We know that companies right now are heavily investing in customer service technologies with embedded AI capabilities. Companies are using these technologies to agentify the way that they deliver, manage, and optimize customer service. This is because these technologies are really good at making operations more efficient and empowering customer service reps to deliver great CX.
Yet there are still unanswered questions about how AI will reshape customer service operations. Some questions I get every day are: What customer service roles will change? How will they change? What will staffing look like two years from now, or five years from now? And what new skills do I need to plan for?
We tried to answer how jobs will change because of AI in our report, AI Agents Reshape The Customer Service Workforce In Dramatic Ways. We outline today’s and tomorrow’s customer service jobs, identify the skills that will be needed in the future, and make short-term headcount forecasts.
We dove into details of the US customer service labor market in the report, The Quantitative Employment Impact Of AI On Customer Service Jobs. We used data from several sources, including the O*NET database sponsored by the US Department of Labor (the primary source of occupational information in the United States) as well as data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to track the demand for customer service jobs within different industries and growth in salaries.
Here are some of our findings:
Customer service job postings, already in decline, will see further contraction. According to Indeed Hiring Lab data published via the US Federal Reserve Economic Data database, US customer service job postings are now roughly 10% below pre-pandemic levels. This decline stands in sharp contrast to overall US job postings, which remain above pre-pandemic levels. This means that customer service is under-hiring relative to the broader economy.
Customer service salaries are stagnating. Salary growth for customer service jobs has stagnated since May 2025. Customer service salaries are significantly smaller than average across all operations. Customer service wages have shown modest but uneven growth since 2020. Since 2023, wage growth has slowed back to low single digits as hiring demand stabilizes and automation reduces pressure to expand headcount.
Enterprises invest in automation over customer service headcount. Indeed’s sector-level data shows that customer service job postings continue to lag compared to all other US job postings. This indicates that there is a continued reduction in customer service hiring rather than a temporary freeze because of the economy. In addition, signals indicate that companies are hiring technologists to automate service work instead of adding incremental customer service reps (CSRs).
AI decouples customer service inquiry volumes from headcount growth. This is the most important takeaway as this shift reflects a structural shift, not a decline in the need for customer service. Tactically, organizations need fewer entry-level roles but have higher expectations for the remaining CSRs. Plus, they have increased demand for specialized skills such as complex case handling, retention, and AI oversight. Strategically, it signals that companies are decoupling customer service inquiry volume from headcount growth. Note that this does not always result in cost savings due to AI runtime costs.
Beware! Estimates for job shrinkage are all over the place. Forrester forecasts that 38% of the US jobs lost to genAI by 2030 will come from office and administrative support occupations (which includes customer service representative jobs). Many contact centers will not reach the projected rates of automation. They won’t be ready to automate workflows where regulatory, safety, or financial liability is involved, as the cost of failure is high. Others won’t have knowledge available or integrations to back-office systems. Some industries will also have process variability where exception-handling logic is harder to automate.
AI will reshape every aspect of your customer service operations. You must understand the skills for each “job to be done.” Use this data to make decisions on staffing levels and career progressions. You will have to rethink organizational structures and organizational ownership of AI operations. Reach out via inquiry to discuss the impact that AI will have on your customer service organization and on how to navigate the organizational disruption that comes with it.
