<p>Many rock musicians have been honored as inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But John Fogerty’s 1985 hit, Centerfield, got him honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Today, it’s a fixture at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and just about every ballpark across the country. Baseball and its heroes have been mythologized as a deeply American tradition. But like anything else, it has evolved with technology, even so far as to use an Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System in the Major Leagues as of 2026. While technology is continually being introduced in sports, humans are still at the center of the action.</p><p>Sports are hardly the only domain where technology has continued to drive change. Customer Service interactions have long evolved as new technologies have been introduced to contact centers. AI “bots” or Virtual Agents are simply the next evolution. But humans should still be at the center of the action, says Jeff Toister. Jeff’s authored five books on Customer Service and this year, he was inducted into the ICMI Hall of Fame. This week, we discuss: </p><p>• The Human Element in Customer Service• The Impact of Greetings on Customer Experience• AI in Customer Service: Opportunities and Concerns• The Evolution of AI and Human Interaction• Creating Human Connections in Customer Service• The Role of AI in Routine Transactions• Skills Unique to Humans in Customer Service• The Future of AI and Human CollaborationConnect with Jeff on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/jefftoister </p><p>Jeff Toister&#39;s Website - https://toistersolutions.com/ </p><p>Human Service Book - https://humanservicebook.com/ </p><p>Music courtesy of Big Red Horse – https://www.facebook.com/bigredhorseband/</p>