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Call center agent is no longer a job with a secure future I guess. If 5000 call center agents saw an average increase in productivity by 14%, that means the co

by mg 3y ago

Call center agent is no longer a job with a secure future I guess. If 5000 call center agents saw an average increase in productivity by 14%, that means the company now needs 700 people less to handle all incoming calls. I wouldn't be surprised if that 14% goes up to over 50% soon. In the past, I often asked on IRC when I had a question only someone with deep knowledge about a technology could answer. Nowadays I get a better answer from ChatGPT in over 50% of these cases.

marstall 3y ago
Or they can keep the same level of employment and make their customers 14% happier
- Fauntleroy 3y ago
  You almost made me laugh with that one. Companies do not optimize for customer happiness, they optimize for shareholder satisfaction.
  - lumb63 3y ago
    Not to mention, that “14% higher productivity” headline translated to an under 2% increase in resolved issues.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - swexbe 3y ago
    There might be a positive correlation between these things depending on the business model :)
- Imnimo 3y ago
  Unfortunately, they detected no difference in customer satisfaction: >In Panel E, we see no discernible differences in surveyed customer satisfaction among pre- and post-AI groups
hervature 3y ago
You committed the cardinal sin that an X% increase is offset by a (100-X)% decrease. The number is a reduction of 12.3% or 614 agents. Your point is unchanged but I just want to call out a 50% productivity boost won't be a loss of half the agents. "Only" a reduction of 33%.
yojo 3y ago
Quibble: It's probably not going to be a 1:1 loss of jobs. A call center's goal is to find the right spot along the cost/satisfaction curve. You can pay more money to answer calls quickly and increase satisfaction, or a smaller amount of money to answer calls slowly with lower satisfaction. More satisfied customers are more likely to spend more money with you, so as an operator you're trying to find the level of support that optimizes your bottom line. If AI reduces the cost per call resolution, you're shifting that cost/satisfaction curve. Unless the wait-time to satisfaction relationship is perfectly linear, the new optimum will result in not firing 100% of the workers who could be "replaced" by productivity gains. You'll instead keep some of them around, with a lower total cost, and higher total customer satisfaction. You'll still reduce staffing, but probably less than the raw productivity gain number.

by mg 3y ago

marstall 3y ago

Or they can keep the same level of employment and make their customers 14% happier

Fauntleroy 3y ago
You almost made me laugh with that one. Companies do not optimize for customer happiness, they optimize for shareholder satisfaction.
- lumb63 3y ago
  Not to mention, that “14% higher productivity” headline translated to an under 2% increase in resolved issues.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- swexbe 3y ago
  There might be a positive correlation between these things depending on the business model :)
Imnimo 3y ago
Unfortunately, they detected no difference in customer satisfaction: >In Panel E, we see no discernible differences in surveyed customer satisfaction among pre- and post-AI groups

hervature 3y ago

You committed the cardinal sin that an X% increase is offset by a (100-X)% decrease. The number is a reduction of 12.3% or 614 agents. Your point is unchanged but I just want to call out a 50% productivity boost won't be a loss of half the agents. "Only" a reduction of 33%.

yojo 3y ago

Quibble: It's probably not going to be a 1:1 loss of jobs. A call center's goal is to find the right spot along the cost/satisfaction curve. You can pay more money to answer calls quickly and increase satisfaction, or a smaller amount of money to answer calls slowly with lower satisfaction. More satisfied customers are more likely to spend more money with you, so as an operator you're trying to find the level of support that optimizes your bottom line. If AI reduces the cost per call resolution, you're shifting that cost/satisfaction curve. Unless the wait-time to satisfaction relationship is perfectly linear, the new optimum will result in not firing 100% of the workers who could be "replaced" by productivity gains. You'll instead keep some of them around, with a lower total cost, and higher total customer satisfaction. You'll still reduce staffing, but probably less than the raw productivity gain number.