One thing I miss in this world is floor staff. If you’re old enough you remember the sometimes helpful and sometimes deeply annoying employees that would float around stores and off their assistance while you shopped. Yesterday I had an interesting shopping experience. It wasn’t the first time I had used AI to help with shopping but it was the first time I did so using it as floor staff.
What happened is over the last month and a half I have discovered what it is I should be doing with my time and that caused some issues. Mostly I have been sitting at this very desk more and more and my back has been hurting more and more, and that had to change.
I decided to ask AI for recommendations on desk chairs and it suggested some $1500 chair. I thought that’s nice but will have to wait and then I decided I was just going to go to Office Depot. I gave the AI some of our financial information like money currently in the bank, upcoming accounts receivable, our projected payroll for next week, and other miscellaneous monthly expenses. I also looped a new computer into this equation as the touchpad on this laptop is getting slightly annoying.
The AI then immediately hallucinated the accounts receivable as payable and told me spending any money would be a very bad idea. I corrected it and it gave accurate math and told me that the decision wouldn’t only be a good one but a great one. Maybe I was just looking for validation but either way I went to Office Depot and started searching for chairs. With lack of floor staff I began uploading images into AI, and soon it zeroed me in on a certain ergonomic chair in Office Depot, the Quantum 9000.
As soon as I picked up the tag to purchase a new one I saw it. There was a floor model that was discounted even lower. I went over and looked at it. Confirmed it was the same chair and then asked a floor staff how I purchased the floor model. They told me I couldn’t and then I asked then why does it say it is for sale and have a big yellow sticker on it with a price. They then told me to push the chair to the front of the store. This was weird and kind of derailed my computer shopping but I did it.
Here is where things get interesting. I asked the AI about computers and it told me that Office Depot sells overpriced and underpowered computers and when I looked against its advice it told me a Lenovo tower that Office Depot had would be find for me I questioned it. Remember it is designed to be helpful and helping isn’t always helpful, but it doesn’t know that. So, it tried to help me, and when I brought back up what it said it told me I was right. Was I? I’ll never know.
After looking on Walmart’s website and seeing they had a limited selection as well the AI suggested waiting and going to Best Buy. I then questioned it again and said if I am waiting why not look on Amazon. As I journeyed through the Amazon rabbit hole I sent it picture after picture and landed on a Lenovo tower with double the storage and an i7 processor instead of i5 for $9 more than the one at Office Depot. This felt good so I got that, a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse. I might have to see if that mouse can connect to this laptop as well as I only solved my home problem and not the travel one at this point.
Either way it was an interesting experience and AI can replace floor staff. We just have to tell it to not be so helpful all the time on occasion.
David Huzzard Writes 