(The Power of Speech [andyrut.com])
My motorcycle insurance company has a completely voice-operated automated customer support system. The voice actor did a superb job, having me convinced that I was interacting with a warm body for probably a solid 10 seconds, but the stunning part is the system itself. Not once has it ever misunderstood me, and I've updated my address and made credit card payments using it, all without touching the keypad after dialing. They must save an incredible amount of money with the reduced necessary support personnel, even if the computerized system can only handle the most basic (but common!) tasks. Sure beats phone support that's outsourced to another country where the employees don't speak English so well, and can't understand you either.
My coworker Tim's old mobile phone provider has a voice-operated system as well, but it's atrocious. He even had trouble getting it to hand him off to a human, until he discovered that if he swore incessantly at it, it would transfer him immediately.
"Cock balls smacktard motherfucker piece of shit ..."
Please hold while I transfer your call to a customer support representative.