Customer service emerges as an early test of AI’s impact on jobs

  Artificial intelligence has yet to trigger the wave of white-collar job losses that some feared, but customer service is emerging as an early test case.

Earlier this month, Uber cut about 10 percent of its customer support team as part of a broader effort to “simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration, and continue to embrace AI,” a company spokesperson confirmed to NewsNation.

“We are operating in a world where AI is shaping entire industries,” Megha Yethadka, Uber’s VP of global community operations, wrote in an internal memo sent to employees, calling it an opportunity to “accelerate output” and “improve quality.”

The ride-hailing giant isn’t alone.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has credited AI with enabling the company to cut 4,000 customer support roles. Microsoft has also trimmed its customer service workforce in recent years, according to Bloomberg.

For companies, the upside is clear: lower costs, faster response times and around-the-clock support. The bigger question is how many human workers will ultimately be needed to handle the complex tasks AI can’t do.

As it stands now, customer service job postings on Indeed are about 10 percent below pre-pandemic levels in the U.S., while overall job postings on the platform are slightly above pre-pandemic levels.

What’s next for customer service

No one knows exactly how many customer service jobs AI will replace, but Forrester predicts that by 2030, nearly half of those jobs will be lost to the technology.

The firm expects high-volume contact centers — those handling hundreds of thousands of inquiries each month — to see the biggest reductions in staff.

Last month, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said he expects AI to displace “a large percentage” of customer service work over time. That expectation is consistent with Anthropic research showing customer service representatives are the second-most AI-exposed occupation.

But humans aren’t expected to disappear from the process entirely, and the pace of transition could depend on consumers’ tolerance for AI in customer service.

Research firm Gartner doesn’t expect any Fortune 500 company to fully eliminate human customer service by 2028. It also predicts that half of companies that cut customer service staff due to AI will rehire workers to perform similar functions.

“AI simply isn’t mature enough to fully replace the expertise, empathy, and judgment that human agents provide,” Emily Potosky, a senior director of research in Gartner’s customer service practice, said in February.

When it comes to customer service, most Americans still prefer speaking with a human over AI, consumer surveys suggest.

In 2024, there were approximately 2.8 million customer service jobs in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment in the occupation is projected to decline by about 5.5 percent by 2034, a net loss of roughly 150,000 jobs.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/6003298-customer-service-test-for-ai-jobs/