Will AI replace people in customer service? Not anytime soon. Here’s why.

Early in 2024, a well-known consumer financial brand boasted that its new AI-based customer service system could do the work of “700 full time customer agents,” handling “two-thirds of customer chats” and was “estimated to drive $40 million in profit improvement in 2024.” Later that year, they announced the layoffs of hundreds of employees, saying that AI could do their jobs instead.

And then what happened? Just a few months ago, the brand’s CEO announced they would reverse course and started hiring workers back. Spoiler alert: it turns out that AI can’t do it all, and that’s no surprise.

What can we learn from this? AI is a great productivity tool, but it’s not going to replace customer service workers anytime soon. Or, in the opinion of Rui Melo Biscaia, VP of product at Talkdesk, perhaps very little at all.

“There are situations where the sole metric isn’t about average time—it’s about satisfaction,” Biscaia recently told me. “When you’re talking about premium brands or high-touch engagements, it’s not about automating everything; it’s about giving a personalized interaction capability. That means you still need people.”

He’s right. And both of us see a similar future for AI in customer service.

Sure, there will be virtual agents that will be able to perform some tasks autonomously, like answering basic questions online, automatically creating tickets or elevating calls to priority status based on time outstanding or the nature of the issue. And great customer service platforms like Talkdesk offer these AI features so that its customers – both big and small – can leverage their benefits. But in the end, humans will need to be involved. Why?

Because, depending on the issue, humans prefer to talk to humans. How many times have you repeatedly pressed zero on the phone to avoid that annoying automated service? Plenty, I’m sure. And how often can you detect when that helpful “voice” that answers the call is just a bot? Pretty often, I bet.

The best AI systems will give us a choice. Instead of forcing us to talk to a machine, soon we’ll be asked if we want to talk to the machine. In some cases, we’ll be told that the machine can answer or resolve the question we have quickly than a human. But in other situations, that may not be the case. Regardless, people wanting service will be able to choose how they get that service, just like we choose to read a hardcover book instead of an e-book, or a newspaper instead of a website.

“We must always make sure there’s a fallback,” said Biscaia. “There’s always a fallback to actually talk to a person. If the bot is unable to address your question or if you just desire to speak with someone, it defaults to a live agent.”

Biscaia says that AI’s most valuable role in customer service will be to support the customer service agent.

According to him, the idea is that when we talk about AI, it’s not just about the bot. Instead, it’s ensuring that when speaking with a live agent, the agent has all the information they need at the tip of his or her hands.

The ideal scenario in customer service? “You may not see it, but you’re actually leveraging AI in the background to give context,” he said.

This is one of the features available to small businesses through Talkdesk Express, an easy-to-launch and use platform that combines AI customer service tools in one. With a solution like this, you can use AI to make your agents’ jobs easier and serve your customers better, just like the big brands – so you can focus on growing your business.

Both Biscaia and I are confident that in the not-too-distant future, AI will evolve to taking on more customer service tasks. But humans will never be out of the picture. And the businesses that understand this and leverage these tools to help their human agents do their jobs better will increase their value by providing customer service that encourages loyalty and revenue growth. Those will be the businesses best positioned to succeed in the long term.

“A lot of people will tell you, it’s going to happen—this massive replacement [of humans by AI],” said Biscaia. “The truth is no one knows. We’re going to go with the flow and try to understand how to best leverage AI.”

Talkdesk is offering small businesses to see how they can best use AI for their customer service with $100 free and up to 25 licenses. In my opinion, this is a great risk-free opportunity to experiment with AI and what it can do for your business.