eBay Rolls Out AI-Powered Tech Support Chat For Developers
eBay is introducing a new AI-powered technical support chat assistant for developers, providing a 24/7 self serve resource directly in the Developer Program experience.
Developers enrolled in the program received an email notice of the new feature, with eBay requesting feedback to help them fine tune the bot as it learns over time.
As part of our commitment to continually improve your experience and provide efficient solutions, we are excited to announce the launch of our brand-new AI-powered Technical Support Chat Assistant, a significant enhancement to our support services.
You have been given exclusive early access to our cutting-edge tool, now seamlessly integrated within your developer account!
Why You'll Love Our New Developer AI Assistant
- Immediate Assistance: No more waiting! Our chat assistant is ready to answer your questions instantly, 24/7, ensuring you get the help you need exactly when you need it.
- Personalized Support: Powered by advanced AI, our chat assistant offers tailored advice and solutions, adapting to your specific needs and preferences for a truly customized experience.
Experience It Today
To start using the Developer AI Assistant:
- Simply log in to your developer account
- You will find the chatbot accessible in the right-hand bottom corner throughout your entire experience on the developer portal
- Engage with the chat assistant and explore its features at your convenience
- Be careful to not share any personal information in the chat assistant
- Provide feedback after each response by clicking on the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon
We are eager to hear your thoughts on:
- The accessibility of the chat assistant within your account
- The user experience and intuitiveness of the interface
- The chat assistant’s effectiveness in understanding and responding to your queries
- Any bugs or unexpected behaviors you encounter
Your detailed feedback will be instrumental in fine-tuning and enhancing the chat assistant’s performance and ensuring it meets the high standards and diverse needs of our developer community. Your contribution is key to ensuring our chatbot stands out as a valuable tool for developers like you.
A Value Added Resource reader with a developer account took the new chat bot for a spin and provided some screenshots of the AI in action.
Off the bat it was a little disappointing to see the AI doesn't greet the user by name - they were logged in to their developer account at the time and that would seem to be an easy extra little "magical" touch.
And of course there's the standard disclaimers and warnings about privacy and accuracy.
The user figured they'd throw an easy pitch for a first question, asking if the AI could help them to use the eBay API to update products in a store - to which the answer was...less than helpful.
Since the AI said it was unable to assist with that request, the user then asked what could it help them do with the API.
That caused it to spit out a list of various ways you could use the API to manage aspects of listings and inventory - which sounds a lot like what the original question had asked for in the first place that the AI was "unable to assist with."
After a gentle corrective nudge, it corrected itself and provided further information along with links to appropriate documentation.
To be fair, that type of initial unhelpful response and requiring additional prompting is pretty common across a lot of different AI tools, so while there doesn't appear to be anything groundbreaking here (I don't think eBay will be the ones to crack AGI), it's not bad and will hopefully get better over time.
The one benefit it could have is in theory it should have been trained on/have access to a variety of eBay data and documentation, which could give it an edge over more robust but also more general tools developers may already be using.
What do you think of eBay's Developer Program AI assistant? Let us know in the comments below!
