Thats partially my point. Everyone is thinking about the business case for cost saving around automation for businesses, but that lacks imagination. Automation tools for consumers to interact with humans at businesses is where the real opportunity lies.

Would you ever voluntarily use an IVR? I wouldn't. If I am going to interact with automation for a business, I want to do it with a different interface than voice... all the hype around NLP and chatbots was uninspired and focused on the wrong side of the interaction... Building conversational interfaces for consumers to use to interact with businesses is a much better use case.