The Tyranny of Automation

The Tyranny of Automation: When Bots Block Humans

Ever tried to return a pair of shoes—wrong size, simple ask—and found yourself stuck in an endless loop of “Please choose from the main menu”?
Welcome to the tyranny of automation.

I’m living this nightmare right now with Neeman's.
All I want is to return a product. What I get is a WhatsApp bot with no option to speak to a human. I know automation is about cost-cutting. But replacing 10 humans with 1 doesn’t mean you eliminate that 1. That 1 is critical. That 1 is relief. That 1 is empathy.

It’s not just Neeman’s. I faced the same with Jio. My internet dropped before a crucial call last week. I was scrambling for answers. The bot said, “Service will be back by 6:30 PM.” My meeting was at 5 PM.
No way to talk to a human. No way to escalate.
For 4 hours, my heart fluttered—not from tech marvel, but helplessness.

And then, there’s Amazon.
Flawed in its own ways, but on this front—gold. “Chat with us.” “Call us.”
Straightforward. Seamless. Human if needed.

I wonder: who designs these systems?
Because no decent UX process would let this through. A simple cognitive walkthrough would expose these friction points in the first glance.
Instead, teams sit in meeting rooms, discussing NPS and “customer obsession,” while the real pain is ignored, hidden behind metrics.

Automation isn’t evil. But mindless automation is.
When bots are gatekeepers, not assistants, you haven’t designed a solution. You’ve created a wall. Sigh!