A redditor is going viral after sharing a heartfelt exchange he had with a Walmart customer service representative.
Redditor u/milk-lee posted to the r/walmart subreddit that he “felt bad for” the Walmart worker, whose real name the redditor didn’t disclose. After a short exchange, though, u/milk-lee said he wanted to share a snippet of their conversation.
“I hope this is allowed,” u/milk-lee wrote, accompanied with a screenshot of their chat with the Walmart worker. “I feel bad for this guy honestly. won’t share his full name, but ‘H,’ if you see this, it was nice chatting with you. You helped me with my issue 100%. Happy Holidays.”
As of Sunday, u/milk-lee’s post sharing his back-and-forth with “H” had amassed 793 upvotes.
Walmart worker’s heartwarming exchange with customer
u/milk-lee’s screenshot detailed a bit of his conversation with the Walmart worker, referred to as “H.”
In the text, u/milk-lee thanked the worker for helping him out.
“Oh, I appreciate that! I was just being safe by contacting you guys,” the redditor wrote through Walmart’s chatbot system. “Thank you so much for your help.”
The Walmart worker replied: “I have forwarded and documented this incident to my team. They will be trying their best to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, as you are a valued customer of Walmart. We will try our best to make your future experiences the best amongst the best.”
Then the worker got downright sentimental.
“I’ll be honest with you,” they wrote. “You have been the most calm and understanding customer I’ve dealt with today, thank you so much for that. If there are any concerns you want me to help you with, please do not hesitate to tell me. I am at your service.”
Was this a real person?
While u/milk-lee didn’t disclose the alleged worker’s name, and only referred to him by his initial, “H,” it’s not immediately clear that he is a real human being.
According to a 2023 blog post from Walmart, the company has leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its chat systems.
“The bots have reduced millions of customer contacts by immediately assisting customers with simple questions about the status of an order, returns, and more, enabling agents to focus on assisting customers with more complex queries,” the blog post reads.
According to Walmart, the bots are used across several countries, including Canada, Chile, India, Mexico, and the U.S.
Forbes reported that Walmart has trialed using generative AI bots to close deals with 89 suppliers. Of those, the bots were able to close deals with 64%, which amounted to 1.5% in cost savings and an additional 35 days in extended payment terms.
So, it was a robot then?
In the comments of u/milk-lee’s post, some fellow redditors guessed that he was chatting with a bot.
“Unfortunately, I am about 95% sure you spoke to an AI or chatbot,” one user wrote. “This isn’t an uncommon post in the subreddit.”
“The [original poster] thought they were speaking to a real person,” another said. “They are going to be in awful shape when the AI gets more advanced in the next couple of years.”
“No, what’s worrying me is that the bot seemed to have offered a customer service experience that was above and beyond what he was used to,” a third viewer said, clearly appalled.
Others, however, said they firmly believed that the redditor was chatting with another human.
“It’s a real person,” one Redditor wrote.
“AI doesn’t make typos,” another user said.
“They are speaking with a real person, those are outsourced agents,” a third user claimed.
The Daily Dot has reached out to u/milk-lee through Reddit direct message and to Walmart through its online messaging portal.
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