On February 6, Lyft announced a collaboration with Amazon and the Alphabet-backed startup Anthropic to introduce artificial intelligence tools for improving customer care operations within the ride-hailing platform. The company has integrated Anthropic's Claude AI model via Amazon's Bedrock generative AI platform, resulting in an 87% reduction in average customer service resolution time and addressing thousands of customer requests daily.
Despite concerns about potential job displacement due to AI implementation in customer service, Lyft emphasized the ongoing necessity of human customer support agents. The company outlined its approach of utilizing AI assistance as a first step in resolving customer issues, with a seamless transition to human support when required.
Jason Vogrinec, Lyft's executive vice president of platforms, described AI as a means to enhance operational quality and effectiveness rather than reducing staffing levels. Recognizing the limitations of AI models in generating inaccurate outputs, Lyft highlighted that critical issues such as safety, deactivations, fraud, and other complex matters will continue to be managed by human agents.
Lyft underscored the future benefits expected from its collaboration with Anthropic, enabling joint efforts in developing tools to enhance the experiences of both riders and drivers. Anthropic will also provide training to Lyft's engineers on the technology. The company is scheduled to release its quarterly results following the market close on Tuesday.