Your call is very important to us – which is why we're connecting you to a human
(2025/09/12)
- Reference: 1757703347
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/09/12/gartner_support_ai/
- Source link:
ai-pocalypse You'll be able to talk to a human when you need help for many years to come. A new Gartner study shows that fears about AI replacing humans with bots in call centers are unfounded, at least among Fortune 500 companies.
None of the biggest corporations reported that they were planning to replace everyone with bots by 2028 and the analysts noticed that several companies are rehiring staff after going all-in on AI too early. Only 11 percent of companies said that they planned to reduce headcount as a result of AI, while 54 percent said that they would maintain staffing and use AI to boost engagement.
"Let's say you have the most advanced AI agent in the world, and you have all of the infrastructure stuff set up to be able to deploy the technology. Customers are still going to have issues that need to be handled by human agents," Emily Potosky, senior director of research at Gartner told The Register .
[1]
"This is both in terms of just practicality, like super unique issues or super critical issues, but also just in terms of the emotional aspect. If you've been a victim of credit card fraud and you need to talk to someone, you probably want to talk to a human who can provide you with that reassurance."
[2]
[3]
Part of the problem, she explained, is that successful AI implementation is not as simple as slapping a bot on the system and letting it do its thing. There's an enormous amount of work that has to be done in the background. This includes linking in data management tools and knowledge bases to automated systems to avoid making the bot deployment useless or even counterproductive.
In some cases, companies that rushed to lay off staff to replace them with AI are rehiring them, she pointed out. Rushing into AI has caused reputational harm as customers grew frustrated with the technology’s limitations.
[4]
Not all jobs are going to be safe, and there will be some staff reductions, the report found. 22 percent of companies have stopped backfilling those who choose to leave, but conversely 32 percent are hiring more staff where they have specialized skills.
[5]Fintech outfit Klarna swaps humans for AI by not replacing departing workers
[6]AI will reduce workforce, say 41% of surveyed executives
[7]Cisco plans to slash thousands more jobs amid AI, cybersecurity push
[8]Talk to the bot: Salesforce AI agents could replace US govt employees
"The role of the customer service employee is going to look different," Kathy Ross, senior director analyst at Gartner, told us. "They're going to be tasked with more complex work, unique issue resolution, and they're going to be building customer relationships that are going to support growth."
The logical way forward, she opined, is that humans stay firmly in the loop, but AI is used to expand operations while people handle the tough stuff. This will mean some reskilling for employees, but the net result won't be the jobs apocalypse that some are predicting.
"Even those companies that have very bullish projections against their headcount reductions are probably going to realize that it may be possible in the future, but not quite yet," she told us. "So they need to back off these plans."
Others certainly have. Last year Swedish fintech biz Klarna was an early adopter of AI and said it was planning to halve its workforce and replace staff with bots.
[9]
By May of this year it [10]admitted it was rehiring staff because humans just don’t like talking to bots. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/29/ai_hiring_freeze_klarna/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/06/ai_will_reduce_workforce_41/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/cisco_job_cuts/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/20/salesforce_ai_agents_us_govt/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://gizmodo.com/klarna-hiring-back-human-help-after-going-all-in-on-ai-2000600767
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
None of the biggest corporations reported that they were planning to replace everyone with bots by 2028 and the analysts noticed that several companies are rehiring staff after going all-in on AI too early. Only 11 percent of companies said that they planned to reduce headcount as a result of AI, while 54 percent said that they would maintain staffing and use AI to boost engagement.
"Let's say you have the most advanced AI agent in the world, and you have all of the infrastructure stuff set up to be able to deploy the technology. Customers are still going to have issues that need to be handled by human agents," Emily Potosky, senior director of research at Gartner told The Register .
[1]
"This is both in terms of just practicality, like super unique issues or super critical issues, but also just in terms of the emotional aspect. If you've been a victim of credit card fraud and you need to talk to someone, you probably want to talk to a human who can provide you with that reassurance."
[2]
[3]
Part of the problem, she explained, is that successful AI implementation is not as simple as slapping a bot on the system and letting it do its thing. There's an enormous amount of work that has to be done in the background. This includes linking in data management tools and knowledge bases to automated systems to avoid making the bot deployment useless or even counterproductive.
In some cases, companies that rushed to lay off staff to replace them with AI are rehiring them, she pointed out. Rushing into AI has caused reputational harm as customers grew frustrated with the technology’s limitations.
[4]
Not all jobs are going to be safe, and there will be some staff reductions, the report found. 22 percent of companies have stopped backfilling those who choose to leave, but conversely 32 percent are hiring more staff where they have specialized skills.
[5]Fintech outfit Klarna swaps humans for AI by not replacing departing workers
[6]AI will reduce workforce, say 41% of surveyed executives
[7]Cisco plans to slash thousands more jobs amid AI, cybersecurity push
[8]Talk to the bot: Salesforce AI agents could replace US govt employees
"The role of the customer service employee is going to look different," Kathy Ross, senior director analyst at Gartner, told us. "They're going to be tasked with more complex work, unique issue resolution, and they're going to be building customer relationships that are going to support growth."
The logical way forward, she opined, is that humans stay firmly in the loop, but AI is used to expand operations while people handle the tough stuff. This will mean some reskilling for employees, but the net result won't be the jobs apocalypse that some are predicting.
"Even those companies that have very bullish projections against their headcount reductions are probably going to realize that it may be possible in the future, but not quite yet," she told us. "So they need to back off these plans."
Others certainly have. Last year Swedish fintech biz Klarna was an early adopter of AI and said it was planning to halve its workforce and replace staff with bots.
[9]
By May of this year it [10]admitted it was rehiring staff because humans just don’t like talking to bots. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/29/ai_hiring_freeze_klarna/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/06/ai_will_reduce_workforce_41/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/cisco_job_cuts/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/20/salesforce_ai_agents_us_govt/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aMSX9d1TEqysJS9x_etOlAAAAIA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://gizmodo.com/klarna-hiring-back-human-help-after-going-all-in-on-ai-2000600767
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "Let's say you have the most advanced AI agent in the world"...
Jou (Mxyzptlk)
AI Agent: "Do you expect me to talk?"
AI Villain: "No, I expect you to die!"
The agent fails to save to world. The villain fails to destroy the world. Leaving world in limbo, like a Schrödingers world experiment.
F500 corporations get it wrong again
Like a badger
My experience of customer service from very large companies is that it is uniformly poor, invariably offshored to some cheap labour cesspit. If it's a tech support contact, it's often intensely script-driven removing all discretion from the agent. I think these companies could actually improve their customer service with a managed LLM.
Curiously enough, the single most memorable customer service experience of my life was with Marriott. Mundane booking call from the UK, went to an international location, and was answered by somebody with a Mid-west US accent. Would have been unsocial hours for her, but she couldn't have been more helpful and engaging. I remember that across two decades. I wonder if Marriott still have decent US call centres, or whether they've paid shit-head management consultancies to tell them to move their call centres to Manila or Mumbai?
No surprise here
Jou (Mxyzptlk)
Whenever I am actually CALLING in for whatever reason, the issue is so complex an AI cannot be able to grasp it. Besides the fact that "grasp" is something current Artificial Incompetence is not able to do by design how they work.
"Let's say you have the most advanced AI agent in the world"...
And it would still be an absolute crapfest...