2024 JANUARY CCW MARKET STUDY | Future of Contact Center Employees
CUSTOMER
CONTACT WEEK
DIGITAL
www.customercontactweekdigital.com |
Though not quite as recognizable as “happy agents equal
happy customers,” the notion that “AI will augment rather than
eliminate agents” has become rather popular among contact
center professionals.
Of course, the notion was far easier to blindly accept when
AI contact center solutions were still in their infant stages.
When chatbots were terribly unhelpful and agent assistance
tools were disappointingly robotic, there was little immediate
reason to see AI solutions as a threat to agent jobs. In that
era, the question was not whether AI tools would eliminate
agents but whether they could even handle enough simple
issues to meaningfully augment performance.
AI technology has, however, come a long way. Generative AI
projects like ChatGPT prove that AI is capable of automating
meaningful contact center work, while demonstrating that
Fired or Empowered? What Does AI Really Mean For Agents?
self–service can be more dynamic, conversational, and
personalized than the convoluted IVRs and static FAQ pages
of yesterday.
As confidence in AI’s transformative potential grows, so too
does concern over its impact on human contact center work.
Nearly 71% of contact center leaders acknowledge that fear
of AI-driven job loss exists within their organizations.
Is that fear warranted? Today’s contact center leaders have
mixed feelings.
A non-trivial 16% still doubt AI will meaningfully impact the
contact center, while 26% believe its impact will be limited to
only the most basic tasks – thus having little consequence for
the role of the agent.