The premise of the story is fascinating: AI technology makes it easier for call center workers to communicate with Americans. Call center worker Kartikeya Kumar is pleased, “Now the customer doesn’t know where I am located…If it makes the caller happy, it makes me happy, too.”
India firms have leveraged AI tech to improve their offerings, and now the country has more call centers than anywhere else.
“We don’t see AI as taking jobs away,” said MV Prasanth, the chief operating officer for Teleperformance in India. “We see it as easier tasks being moved into self-serve,” allowing Kumar and his colleagues to focus on “more complex tasks.”
But the article isn’t all roses: concerns about “whitewashing” voices and the fear of job losses (particularly entry-level ones).
Even the most hopeful admit that workers who can’t adapt will fall behind. “It’s like the industrial revolution,” said Prithvijit Roy, Accenture’s former lead for its Global AI Hub. “Some will suffer.”
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