As a result, the company spent a lot of time training new workers hired to replace those who quit. Many of the skills needed were what the researchers called “tacit knowledge,” experiential know-how that can’t be easily codified but that large language models can absorb from chat logs and then mimic. The company’s bot helped with both technical and social skills, pointing agents to relevant technical documents and suggesting chipper phrases to soothe seething customers, such as “happy to help you get this fixed asap!”

After the bot…