The Next Power Move in Business AI Transformation
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The AI revolution is advancing into every corner of the workplace, and it seems like every week brings news of yet another round of significant layoffs as companies rush to automate whatever they can. At the time of writing (early 2026), engineering and programme management roles are bearing the brunt of these cuts, but they were not first in line; they were simply next in line.
Since the early 2000s, customer service has been steadily deprecated, and over the last decade that trend has only accelerated. For many in the business world, the cost savings associated with largely automating customer service, including call-in help centres, are seen as a clear success. For those who actually use the help line, the sentiment is often very different.
You know the drill. You call into a customer service line to solve an important, often frustrating problem and you are met with one of three all too familiar realities:
An endless maze of not-quite fitting options
An AI assistant that somehow does not offer a satisfying solution
The automated message: “Due to an unusually high number of phone calls, the expected wait time is more than 15 minutes. Please hold the line for the next available agent.”
It’s even unpleasant to read!
A recent Five9 study found that 75% consumers still prefer to speak to a real human for customer support, whether in person or over the phone, and that this preference cuts across generations and industries. While younger people may be more comfortable with digital and AI tools, nearly half of all consumers say they do not trust information provided by AI powered bots, and more than half report being frustrated by them.
An article published in Forbes proposes that contact centres are notoriously expensive, especially when compared to new technology that can serve many of the same purposes. On a company ledger, this makes sense. Customer service appears as an expense, and expenses are meant to be reduced or removed. But this reflects the same categorical error as confusing money with wealth. Money is not the same thing as wealth, and profit margin alone is a poor indicator of a company’s overall wealth.
A company focused on short term profitability has money, but not necessarily durability. Any VC, investor, or serial-entrepreneur present surely has more than a few horror stories about this. A company with wealth has something else entirely: a strong brand, a loyal customer base, and a dependable stream of revenue. Even if that company experiences a temporary dip in net profit, the stability and resilience created by the wealth it has built over the years is often enough to carry it through periods of uncertainty.
So why are so many companies behaving as though they have brand reputation and customer goodwill to burn by hollowing out customer service? Or put differently: what is the scale of the opportunity in using genuinely recommendation-worthy customer service as a strategic brand differentiator?
"People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic,"
Seth Godin
When there is an issue that causes worry or frustration, the answer to the problem is often not the full solution; sometimes people simply want to feel heard. There is a distinct reassurance of knowing there is another human on the other end of the line, and that they have you in their complete attention. Empathy, relatability, and emotional presence remain distinctly human strengths, and they may yet become a defining strategic advantage. In the same Five9 study, brands that delivered positive customer experiences gained loyalty, with 40% of consumers saying they would stick with a company because of good service.
Attracting and retaining even a small fraction of that 40% would likely be a massive win for your company.
A human agent who can read between the lines, probe gently, and help a customer clarify what they really need could generate insights no scripted flow ever could. These conversations surface edge cases, unarticulated needs, and systemic issues that AI parameters may never anticipate. And it is not just the customer who benefits; the feedback embedded in a service call can be a goldmine for product insight.
There is a well known quote attributed to Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” The point was never the horse. It was the underlying need to move faster. In the same way, customers may describe a specific issue or ask for a fix, but a human listener can hear the need beneath the request. This is why a serious listening strategy still requires humans in customer facing roles.
But since AI is here to stay, we can now ask what if some of the value created by AI on the back end were intentionally redirected to the front end? Customer service lines, help desks, and service counters where real people are easy to reach, empowered to listen, and trusted to solve problems. Not as a last resort, but as a deliberate design choice; a unique selling feature (USP) and future-forward business strategy.
Rebranding the Callcentre
Elevating the status of the callcentre in the business strategy also means elevating the attractiveness of working in call centres. No longer seen as a detestable necessiety, but rather a team that is performing well on the front line of customer contact, driving customer retention, loyalty that wins new clients organically, and even upselling services or products. Bring your call centre in-house once again, giving visibility and credence to the silent champions of your company.
In a market where companies increasingly compete on similar products and pricing, this kind of decision would really stand out. It tells customers that their time, their concerns, and their experience matter… that they are not just buying from a company, the company is in their service.
The opportunity in AI is not simply to create savings by automating everything possible; it is to decide how to reinvest the savings. Companies that choose to reinvest some of their AI-driven efficiency into rebuilding customer-facing services may find that what looks like a cost on paper becomes a meaningful strategic advantage in practice.
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This article is a counterpoint to the Forbes article: “Customers Should Never—Ever—Have To Call You”.