Quoted from Businessblog https://www.manyworlds.com/1/businessblog/2004/11/learning-for-innovation.html
Self Service – A quick poll of the audience, about 1500 people, revealed that most of us used a check-in kiosk at the airline of our choice to get to NYC. A year ago this was unthinkable. This is a great example of why the ‘self-service’ trend is so hot and will continue to be the preferred way of people to interact with systems.
At first you’d think the airline personnel who used to staff the check in desks would be highly threatened by this, but they have now realized that they are freed up to really add value to situations where people really need help, not just the transactional. And now kiosks are moving up the value chain, mooving from the transactional to the ‘revenue generating’ as they have new functions to buy drink coupons and ‘auction’ first class seats depending on demand. Imagine this kind of self-service environment in a much broader way inside organizations, its a great way to help them learn and develop, as well as freeing up ‘real’ people to focus on the most important things.