Why Call Center Jobs Will Disappear

At a call center in the Dominican Republic, Laura Morales is designing chatbots to respond to customer service requests. A former call center agent herself, Morales has benefited from her new job that is better paid and higher skilled than what she used to do. But will these chatbots end up replacing the livelihoods of millions of agents around the world? This is an episode of Next Jobs, a mini-documentary series hosted by Bloomberg Technology's Aki Ito.

QuickTake Originals is Bloomberg's official premium video channel. We bring you insights and analysis from business, science, and technology experts who are shaping our future. We’re home to Hello World, Giant Leap, Storylines, and the series powering CityLab, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Green, and much more.

Subscribe for business news, but not as you've known it: exclusive interviews, fascinating profiles, data-driven analysis, and the latest in tech innovation from around the world.

Visit our partner channel QuickTake News for breaking global news and insight in an instant.

[pabloascencio]

- Are you a chatbot?
- Yes.
- Let me speak to a real human please.

[nivpcl]

what if the caller asks for a supervisor... will their be a chatbot boss?

[jamessoares]

As someone who worked in a call center environment for almost 10 years I’ll say bye Felicia! Customer entitlement is what’s gonna destroy America.

[alejandrote]

ZERO GUILT? she is just a puppet and I seen many with that arrogant attitude get fired from operations manager and have to go to another call center and start from the bottom

[steveb.bautistajr.]

AI can't handle human's stupidity. EQ is still needed.

[jaydegarcia]

One of the most disrespected positions in the work field.

[Stelly]

When she proudly said “zero guilt” and sipped her rum, I lost total respect. She thinks she’s invincible because she’s “part of it” but there is someone higher up than her who also will have “zero guilt” and eventually get rid her too.

[iamkingsolomon]

I currently work as a travel agent, call center rep. Never knew it was a call center job. I advise everyone to RUN from all call center jobs. I'll be glad when the customers have to work with the bots over the phone or chat because of the phone humans cannot control themselves and have total disregard for others who they called for assistance. I had international clients and the American clients were ALWAYS the most brutal, just rude and entitled.

[Harry-qhrt]

she's a software admin and she's being interviewed like she invented it. what a waste of time.

[Thenevisian]

Does the Laura know she's training her replacement? The bot

[gbat]

Unless she learns how to code herself, she will be obsolete soon.

[phasinator]

When it comes to customer service, nothing beats human interaction.

[john]

I am a call center agent for 5 years now, and I firmly believe that this will not satisfy customers/clients. Bots may be used for just inquiries, and its more frustrating for them if they don't get the answer they need. Automation/Bot agent is a NO for me.

[marvinnavia]

Customer: "I wanted to talk to a supervisor".
Chatbot: "Are you a super customer?"

[frugalhappy]

call centers one of the worst jobs you can have! avoid at all means

[kassandrab]

I hated working at a call center. I wanted to help the customer and they just wanted me to up-sell even at the cost of losing the customer. Also got some terrifying calls. I quit after 3 weeks of training because it was so awful.

[ajitpawar]

If that bot doesn't have any ML or AI powered "learning" aspect to it, then it is definitely NOT the future of call centers. I am shocked that Bloomberg thinks this form of manually designed interactions & scripted responses is the future. This has been around forever.

[markbrown]

These people work very hard.... very long hours and they can be fired at the drop of a hat. Very sad.

[metatechnocrat]

You're going to put a lot of people out of work.
Laura: "Zero guilt." (smiles) Yeah she's a low level sociopath.

[Ratri]

She's training her replacement
She's the first one to lose her job