This is purely anecdotal, but ten years ago, or so, I was involved with a company that sold and installed call center solutions for hotels, casinos, and other such businesses. Though completely out of that industry since then, I am still connected to a lot of those companies/people on linkedin and all I see from them are ads and posts about call center AI. I don't believe that it is fully there yet, but it is coming and is not only motivated by the cost savings from staff reduction but also by the poor quality of call centers that have staff located around the world and are non-native speakers.
For every job lost to AI new ones will be created. The U.S. alone is in need of/and is short of 200,000 AI technicians *NOW*.
I believe it'll come bit by bit instead of in one go. AI might take over boring jobs at first - people sticking around where things get tricky or customers need reassurance. Swapping everything out seems kinda distant right now.
What are needed right now are AI programmers and those who know how to teach it. The U.S. now has over 200,000 Chinese workers with temporary work visas because they cannot be found here. Also about 100,000 from India all getting big $$$.
Right now, machines answer common questions, set meetings, fix small problems - this trend won’t slow soon. Still, swapping out real workers completely? Not happening quickly since tough situations, feelings, understanding tone need humans. Mixing both works better - one system handles initial replies while people step in when things get messy. Some teams tweak computer-written answers using https://cleverhumanizer.ai/ so they feel less stiff, more like someone actually said them. Free to use, working fast - this fits growing customer chats well. Though machines handle regular tasks now, people still matter in helping others.