Customer service staff say AI is reshaping their working day - for better and worse

Customer service work is changing fast as artificial intelligence takes over routine tasks, and the people doing the job describe a mixed picture.

Kaylee Harris, who works in customer service for a credit card company, told CNBC her hours used to be filled with calls, note-taking and lengthy card disclosures. Now, thanks to AI, she can focus more on each customer.

For Shannon, who works for a telecommunications company in Cardiff, Wales, and asked that her surname be withheld for fear of being identified by her employer, the change has not all been positive. She told CNBC that AI-generated notes at her current workplace are often riddled with errors, "so I just write my own." At a previous employer, a property services company, senior management told staff to "ChatGPT it" if they didn't know the answer. Staff were "constantly fighting fires," she said, as complicated cases landed on human desks and caused burnout.

Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and co-founder of London-headquartered PolyAI, which develops voice AI systems for customer service, said contact-center agents can face "maximum abuse for minimum wage" and sees AI agents as a way to help shoulder that load. Virgin Media O2 launched an AI voice agent in September, which it said handles routine issues so human advisors can spend more time on complex or sensitive cases. At U.K.-based ArvatoConnect, CEO Debra Maxwell told CNBC the company aims for 70% of interactions to be handled by technology and 30% by people.

But as AI takes on routine tasks, human agents may be left with a greater share of complicated cases - and be required to pick up the slack when the technology fails. According to MaxContact's 2025/26 U.K. Contact Centre KPI Benchmarking Insights Report, more than half of surveyed contact-center decision-makers said agent workloads had increased, up from around 40% in 2024, though the survey doesn't establish what is driving the rise.

Amanda Jones, who researches organizational behavior and the future of work at King's College London, told CNBC that AI could make call-center work even more intense if human agents are increasingly left with the toughest interactions. She cautioned that productivity gains may also bring more intense performance targets, and that as routine tasks are automated, workers could lose opportunities to develop the experience needed for more demanding work.

Maxwell argued that average handling times may need to increase as employees take on more complex cases, and that agents are assessed on whether they understood the customer's needs and reached the right resolution, not on scripts or arbitrary time targets.

Harris sees the upsides of AI tools, despite occasional system glitches that create more work, but worries the push to automate comes at the expense of customer experience. Shannon also sees potential benefits but doesn't think AI should ever replace real customer service. "I believe people buy from people; with AI you don't get to experience that," she said. "I go the extra mile. Can AI give that feeling? Can it feel genuine?"