, and our local lady pulled through. I hope she really has a nice holiday season.
However, I can only imagine how things will turn out when many services adapt to total AI and computer automation.  Robots delivering mail to my house, tripping over and ruining my front garden, or breaking a window. Auto-drive postal, Fed-Ex/UPS vehicles ripping up my front lawn. Going to the local P.O. or Fed-Ex or UPS office and having to talk into a drive-through radio and deal with another AI entity with a scratchy delivery. Or maybe a large cargo-capacity delivery drone crashing into my house.
The technological possibilities are endless.
Mark Roalson
Hoyt Lakes