Truth about AI threat to call centres

Artificial intelligence (AI) does not pose a threat to call centre jobs or demand for voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services, according to Euphoria Telecom chief technology officer Nic Laschinger.

Several experts and heavyweights in the customer support industry have predicted that AI will significantly impact human involvement in conventional call centres.

Research firm Gartner has predicted that AI will cut contact centre labour costs by more than $80 billion (R1.55 billion) by 2026.

In April 2024, Tata Consultancy Services CEO K Krithivasan told the Financial Times that within 12 months, adoption of the technology would result in a “minimal” need for traditional call centres.

Laschinger told MyBroadband that the Tata executive’s view of AI almost seemed to keep customers at arm’s length, when businesses should be building closer connections with them.

“AI excels in managing high volumes of simple queries efficiently, which is an attractive prospect for any business or contact centre,” he explained.

“But that efficiency should never come at the cost of empathy.”

“At the end of the day, people are still people who are looking for a connection or empathy, especially in complex and emotional cases.”

Laschinger said although contact centres will evolve with the adoption of AI, there will always be room for human-facilitated calls.

Laschinger said that AI allows human agents to focus on higher-value, complex queries.

“AI tools are enhancing the entire customer service ecosystem, but they aren’t replacing the need for human-led voice communication,” Laschinger said.

“If anything, they’re elevating it. That makes the quality and reliability of VoIP services even more critical because the voice calls that do happen, tend to matter more.”

Laschinger said that although AI agents and chatbots were improving in their abilities, it was fair to say that many people had very frustrating experiences with them.

“I think we might see a return swing of the pendulum, being driven by these frustrations and a desire to ‘just talk to a human’.”

He also pointed out that the initial cost of implementing a well-functioning AI agent was prohibitively expensive for many businesses.

Impact similar to chat

Another growingly common support channel that some believe could pose a threat to VoIP is chat-based interactions.

While this can still require human staff, it reduces the number of calls that telemarketers and support centres need to make.

However, Laschinger insisted the growth of chat had not resulted in a decline in demand for VoIP services.

“There is more of a shift in how they are being used,” Laschinger said. “Most call centres are multi-channel anyway, and rather than replacing voice, chat support complements it.”

“In multi-channel environments, VoIP systems integrate with customer relationship management platforms, chat systems and ticketing tools, giving businesses a unified platform to manage all omnichannel communications.”

AI will perform a similar function to chat as it can handle simple, repetitive queries really well.

However, it will free up even more support agents to handle complex interactions rather than having to read and respond to chat messages.