Submitted by Stephen
Cloud-based applications have been one of the fastest-growing sectors of online services in terms of revenue and usage. What once started as a way for professionals to save data in remote servers has become available to almost everybody through tools like Google Drive and iCloud. Ever since cloud computing was introduced to a broader audience, countless debates have emerged about the digitalization of traditional services. However, while topics such as the stability of cloud-based services have been at the forefront, other matters like data leaks have more recently dominated the headlines of newspapers and online publications alike.
But while most of these discussions revolve around cloud computing security, one significant aspect always falls short: The impact of cloud computing on mental health.
How can cloud computing benefit the mental health of professionals? How do cloud-based services help customers and everyday people? And how is the advancement of cloud services helping in other fields such as medicine?
Cloud Computing for Businesses
Many services aimed at businesses are nowadays available on the internet. From fully automated email campaigns to specialized container registry services and even staff management tools that can replace entire HR departments, technology advancements certainly have made things easier for companies. And with flexible pricing solutions that scale with the size of each business, everyone from the solopreneur to the massive corporation can benefit.
And while the automation of tasks reduces the workload for data analysts, content strategists, and people working in human resources alike, it also benefits their mental health. Knowing that an automated process takes care of an otherwise tedious task helps in reducing stress levels.
So, companies should take note of the advancements of cloud computing. For example, many cloud-based services can relieve workplace stress and create happier and thus more efficient employees.
Cloud Computing for Customer Interactions
While cloud computing offers solutions for companies and enterprises, how is the outlook for customers? For example, how do cloud-based services affect the mental health of customers? Is it wise for companies to move everything that was once done by actual humans in the hands of artificial intelligence?
More people discover the benefits of online tools like chats, online scheduling tools, and virtual assistants every day. However, not everybody feels comfortable or safe using digital services, either because they don’t believe in their own technical abilities or skepticism towards technology. And, given the history of artificial intelligence in customer support, their doubts are somewhat reasonable.
In the early days of digital customer support, chats often felt very artificial. They were clunky, unresponsive, or were not able to identify the customer’s needs. However, as chatbots learn (through algorithms), they get more efficient and find ways to interact with customers more humanly and less robotically. Due to that, many people often feel like they are talking to an actual person rather than a machine when using chat functions on websites.
Giving people a feeling of being understood and taken care of is one of the many advantages cloud-based services can offer. It erases their fear of talking to a machine rather than a human, even if they are, in fact, talking to artificial intelligence.
But what if that shell cracks? What if the customer realizes that he is talking to some lines of code instead of an actual human being? How will that realization affect the customer and his mental health?
Given how advanced some of these chatbots are, it sometimes can be hard to prove that they are, in fact, artificial. The bots are being fed with data collected from algorithms every minute of the day, so they learn constantly. And they learn quickly. They can answer a plethora of questions being thrown at them by customers. They can spot typos and still figure out what the person on the other side wanted to write. And they can adapt to the customer’s language based on the preferences they selected when visiting the website.
Cloud Computing as a Solution to Mental Health Issues
Besides making customer support interactions more accessible for everyone, cloud computing also offers solutions in the medical field. For example, medical experts have used augmented and Virtual Reality powered by cloud computing to gauge their effectiveness in treating mental conditions.
An article published by Cambridge University showed that VR could be beneficial in helping professionals understand the cause of mental conditions such as anxiety, PTSD, or depression. The article was based on several studies conducted to figure out the use of VR and AR in the medical field. In the article, the authors suggest that VR seems “to perform comparably in efficacy to face-to-face equivalent interventions,” thus hinting that cloud-based computing can be a future part of treating mental conditions.
So, while many people are afraid of moving everything to the cloud, specialists and professionals certainly welcome the advantages that cloud computing brings to the table. It is now a matter of companies and experts to help more people understand how cloud computing can assist them.