Working in a call center is no walk in the park. Agents deal with a constant influx of calls, often from frustrated or distressed customers, while juggling the pressure to resolve issues quickly and empathetically. The emotional labor involved makes call center work one of the most demanding jobs in customer service.
According to HubSpot’s 2024 Annual State of Customer Service Report, 82% of customers expect immediate problem resolution from customer service agents and 78% expect more personalization than ever before. These mounting expectations, combined with stringent performance targets, contribute to high burnout rates among call center agents.
But this is where AI comes in. AI is changing the way call centers operate, promising to make life easier for agents and customers. HubSpot’s report revealed a staggering 92% of customer relationship management leaders say AI has improved their customer service response times and 71% plan to increase AI investment.
But how exactly is AI transforming call centers and what does this mean for call center agent jobs and the future of the industry?
How AI Is Used In Call Centers Today
“Customer requests may be similar, but each client is unique, with different backgrounds, personalities, and unspoken or unexpressed needs,” explained Amir Liberman, founder and CEO of Emotion Logic — the company dedicated to exploring the true nature of human emotions.
Considering that call center agents take 50 to 100 calls a day, per a report by LiveAgent, it may be impossible to keep a tab on these differences and allow them to influence service delivery every time. But with AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, it may just be within reach.
“With AI systems driven by genuine emotion sensing capabilities, customer service can reach a new level — where each client feels understood, the service is personalized and their needs are addressed in ways that resonate with them,” Liberman told me.
AI’s ability to read and respond to emotions is another game-changing use case. Tools like Emotion Logic, for instance, offer insights into the true feelings behind words by leveraging AI and voice analysis. Given that 86% of customers will likely return if they establish a positive emotional connection with the contact center agent, according to NewVoiceMedia, there’s no doubt how relevant this is.
“It can quickly discern whether a caller prefers logical, reason-based explanations or whether they are more emotionally driven, allowing call center agents and AI agents alike to adapt their approach accordingly. Understanding a client’s true pain points, stressors, and moments of joy helps AI create a more tailored response script, serving clients better,” Liberman said.
Then there’s call routing. Have you ever been held on the line for what felt like an eternity while your call was routed to yet another agent? I know I have, and no matter how valid the reason for the delay, I still got frustrated.
Long wait times not only test a customer’s patience, but can also erode their trust in the service, impacting sales negatively. With AI, call routing becomes smarter and faster. These algorithms analyze the caller’s query, history and tone to route them to the most suitable agent instantly.
Also, there’s predictive analytics which AI is already famous for. By analyzing historical and real-time data to predict customer needs and behavior, call centers can anticipate issues before they arise or tailor solutions to individual preferences.
What This Means For Call Center Agents
“Call centers are often the frontline of customer experience. They’re where customers come for solutions, and businesses must deliver quick, empathetic service,” noted Erix Xiao, founder and CEO of sales automation company Laxis. Yet, as Xiao notes, the high volume of calls and repetitive nature of tasks can make it a challenging space to excel.
As laborious as call center work may seem, though, it’s still one of the most essential business functions. Historically, roles in a company’s contact center or mail room were seen as the best way to learn about the business from the bottom up and get a shot at climbing the corporate ladder.
However, the rise of AI and automation poses a significant threat to this career path. Risk levels on platforms like Will Robots Take My Job rate call center agent or customer service representative roles at a high risk category of 61 – 80%, reflecting their vulnerability to being replaced by automation.
But what of the human connection required for the work? Business leaders like Liberman believe this could also be handled by AI.
“If done right, and with the integration of proper emotion sensing capabilities like those that Emotion Logic offers, AI could handle 70-80% of customer service interactions within the next 2 – 3 years. AI will be more patient, empathetic, and responsive to customers’ needs and special requests, all at a fraction of the cost of human agents,” Liberman explained.
He added that the remaining 20 – 30% will be managed by highly trained human agents, primarily for high-value clients. “These agents will be assisted by AI-based systems to ensure requests are addressed effectively, and customer satisfaction is genuinely achieved.”
Xiao also noted the power of AI in “bringing efficiency, personalization, and intelligence to every customer interaction,” highlighting how “a national telecommunications provider that implemented Laxis AI in their call center — with real-time transcription, smart call routing and sentiment analysis — reduced call resolution times by 30% and boosted customer satisfaction scores by 25%.”
So, do these claims mean an end to the traditional contact center job? Not necessarily. I think of it more as an evolution than an extinction.
As McKinsey noted in a report, live phone channels and a personal touch remain customer favourites, and as long as that continues to happen, call center agent jobs are safe. Companies only need to worry about upskilling their workforce to ensure agents can effectively collaborate with AI systems and maximize their potential.
Ethical Concerns With AI Call Centers
Ethical concerns with implementing AI are usually the same across industries — data privacy, AI bias, AI hallucinations and more. But in call centers, there‘s also the risk of emotional manipulation. These systems often depend on collecting sensitive data, such as voiceprints or emotional cues, to improve service delivery. However, the data collected could be misused, thus violating privacy laws like the Biometric Information Privacy Act, among others.
Bias in AI call centers can manifest in various ways, especially in language and accent recognition where AI systems may struggle with recognizing and accurately processing diverse accents, dialects, or speech patterns.
Recent studies by the Stanford Computational Policy Lab, for example, show that many leading speech recognition tools misunderstand Black speakers twice as often as white speakers. Liberman’s perspective, while recognizing these concerns, also calls for an implementation approach that emphasizes a balance between innovation and ethics.
“Why should I share my most intimate problems with a stranger who isn’t my friend? Why should I rely on another human’s goodwill for assistance? AI agents, unlike humans, are never tired, never rude, and have no ulterior motives — just the aim to serve. In a few years, we might look back and find it strange that humans once managed such sensitive interactions. Of course, we need to implement AI incrementally and carefully, monitoring the effectiveness of these systems. But stopping progress here would be simply unreasonable.”
These ethical concerns aren’t slowing down anytime soon, and are certain to drive more regulatory changes in the industry. It’s hard to know if AI will significantly displace call center agents, as many experts already predict. But the future could be one where AI-powered agents and human call center agents increasingly collaborate to serve customers better.
