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The Automation of Many Call Center Jobs Not Far Away

3rd Party Remote Call Monitoring Feature

August 29, 2015

The Automation of Many Call Center Jobs Not Far Away

By Michael Guta, TMCnet Contributing Writer

When most of us think of automation, we think about industrial manufacturing and robotics, and blue collar jobs. However, software automation with artificial intelligence (AI) is now in the white collar sector, and there is no profession that will not be affected by the technology. A report by Pew (News - Alert) Research Center released in August of 2014, titled “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs” revealed 48 percent of the 1,896 experts foresee a future in which robots and digital agents have displaced significant numbers of both blue- and white-collar workers. Just in case you need that point validated, former Telstra (News - Alert) CEO David Thodey said “These jobs will not exist in five years,” in August of the same year when talking about call center jobs during an interview.


While addressing the current boom in the Filipino call center sector, Ben D. Kritz, of the manilatimes.net, hammers that point once again, “the BPO sector may very well be going the way of the compact disc.”

According to Kritz, the result of the Cushman and Wakefield report showing the rise of Vietnam in the sector is a great example. The report has Vietnam ranked first, and it is primarily based on the investment the country has been making into software and systems development. Vietnam is now one of the largest software exporters in the world, and Kritz reports it has passed India as the preferred BPO and IT outsourcing destination for Japanese companies: with more countries following suit.

The shift to automation in the BPO and call center sector is being driven by the development of mobile internet technology. Web-based apps are eliminating the need to have a human being at the end of your connection. All you have to do is think of the last time you used a live teller at your bank. According to Citibank, 85 percent of transactions can now be carried out at an ATM or online banking; customers only go in the bank for complex matters.

Thodey went on to say, "If you think about how you interact with the bank today you don't go into the bank branch that often. And that's going to be the truth about many of the traditional service related jobs – it's going to be more and more digitally done."

Not all the jobs will be automated, but the vast majority will. And human intervention will only be necessary in cases that are complex, just as in the scenario that is being played out in banks. If you extrapolate the same percentage in ATM usability, it means call centers will require less live agents. Only complicated cases the software is not able to handle will involve a human being, and as the AI gets smarter, the number of people will continue to decrease.

In the theoutsourcing-guide.com Martin Conboy wrote call center jobs will not exist, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will have a significant impact on the outsourcing and BPO industries in the next few years.

In the same article, Conboy quotes Frank Casale, founder of The US based Institute for Robotic Process Automation (IRPA), in which he warns outsourcing buyers and sellers to “brace for impact.”




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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