The Call Nobody Answered

Years ago, when someone walked into a shop, a bell might ring above the door. Someone would look up and know a customer had arrived.

Today, a customer can arrive without ever walking through the door. They call, send a message, fill out a form, or visit a website.

And sometimes, nobody answers.

That is what caught my attention in a story I read about a 12-year-old girl here in British Columbia.

Mana Jampala spent time at her father’s workplace and noticed something very ordinary. The team was small and busy, and sometimes the phone would ring when nobody was available to answer it.

So she started working on an AI receptionist.

Of course, the headline is easy to write: a 12-year-old building with AI. That is impressive, but it was not the part of the story that stayed with me.

She noticed the phone.

Before AI, There Was a Problem

There is a lot of pressure on businesses right now to adopt AI. I hear it in conversations all the time, and I understand why. Nobody wants to feel that the world is moving ahead without them.

But I am not sure “How do we use AI?” is always the best first question.

Maybe we should start by looking around.

What keeps getting missed?

A phone call that nobody returned. A quote that needed one more follow-up. The same information being entered into different systems. A customer waiting for an answer because everyone thought someone else had already replied.

None of these sounds like a big technology story.

Maybe that is the point.

What Have We Become Too Busy to Notice?

In our recent articles, we have looked at awareness through the lens of cybersecurity: questioning a trusted seal, thinking about who asked us to open the real door, and wondering what happens when something gets through the first gate.

Mana’s story reminded me that awareness is not only about noticing danger.

Sometimes it notices an opportunity.

I am not suggesting every business needs an AI receptionist. Some may benefit from one, while others have very different problems worth solving.

What interests me is where the idea began.

Not with AI.

With an unanswered phone.

That leaves me with a question I have been thinking about today:

What happens in your business every day that everyone has become too busy to notice?

If there is a process in your business that keeps getting missed, repeated, or made more difficult than it needs to be, perhaps it is worth having a conversation about it.

Not to force AI into the answer.

Just to see what becomes possible once we notice the problem.

Strong businesses are built on awareness.

Awareness gives you time. Time gives you choices.

Technology helps. Awareness protects.