Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Connections

Coming up on Connections: Monday, November 28, 2022

freeimages.com/Zizzy0104

First hour: Is artificial intelligence the future of customer service?

Second hour: How games can be used to help people learn about different religions and cultures

Frontier Airlines has dropped its customer service line in favor of a chat bot, social media, and other text-based methods of communicating. As reported by NPR on Saturday, a company spokesperson said that "the airline found that most customers preferred communicating through online channels." As a consumer, what do you prefer? The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to handle customer service issues is on the rise. What are the benefits and drawbacks? And what does it mean for the future of the industry? We discuss these questions and more with our guests:

  • Sean McKay, president of Site Hub 
  • Rajendran Murthy, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing, and Analytics in the Saunders College of Business at the Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Rich Pulvino, vice president and director of corporate communications at ESL Federal Credit Union
  • Sevin Yeltekin, Ph.D., dean of the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester

Then in our second hour, how can we use games and other interactive activities to better understand how our neighbors and friends celebrate different cultural and religious holidays? Local religion experts and game designers are using games as a way to teach people about religious legal codes and philosophies. How does it work? We explore it with our guests:

  • Owen Gottlieb, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Interactive Games and Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology, founder and director of RIT's Interaction, Media and Learning Lab, and founder and director of the Initiative in Religion, Culture and Policy at the RIT MAGIC Center
  • Muhammad Shafiq, Ph.D., professor of religious studies at Nazareth College, and Muslim clergy member
  • Hanif Rahbari, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at RIT
Connections
Evan Dawson is the host of "Connections with Evan Dawson." He joined WXXI in January 2014 after working at 13WHAM-TV, where he served as morning news anchor. He was hired as a reporter for 13WHAM-TV in 2003 before being promoted to anchor in 2007.
Megan Mack is the executive producer of "Connections with Evan Dawson" and live/televised engagement programming.

Connections with Evan Dawson

Connections is our daily, live talk show. It airs live weekdays, noon-2 p.m., and re-airs at 9 and 10 p.m. You can also find us wherever you find your podcasts.

Join us with questions or comments by phone at 1-844-295-TALK (8255), email, Facebook or Twitter.

Do you have a story that needs to be shared? Pitch your story to Connections.

For transcripts, please email our Move to Include team with the day, subject, and start time (noon or 1 pm) of the episode for a transcript.