Passage: Previous waves of customer-service technology, including email and those pesky voice menus, stoked concerns of job losses, only for them to fail to materialise. AI could yet prove different. And if it does, its effects may be salutary. Human agents could be freed up to spend more time on creative and rewarding tasks, like using feedback to make products and services better—and thereby spend less time listening to irate customers! Question: Which of the following conclusions, made on the basis of the given passage, is/are correct? 1. The advent of new customer-service technology had invariably sparked fears about job losses. 2. Often it is found that instead of job losses, alternative channels for employee engagement are discovered while certain tasks are replaced by technology. 3. The advent of technology inevitably leads to stressful outcomes. Select the answer using the code given below.

This Reading Comprehension question evaluates the ability to draw logical conclusions from a given text. The passage is excerpted from an October 2024 article titled "Can artificial intelligence rescue customer service?" published by The Economist.

Why Option B is correct: Statement 2 is correct because it accurately reflects the passage's core argument regarding the "salutary" (beneficial) effects of AI and automation. The text explicitly states that instead of job losses materialising, "Human agents could be freed up to spend more time on creative and rewarding tasks". This directly corresponds to the conclusion that "alternative channels for employee engagement are discovered" when routine tasks are replaced by technology.

Why the other statements are incorrect: Statement 1 is incorrect due to the use of the absolute modifier "invariably" (meaning always). While the passage notes that "Previous waves... stoked concerns of job losses," it does not generalize that every single new customer-service technology invariably sparks these fears without exception. Statement 3 is incorrect because it directly contradicts the passage's optimistic tone. The text suggests that technology's effects "may be salutary" and will actually allow workers to spend less time on highly stressful tasks like "listening to irate customers." Furthermore, the word "inevitably" is another unsupported extreme modifier.

Concluding Takeaway: In UPSC CSAT Reading Comprehension, remain highly cautious of absolute keywords such as invariably, inevitably, always, or never. Unless strictly substantiated by the passage, statements relying on these extremes are typically incorrect.