According to Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Apple is testing a new AI system for Genius Bar appointments. But don’t worry, it’s not any of the things you would immediately worry about when reading those words. Apple reportedly won’t be using AI to prioritize appointments, or decide which repairs are under warranty, or even decide what repairs to do.
Instead, Apple’s using AI to do exactly what it’s good for: transcription and text summary. The AI system Apple is reportedly testing for Genius Bar appointments is called “Live Notes,” which records your conversation with the Genius Bar employee, transcribes it, and then summarizes it. That will then get added to the employee’s iPad when they perform your repair.
The idea is to reduce the workload of employees taking notes during interactions with customers, so they can focus on you and not on making sure they write down everything necessary for the repair technician.
Still, Gurman says, some employees are worried this is a slippery slope and Apple could start to use the AI to coach employees or factor it into performance reviews. For its part, Apple has reportedly assured employees that the recordings won’t be saved, managers won’t receive transcripts, and employees can edit both the transcript and summary before it is saved—a necessity to ensure the AI’s accuracy. It’s also meant to be an opt-in program, where both the Genius Bar customer and employee have to agree to use the tool.
Of course, we’ve seen before how businesses will start with an AI system that is innocuous and optional and evolves into something invasive and mandatory. The system is said to be in early test right now, and it is not clear if or when Apple will expand its usage or what the policies surrounding it will be when it does.
