British Gas owner cuts 1,300 call centre jobs, says customers prefer chatbots

The company behind British Gas is slashing 1,300 call centre roles, arguing that most customers now choose AI chatbots over speaking with a human operator. Centrica, the FTSE 100 energy giant, confirmed 800 job cuts tied to a “targeted deployment of AI tools,” adding to 500 positions eliminated last month. The reductions will hit customer service teams in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leicester, Stockport and Leeds, trimming the workforce by 14% over two years. Some roles will simply go unfilled as staff resign, with the rest coming from redundancies.

Trade unions have warned that investing in artificial intelligence to streamline operations means handing “hundreds of human jobs” to chatbots. But chief executive Chris O’Shea pushed back, insisting the shift reflects what customers want. “AI isn’t driving these particular job reductions; that’s mainly due to changing customer behaviour,” he said. “Over 90% of our customers use digital channels first, and we’ve seen a 20% drop in phone calls. We’ve got to reflect that. We expect to grow more jobs around our digital interface, and maybe have fewer people on the phones.”

The job cuts come as Centrica reported a rise in retail profits to £346 million in the first half of the year, up from £338 million a year earlier, even though British Gas lost domestic customers — falling to 7.45 million from 7.5 million. O’Shea said the company focused on higher profit margins from fixed-price tariffs rather than chasing unprofitable business. Meanwhile, British Gas faces paying up to £112 million in compensation after force-fitting prepayment meters during the Russian gas crisis, the largest energy supplier settlement on record.