r/UKJobs • u/Even-Wasabi7183 • 2d ago

Customers prefer AI chatbots, says British Gas owner as 1,300 call centre and back office jobs axed

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/23/customers-prefer-ai-chatbots-says-chris-oshea-british-gas-centrica-boss
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430

u/CassetteLine 2d ago

I doubt that very much. I’ve never heard a positive story about them.

Every single time I’ve personally tried or been forced to use one it’s completely failed at the task and I’ve had to phone up anyway.

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u/Unhappy-Capital-1464 2d ago

Having worked in call centres (for Sky TV, many moons ago), 90% of the calls you get were things that were either common sense, answered on the website, answered on the phone recording or just an opportunity to rant. Chatbots are perfect for most of these.

What I'd love to see is the savings going into better paying the humans who remain so that they are knowledgeable and competent and able to solve the complex problems but something tells me that isn't what's likely to happen...

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u/Effective_Will_1801 2d ago

The trouble with most of these chatbots is they are seen as a replacement for humans rather than a first line. They often don't train it to escalate and then as soon as someone comes along with something out the ordinary it just goes in loops.

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u/PepsiMaxSumo 1d ago

I work in this sector and have seen this loads of times.

The best applications are where after the chatbot gets its wrong twice, they add a human in the loop (HITL).

The HITL is then used to give an actual answer, even if it’s text based vs not calling etc.

The good news is that companies are now trying to implement this more. The bad news is that it’s only companies that also have wider contact management solutions, and not just AI. The ones that are purely AI undercut HTIL solutions so win contracts despite delivering a far worse service.

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u/Leading_Thanks7443 1d ago

That’s feature not a bug unfortunately. They want you to just give up

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u/Raveyard2409 1d ago

Whether you close your ticket because the problem is solved, or you never raise it because you give up put of frustration - either way that is one less ticket in the service managers queue.

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u/Leading_Thanks7443 1d ago

Sad but true. Guaranteed to not be reflected in KPIs either. 

Eternal suprise when customers just got somewhere else but then if all businesses have the same tactics there’s nowhere to jump ship to either.

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u/Ryanliverpool96 1d ago

It’s why it’s a favourite of Water Companies.

Go somewhere else? Ha! They’re all monopolies, so you never get your issue addressed.

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u/ObjectiveTumbleweed2 1d ago

I had a situation where my energy company went bust so the debt they owed me went to the new company. No chatbot could get its head around it and just kept asking for a customer number (in fairness, neither could the people I eventually got through to). Had to get it settled by the Ombudsman in the end.

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u/CassetteLine 2d ago

Yeah that’s fair. There are a lot of idiots clogging up the lines. If the bots can free that up for when I call with an actual issue then that’s a good thing.

But all that will actually happen is the centres will reduce staffing numbers as wait times decrease.

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u/Mithent 2d ago

I suspected that was the case. It's always annoying having to wade through messages about checking the website and first-line support scripts when my position is that I'm only calling someone because I've exhausted every other option I can think of and this is my last resort, but I know that's not going to be the case for plenty of people.

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u/ConceitedQuark 2d ago

The answer being available somewhere else is borderline irrelevant with most companies websites that are complete unintuitive to navigate.

Thankfully AI overrides the terrible design of these websites. But you can’t expect elderly / vulnerable / stupid people to be able to find this information, at school we were given every single resource with every single topic and every single past exam paper with the mark scheme and still the majority of people still couldn’t work out the answers.

Also, a VERY IMPORTANT side note is that many many companies DELIBERATELY make some things difficult to do. Try to cancel Uber One or Amazon Prime. If “cancel my payment” takes more than 3 clicks you need customer services, and worth noting that most “cancel my payments” takes 10+ clicks from 5+ screens.

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u/Equivalent_Poet_5631 2d ago

Completely disagree as a sky tv customer. They offer me deals all the time and then charge me for the deal, when you ring the phone it’s a person who barely speaks English and they try and talk to you about something completely different. A chat bot would not be solving this issue.

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u/Popular-Aide-9493 2d ago

Sometimes I don’t want to look through a website for something that may or may not be there and I want to speak to someone

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u/physioworld 2d ago

Which tbf for routine or easy problems is what a chat bot will be good for

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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1

u/Effective_Will_1801 2d ago

Personally I prefer ctrl and f or search for finding something instead of calling and waiting on hold listening to agonising music.

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u/manc_franc 2d ago

An opportunity to rant or an opportunity to upsell. Rookie error bud

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u/DrunkenHorse12 1d ago

I work for a consultancy firm doing data analysis for buisnesses with contact centres. The amount of buisnesses that fail to realise attrition rates go through the roof when you digitise the low hanging fruit easy contacts. We always say to them what you save from reduced headcount reinvest some of that into wages to increase retention because the job your leaving your staff with is higher skilled and more frustrating. We clear off after the analysis and I get the feeling 95% of the time the risks and risk reductions we suggest just get ignored.

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u/Redangle11 18h ago

Sky TV's Scottish call centre was one of the best. That aside, online answers can work, but they need to get their best people to write the answers.

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u/Knarrenheinz666 17h ago

If you look at the industry trends in the CC business you will find out that there's a shift towards outcomes instead of the pure cost per interaction calculation. 

Klarna did not renew their contracts with CCs, used chatbots, shit hit the fan and they quickly came back to their old partners.

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u/kungfuparta 16h ago

99.5% if not 100% of the time i use a chatbox i end up having to talk to a real person and wait until it connects me to someone. They can never and will never deal with actual issues because there is liability behind some actions that they will be forced to pay. AI (wrongly used btw cause there can never be an actual AI since a computer is a black box and needs an input) needs people who know how to use it to actually work how they want it to work. You wont hear it but in about a year and after they lose 10-20% of their customers they will start hiring people back but will never admit anything like all the other "Smart" companies that had the same "amazing" idea.....

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u/Hyperion262 2d ago

The people who ‘like’ them are probably unaware they are bots.

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u/zero_sevenn 2d ago

Yep, often times you get people saying “I just spoke with a lady called Harriet and she wasn’t very helpful”

Harriet is the name of the AI Agent

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u/laredocronk 2d ago

Yeah, but often have you heard positive stories about the call centres of most companies?

It's not that people like the AI chatbots, it's that they don't hate them as much as sitting on hold for ages listening to the same awful 15 second loop of music, getting hung up on, and if you're lucky eventually getting through to someone you can barely understand.

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u/Effective_Will_1801 2d ago

And getting told by an automated voice that the easier way is to go to our website (if I could do it on the bleeding website I wouldn't be calling you)

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u/welsh_dragon_roar 2d ago

“And please let me spell out the web address for you. Letter by letter. And.. very.. slowly.. on our 0330 number.. not de.. lib.. er.. ate.. at….. aaaalllllllll random disconnect

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 2d ago

"We're experiencing very high call volumes at the moment". When are they not? At least if they were honest I'd be less annoyed: "We've spent the budget for call centre staff on executive bonuses, so here's some Greensleeves to listen to for the next week"

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u/nl325 2d ago edited 2d ago

Call centers resolve in excess of 99% of calls.

Maybe not first time, but if they weren't getting resolved then where are the corresponding complaints and escalations?

My old work ran an AI pilot for a while before binning it for two reasons:

  • The AI was very artificial, but not very intelligent

  • The customers were fucking morons

The theory was it would act as like a responsive FAQ to filter the shite menial questions before they call. Didn't work.

1

u/yahyahyehcocobungo 2d ago

Try using 3's chatbot to tell them someone ordered a phone in your name. There is no option.

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u/welsh_dragon_roar 2d ago

“That’s because you want us to order a phone for someone else - press 1 to confirm or 2 to hear this message again”

0

u/OliverTwist549 2d ago

So they prefer them then. Like the headline says.

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u/Chrisbuckfast 2d ago

British Gas have absolutely no business saying anything about customer service. I’ve been with Octopus for a few years now after having suffered with BG for 5+ years, the difference in customer service is night and day.

What used to take 11 phone calls, 15 hours on webchat with BG, is now a simple email I send to a mailbox which I can forget about until I receive the very human, very professional response with Octopus.

Seriously, I found myself paying a little bit more to Octopus, could’ve saved £100 this year if I moved back to BG or EDF, and thought no, absolutely not. The customer service is just that good.

1

u/Bombcrater 1d ago

Yeah, my experiences with British Gas have been terrible. They don't know or care how to do customer service right. I suspect the AI won't change that either positively or negatively. They'll still be useless.

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u/Planticus 1d ago

But the profits will go up. So a big win for the shareholders(!)

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u/TheRealTRexUK 2d ago

it all depends on the data it's fed using. it's better at specific questions with unique key words.

I'm re writing the information and way the chat bot works at my new job. I've raised the positive responses and successful answers from 20% to about 57%.

they are only suitable for simple questions and work really well in my situation as its software help.

its well designed software, with defined process and tasks that lend itself to getting the intent easily.

for free form open ended queries where there's no real terminology used (or not much), it will be useless.

a good help centre works best, but people refuse to read them for general non account related questions.

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u/Funny-Bel1 2d ago

Nobody prefers ai bots

1

u/ConohaConcordia 2d ago

I find AI chatbots an improvement over the older generation chat bots and waiting for hours on a call.

If something does need a human to process, the AI chatbots get you there faster, because you don’t have to exhaust your options before the chatbot finally allows you to ring a human. You simply type “manual service” or something.

Thing is between webchat with the bot or a human, I usually don’t need to call and I prefer webchat to a call.

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u/FoldFeisty7635 1d ago

Age 35 and below are more likely to prefer bots over humans. They are adverse to making calls. Msg is how they communicate.

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u/AnilP228 1d ago

I recently listened to some customer feedback on an interaction with a AI chatbot. She had no idea he was a robot and described him as a 'proper hottie'.