Some patients in the UK are skipping going to the doctor because their office’s AI “receptionist” can’t understand what they’re saying.
The health and social watchdog Healthwatch Rotherham said that the troublesome AI receptionist in question, called “Emma,” is being used at a number of clinics in South Yorkshire — and is struggling with locals’ distinct way of speaking.
“One of the issues is this system can’t always understand what people’s inquiry is about due to their broad Yorkshire accent,” Kym Gleeson, manager at Healthwatch Rotherham, told the BBC. “Across South Yorkshire, accents do vary quite a lot. There are different twangs so there’s a lot of variation. It seems the system isn’t always able to understand, so that causes frustration.”
Frustration may be an understatement. One patient who couldn’t be arsed to negotiate with a malfunctioning AI complained to Healthwatch, via The Guardian: “I could never get it to understand me,” saying that “I ended up just hanging up and not bothering to try and book an appointment.”
