Call centres set for disruption as AI take-up grows

Call centres will lose lower-level staff as AI take over their jobs, but that’s a good thing as more sophisticated workers will still be needed.

Young friendly operator woman agent with headsets working in a call centre.

Call centres are set for a shake-up as AI and chat bots replace lower-level staff, according to visiting UK executive, Kate Field.

But that’s not the end of the humans. Indeed the global head, human and social sustainability at the business improvement and standards company BSI, says we’ll be better off as companies start changing the skill sets of those handling your complaints.

“The original business model was, if you like, a fairly low-paid, low-skilled workforce,” Ms Field said on Tuesday.

“That model is starting to change because the humans who are needed, need a much more sophisticated set of expertise and skills to deal with very complex issues.”

She said the rapid adoption of AI had been in menial work such as reviewing large volumes of data in the finance and legal sectors where it could rapidly scan vast amounts of documentation.

“We’re also seeing it in places like health care where there’s a lot of data and AI does a first draft or a first review,” she said.

This was leading to an evolution of workplace roles where AI did some of the menial tasks but humans were still needed.

“AI can deal with routine inquiries very effectively, but it can’t deal with more complex inquiries. One of the most exciting things about AI is it’s going to really focus humans on what humans are best at - we’ll unlock things like critical thinking, empathy, compassion. It will change the way we approach a lot of work but make it better for humans.”

Kate Field. Picture: Supplied

But as more skilled workers enter call centres, they will need a different approach from management because the work would be “much more intense and will need a different pacing … people will need time away from dealing with those intense calls”.

She said AI was already causing a rethink of fundamental work models in some areas, including content editing where it was used to make the first cut with more senior editors doing the final review and “finessing”.

“This sets up another challenge,” she said. “That initial copy was often done by juniors and it was part of their learning and development. So organisations have got to rethink how they bring on their junior staff so that they’re able to do the more critical work at a later stage.”

Ms Field said AI was transforming our capacity to analyse the volume of data collected by technology.

“People no longer talk about big data,” she said. “Now they talk about mega data. Technology has created this vast amount of data that no human or team of humans could ever get through. But with AI, it absolutely can.
“AI doesn’t need to sleep, it doesn’t need to eat, it doesn’t need to do any of those things. That’s been the step change, which is why AI has taken this huge leap forward because it’s not only able to review this data, it’s able to use that data for its learning. That’s what’s driven that step change.”

Ms Field argues that while jobs will disappear, the new technology will create new jobs. A recent BSI survey found that, particularly in Australia, there was a need to upskill people and educate them about AI and how to use it.

Many of us use AI already - 44 per cent use it in facial recognition for banking apps, for example - but only about 20 per cent of Australians recognise that it’s actually AI.

“There’s this clear opportunity for education to build this understanding and empower people,” Ms Field said.

BSI’s Trust in AI report, published last month, surveyed 1005 Australians and found 23 per cent of people say their job already uses AI and 56 per cent expect their industry to be using it by 2030.