“Train my replacement”: A call center agent’s battle with AI

“Yeah, that’s crazy,” Mrs. Sherrod’s friend replied. “What do you think of us?”

Like so many millions of American workers, in so many thousands of workplaces, the approximately 230 customer service representatives at AT&T’s Ocean Springs call center, Miss.

Suddenly, customer service reps weren’t taking their own notes during conversations with customers. Instead, an AI tool generated a transcript for their managers to refer to later. AI technology provided suggestions on what to tell customers. Customers also spent time on phone lines with automated systems resolving simple questions and relaying the complicated ones to human representatives.

Mrs. Sherrod, 38, who exudes quiet confidence at 5-foot-11, looked at the new technology with a combination of irritation and fear. “I always had a question in the back of my mind,” she said. “Am I training my replacement?”

Ms. Sherrod, a vice president of the local call center union chapter, part of the Communications Workers of America, began questioning AT&T executives. “If we don’t talk about this, it could put my family in danger,” she said. “Will I become unemployed?”

In recent months, the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT has made its way into courtrooms, classrooms, hospitals and everything in between. This has sparked speculation about the impact of AI on jobs. For many people, AI feels like a ticking time bomb that is sure to explode their work. But for some, like Ms. Sherrod, the threat of AI is not an abstract one. They can already feel the effects.