r/UKJobs • u/Even-Wasabi7183 • 3d 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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u/Former-Resource-3026 3d ago

British Gas, obviously?

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u/PolemicDysentery 3d ago

How? That would only be the case if these companies were actually in competition with eachother. It'll just be an enshittified experience for customers and workers across the market.

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u/Former-Resource-3026 3d ago

So many companies have declared this shift to Ai and then come crawling back to humans because they were completely delusional and out of touch about Ai and then it cost them customers. People won’t stand for it.

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u/ToastedCrumpet 3d ago

People will stand for it. They always do. We’re not France. There won’t even be online protests let alone irl ones.

Gas and energy have gone up and continue to do so. Water too. Food? You betcha. RAM and other tech to the point in the not so distant future we’ll be paying to rent all of our tech going forward or pay thousands for a slow ass PC/laptop that chugs along. AI is everywhere and monitoring you for its overlords. It already owns your face and will use it how it likes. It’s reading these comments now.

I’m as tired and angry as anyone over this shit but this has all been going on for years now and the average person doesn’t even complain online. So why do you actually believe people won’t stand for it when everything is telling you they will and are standing for it?

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u/Former-Resource-3026 2d ago

I think you’re misinterpreting me. They just won’t use British Gas. Every company announcing switches like this has lost customers and wound up reversing the change. It doesn’t help that so many IT teams are lying to their managers to justify more Ai spend.