Forrester Research has predicted that by 2030, 49 percent of customer service jobs will be lost to artificial intelligence. What is less clear is which roles will be most impacted by AI and the rate of shrinkage of these roles.
In the future, there will be AI-first jobs and human-first jobs involved in all aspects of customer service, and all will involve close AI-human collaboration. As AI takes over the majority of customer service operations, the human workforce's core mandate shifts from?directly interacting with customers to directing, governing, and optimizing the AI that interacts with customers. This transition changes the focus of the jobs to be done.
Specifically, expect to see the following trends:
- Strategic oversight roles are and will remain human-first. As AI ultimately flattens and more closely aligns the front office, this leader's focus will shift from operational efficiency to driving customer lifetime value and revenue growth. This includes defining high-level goals and actionable success metrics for human talent and eventually AI agents. This shift is already happening. Salesforce reports that 85 percent of customer service decision makers are expected to contribute to a larger share of revenue this year.
- Customer service talent and AI will work in tight collaboration. Tomorrow, customer service reps (CSRs) will manage teams of AI agents to quality-of -service targets instead of directly resolving customer inquiries. Human-in-the-loop CSRs will manage exceptions surfaced by AI agents in real time. Relationship managers who blend customer service and relationship-focused responsibilities will use AI assist tools during customer engagements requiring a human touch, while subject experts will use AI to troubleshoot complex or nuanced work that is either too complex or too expensive to reliably automate. These new roles are playing out in real time, especially in industries such as health, wellness, and fashion, where service has always played a consultative role.
- Specialized talent that uses AI to optimize customer service operations will emerge. Tomorrow, operations roles like workforce managers, quality managers, and knowledge operations will become even more insights-driven and strategic than they are today. Quality managers will be focused on understanding the performance of AI and CSR engagement. Strategic insights roles dedicated to understanding the root cause of escalations and AI agent performance for CX will emerge. They will also be dedicated to surfacing early signals that can be used by teams such as product, marketing, and sales to drive customer retention and growth.
- IT roles will broaden and deepen as AI drives a flywheel of innovation. Tomorrow, generative AI-powered low-code tooling will unlock a broader swath of IT responsibilities, from citizen developers to pro code developers. IT will be responsible for creating, testing, and rolling out AI agents and integrating them into telephony and back-office systems. They will also be responsible for managing the quality of AI outputs and processes.
However, the scale of job displacement will depend on the skills and abilities of each role and their overlap with current and near-future AI capabilities. L1 and L2 customer service representatives, quality, and workforce managers are more likely to be displaced by AI as they have the highest probability of automation. Manager roles that rely on softer skills like team collaboration, communication, and decision making will see a wider variability of AI influence. Insight and analysis teams that are not always prevalent in today's organizations will quickly emerge. Smaller, more specialized teams that focus more on white-glove, highly technical or relationship-based service will be less impacted.
Of course, the impact of AI will depend on the industry domain and complexity of your customer service operations, your appetite to embrace AI, and how effectively you manage change within your organization. Oftentimes it is the people factors, not the new technologies, that take the longest to mature.
Kate Leggett is a vice president and principal analyst for CRM and customer service at Forrester Research.