Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the agent workforce has been and continues to be a challenge for many contact center managers and CX leaders. It’s a moving target, as Metrigy’s latest global AI research, the AI for Business Success 2024-25 study conducted with 697 companies, reveals.
In general, the contact center environment is as troublesome as ever. After dipping in 2022, contact center turnover is on the rise, our study shows: from 21.8% in 2022 to 28.1% in 2023 and a projected 31.2% in 2024. Among the reasons: Some agents aren’t capable of juggling the number of simultaneous and increasingly complex interactions characteristic of the modern contact center workload.
In addition to an inability to retain existing staff, companies attribute staffing shortages to factors such as company growth, an inability to find the right new people, and insufficient budget.
AI is proving its worth in face of such challenges. For example, companies in the AI for Business Success study report hiring 89% fewer agents in 2023 because of AI. Nearly 56% of companies say the top impact of AI in the contact center is reducing their need to hire as many new agents as they might otherwise have needed without AI.
Here’s a surprise: The study also shows reduced headcount through layoffs as another top impact of AI. At 36.8%, this is second to reduced hiring. As Metrigy CEO Robin Gareiss noted in her recent “AI Masterclass Ep.1: How to Make AI Impact Staffing and Management” webinar (available on demand), this is the first time companies are saying they are reducing headcount because they’ve implemented AI. The reasons are twofold: Not only is AI automating responses to routine inquiries, it also is making agents more productive.
All of this isn’t to say that there’s no hiring going on in the contact center. While the total number of agents required is shrinking for some contact centers, our data shows that most companies do continue to increase their total number of contact center licenses year over year. In addition, AI is driving hiring of a different sort, as well as offering the potential for skilled agents to move into new jobs.
With AI’s implementation in the contact center comes the need for a variety of experts. Two thirds of companies in the AI for Business Success study say they’ll be increasing the number of data analysts due to AI. Sixty percent say they’ll be adding security analyst positions, 56.2% will be bringing on more programmers, 50.2% more data scientists, and 38.2% content managers. To this latter position, most companies say all (47%) or some (34.2%) AI-generated content requires human oversight—and who better to take on that task than agents who are well-versed in a company’s products and customers.
For more insight on AI’s impact on contact center staffing and management, tune into Robin’s “AI Masterclass Ep.1” webinar. And, don’t miss out on episodes two and three:
- AI Masterclass Ep. 2: Are Bots Helping or Hurting CX? | March 19, 11 a.m. ET; register now
- AI Masterclass Ep. 3: 5 Steps to Success With Generative AI | April 9, 11 a.m. ET; register now
