What Are Tech-Enhanced Human Services?
In a previous blog, I highlighted how startups can, and in some cases already do use technology to help more people gain access to much-needed human support. I proposed to name this undefined space Tech-Enhanced Human Services (TEHS).
What Are Tech-Enhanced Human Services?
TEHS combine human and tech capabilities to scale a human-led service and make it more accessible.
In this model, humans perform certain functions that are difficult to replicate artificially, while AI and other automation tools performs human functions that are programmable and in turn can be reproduced. Those functions range from administrative work to client communications, which previously would have incurred significant human capital costs.
For example, an automated assistant can search and book a flight but a human assistant is needed to select the most convenient flight based on unique client preferences.
As the capabilities of tech tools advance, the applications of these automation technologies are broadening.
How Are TEHS Beneficial?
As I discussed in the previous blog, certain human needs require the priceless support of friends, mentors, and professionals, and for many that support is not accessible. That can be either because people lack the social capital to access it or because they cannot afford the services that require the expertise of a human.
While fully automated apps can give some assistance they cannot adequately provide the degree of service that is required in many areas. Humans are still needed to perform certain tasks like in the case of coaching where the human touch is needed to motivate a client to commit to a goal.
TEHS allow more people to benefit from support that is otherwise hard to access by lowering the cost of delivery. Beyond accessibility, using tech to enhance human services can also greatly improve their quality as illustrated in the following examples.
Faster Response Times. Clients do not need to wait for a human provider to respond to their inquiry, LegalShield’s chatbot, Erin, is available 24/7 to answer common questions immediately.
User Data Provides Opportunity for Learning and Efficiency. Since 2013 HealthifyMe coaches have built diet plans for 100,000 people. They use AI to process this data set to create highly personalized plans without the assistance of a human coach.
24/7 Availability. The cybersecurity company, Expel, provides 24/7 detection and triage within 3 minutes of an attack.
Fewer Human Errors: Proper automates accounting services such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and bank reconciliations for property managers with hundreds of tenants.
How Professionals Providing TEHS Benefit Too
Professionals spend less time providing individual services and can help more people. That’s because TEHS make service delivery more efficient and affordable.
A tech company that enhances a human service can also centralize the marketing of these often highly fragmented markets (mostly composed of individual contributors e.g. one coach, one personal shopper), thereby helping service professionals scale more easily.
Tech enhancement can also be used thoughtfully to improve the nature of work. That’s done by allowing humans to focus on the work they enjoy doing most like decision-making, strategizing, creative work, and innovation.
This is more easily accomplished when workers don’t need to spend time on routine work that can drain energy and inspiration. For example, partly as a result of machines replacing routine job tasks, the share of all jobs requiring decision-making nearly doubled to 34% between 2007 and 2018.
Which Human Task Can be Automated and Which Can’t?
There is a growing range of capabilities whereby tech can replace and even outperform human ability. Developers of AI and other technologies provide a tremendous amount of value by continuing to hone these functions.
However, there are some things on the human ability spectrum that cannot be effectively automated, and will likely always be best performed by human beings.
Below is a non-exhaustive list to consider, alongside example TEHS companies.
This spectrum is of course dynamic. Certain tasks are largely human-driven currently, but technology will evolve to become prominent. For example, many aspects of conversation cannot yet be automated simply because there is not enough conversational data available to provide adequate programming for machines. In a future blog, I will explain how this can be overcome.
TEHS in Action
Accounting Services
Bench Accounting has used AI to build in auto-categorization of expenses based on keywords. This reduces errors and the amount of time employees spend on tedious work. The company trained its AI to learn from 5 million historical categorizations that Bench bookkeepers made from working with past clients. The company is now able to use auto-categorization to accurately identify and categorize 91% of client transactions.
As a result, human bookkeepers at Bench can spend more time advising on complex matters that small businesses face. Due to their enhanced efficiency, the company is able to do more business, which in turn has allowed them to expand their bookkeeping teams and pay their employees more, whilst reducing prices for customers. A traditional accountant’s hourly rate can range between $170-$400/hr. Bench charges customers $249/month for unlimited bookkeeping services.
Personal Stylists
Stitch Fix is an online styling subscription that has brilliantly leveraged AI in combination with human stylists and with that made them a standout in the retail industry. Stitch Fix does more than use a styling quiz to personalize clothing selections for customers; they use AI to improve operations at nearly every step. That includes everything from item selection to new style development to logistics and inventory management.
Human involvement is essential for an ideal customer experience. AI processes customer feedback and whittles down items for stylists to consider. At this point, experts use their aesthetic eye and intimate fashion knowledge to identify the clothing that is most appropriate for any given event. The technology detects trends in customer preferences, allowing stylists to do the fun part of originating new styles with a greater likelihood of success, which means happier customers and fewer returns.
Personal styling (online or in-person) can cost $80-$300 an hour, and a good stylist can be hard to find. With Stitch Fix, customers pay a $20 styling fee for personally curated delivery of five items, from which the customer may buy or return for new suggestions. This process is continuously improving as AI learns from all customer data points, and improves stylists’ selections for the next time around.
In the next blog, we will talk more about what sectors have been and can be tech-enhanced.
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