Humans at service, not apps

Sitting in my verandah, I was enjoying the freshness that rains, especially unseasonal ones, bring to the dust-ridden leaves on the trees in the garden. Suddenly, there was an explosion — the power cables going into my meter on the electricity pole on the road were on fire.

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I called the toll-free number of the electricity department. After getting a busy tone a few times, I finally got through to an agent and registered my complaint. Immediately, I got an SMS with my complaint number. A few minutes later, I got another SMS that according to the information with the department, my complaint had been resolved! This was odd since no one had come and the wires were still on fire. Since there was also a WhatsApp option, I tried registering my complaint. Here, the process was smooth and I got a ticket number by SMS. And again, in a few minutes, the complaint was noted as ‘resolved’, even though the fire now had burnt through half the wire.

My experience with the electricity department is not a one-off thing. One sees technology replacing human interface in the delivery of public services. If one has a complaint regarding garbage on the street, one just takes a photograph (with location tagging) and uploads it on the Swachh app. I did this with the huge pile of garbage next to my house. I promptly got a complaint tracking number. But, lo and behold, a few days later the app reported that the garbage has been cleaned, while I could still smell it outside my house. To top it all, a photograph of the same heap was uploaded as proof that the complaint had been resolved!

The ease with which a complaint can be registered by a few taps on the smartphone or by a phone call is extremely convenient. However, our tech evangelists, who seem to think that technology is the magic wand for all societal problems, seem to be unaware of the simple fact that services are not delivered by apps — human beings are still needed to actually perform the service. It is this link in the delivery chain which is crucial, and if that fails, no amount of AI-enabled ease of use would ultimately be of use. After all, burning wires have to be fixed and garbage has to be removed.

Finally, I decided to be brave enough and went and cut off power to the wires so that the meter wouldn’t burn down. However, this meant that there was no power in my house. Then, I went to the electricity office and narrated my tale of woe to the person there. He must have taken pity on my plight because the technicians came within an hour, reconnected the wires at the pole, and, finally, there was electricity. Even in this tech-delivered utopia, the old-fashioned human interaction seemed to do the trick.