TL;DR

UJET CEO Vasili Triant says AI’s biggest impact in call centres will be streamlining broken software stacks, not replacing staff. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts AI resolution costs in customer service will exceed $3 per interaction by 2030 — higher than many offshore human agents.

The Case Against Body Replacement

The dominant narrative around AI in call centres has been straightforward: replace human agents with chatbots and pocket the savings. UJET CEO Vasili Triant says his customers have tried exactly that, and the ROI simply isn’t there.

“There’s a lot of companies that have already tried doing the body replacement,” Triant said. “It does some good simple things, but it’s not replacing the body.”

The real problem, he argues, is the tangle of legacy systems that agents must navigate to solve a single customer issue. Rather than eliminating workers, AI should eliminate the swivel-chair experience of jumping between multiple applications, loading screens, and outdated interfaces.

UJET’s cloud platform uses automation and AI to reduce that complexity for customers including GNC, Lodge cookware, and the Zettle point-of-sale platform.

Gartner’s Cost Warning

Fresh research from Gartner supports the scepticism. The analyst firm predicts that by 2030, generative AI resolution costs in customer service will exceed $3 per interaction — above what many B2C offshore human agents cost today. Rising data centre expenses, a shift from subsidised growth to profitability among AI vendors, and increasingly complex use cases are all driving costs upward.

“Full automation will be prohibitively expensive for most organisations,” said Patrick Quinlan, senior director analyst at Gartner. “Leading organisations will use AI to drive customer engagement rather than to cut costs.”

Gartner also forecasts that regulatory changes requiring easy access to human agents will increase assisted service volume by 30% by 2028, potentially forcing companies to rehire staff at higher salaries.

Looking Forward

The emerging consensus from both industry practitioners and analysts is that AI’s strongest near-term return in customer service comes from augmenting humans rather than replacing them. For UK businesses evaluating call centre AI investments, the message is clear: focus on making existing staff more productive before chasing full automation.