I'm not an early adopter type. I didn't bring an IBM Thinkpad to the press briefing (a sizeable percentage of reporters did). I still use a notebook and index cards instead of a PDA. So when I heard about XM satellite radio using speech rec to help you change the station in your car, I thought that's the last thing I want. And I don't want to tell me car to turn the a/c down -- I'll do it myself.

The point is, technology is getting more and more baroque, more intricate, more complicated. While many of us zealously learn about each new feature in our new cars -- ambient noise sensitive stereo volume controls, variable climate control from seat to seat, and sophisticated search tools for finding which of the five jazz stations on XM radio you might want to listen to -- some of us think it's much ado about nothing.

What we should remember in call centers is that speech rec is a replacement for human beings. It's economics driving this, not a burning desire for great customer service. I couldn't help getting cynical when I heard about speech rec systems giving me a "pleasant transaction experience."

The "major breakthrough" that IBM wanted to tell us about was its improved, natural conversation recognition capabilities. In other words, you can phrase things any way you want, and the system still gets it. It can grasp context too, so you can ask follow-up questions without repeating yourself, or you can switch topics. All this makes the machine seem more like a live agent.

Can a machine give me great service? One of IBM's representatives told us that there was research that says people prefer talking to IVRs. He said "the IVR doesn't judge." I don't suppose it does. It doesn't care, either. Then again, do agents care?

I read about an art exhibit once where an artist made a machine that mimicked the human body's digestive system perfectly. It was a circuit of pipes and jars that contained all the chemicals found in the human stomach. You put food in one end, and after eight hours or so, the food would come out the other end, looking and smelling exactly like human waste. And it was; chemically, it was a perfect match. It made for a very stinky art gallery. So you ask 'what's the point?' Exactly. Why make a machine that can create human waste when a human can do it?

Is an automated call ever qualitatively better than an agented call? We know the automated call costs less, but can there ever be a real benefit over calls handled by people?