Will AI virtual agents replace call centre agents faster than expected because of Covid-19?

The pandemic has kept us away from each other physically. It’s technology that keeps us connected with our families, and even our suppliers or local supermarkets, and governments for information.

Many industries are struggling to cater to the high volume of calls or chats brought by people’s anxiety - from COVID-19 and health-related concerns to delivery and financial services questions, among many others.

I’m interested to know what happens next. With the increase of demands for conversations, chatbots and virtual agents are to the rescue to address the need. However, as the world is getting used to having artificial intelligence in place during a global health and financial crisis, what then is the future of the call center industry when we transition into the new normal - will human agents lose their positions to AI?

Automation is a reality

Natural language processing has bolstered up in the last couple of years, and talking bots like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri are smarter than ever. This aspect of AI is seen as a threat to displace people in the workplace.

At the forefront of job automation are hundreds of thousands of call center agents around the world as bots can be trained to “speak” on their behalf.

In a video I’ve seen from Bloomberg, a call center in the Dominican Republic named OutPLEX has started to train chatbots that answer queries based on past conversations. They only funnel queries to human agents when they don’t have a prepared response.

It is seen as a cost-effective way of operating support and customer service, as machines are easier to train. OutPLEX chatbot designer Laura Morales said, “A bot is never late. A bot doesn’t get sick or pregnant. Those are specific human situations you can’t fight. Automation is able to take that out.”

Is technology helping or replacing call center agents?

Though people are encouraged to stay home to “flatten the curve,” call center agents can’t distance from their customers, they are required to ramp up their operations. The industry’s dilemma is both the lack of staff and the financial meltdown. The safest bet is to train a bot, like IBM’s Watson Assistant.

According to an article by MIT Technology Review, the traffic to Watson increased by 40% from February to April this year, which is being offered to “governments, health-care organizations, and research institutions in a 90-day free trial.” Similarly, Google also launched its Rapid Response Virtual Agent at a lower price.

These AI platforms are helping augment the capability of call centers to handle the influx of inquiries, while also cutting costs on human agents. However, AI agents can’t work on their own. Machines can be taught as time goes by, but humans have to be in the process - at least for now.

Now, will the pandemic hasten job automation?

Even though there are new investments in chatbots and virtual agents that allowed for a faster rate of training, AI models have their own challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There’s another article by MIT Technology review that said, “Machine-learning models trained on normal human behavior are now finding that normal has changed, and some are no longer working as they should.”

Human intervention is needed, and will not stop being needed by AI to keep learning and adjusting to different situations, just like the one we’re in now.

However, the threat of being replaced by AI agents stands. Chatbots and virtual agents are likely going to take away the straightforward tasks from call center agents today. But like Laura Morales, who went from training people to training machines, human agents can be the master of technology.

But for thousands of call centre agents that will lose their job, there is only one Laura Morales needed to work with AI agents.

As I keep reading about this topic, I find that I have more questions than answers. I’ll certainly continue researching, and share my thoughts along the way.