Microsoft Making AI Accessible: Unlocking Customer Service for the Blind!

In order to enhance accessibility to their customer service, Microsoft Corp. has partnered with Be My Eyes, an app designed for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.

Founded in 2015, Be My Eyes connects visually impaired people with sighted volunteers who can help them cope with tasks that might otherwise be impossible to complete. The startup also has an AI tool called Be My AI that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 model to generate a description of a photo taken by a person — whether it’s a product label or a product in a store.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will integrate Be My AI technology into its Microsoft Disability Answer Desk service, which handles customer service calls, Be My Eyes said in a statement Wednesday. The collaboration allows blind or visually impaired users of Microsoft products to solve hardware problems or plan tasks such as installing a new version of Windows software or filming a PowerPoint presentation—all without human assistance.

Be My Eyes’ use of OpenAI’s GPT-4 was touted by Sam Altman at the startup’s developer conference this month as an example of how his company’s language model can use images as input and produce responses in natural language.

“OpenAI is proud to work with Be My Eyes. They have used our AI models to significantly improve the everyday lives of people who are visually impaired or blind,” Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer of OpenAI, said in a statement.

Be My Eyes, which tested AI-powered visual customer service with Microsoft users earlier this year, found that only 10% of people interacting with AI chose to become a human agent. The company also said that inquiries were resolved faster with the Be My AI tool, with users spending an average of four minutes on a call with an AI compared to 12 minutes with a human.