Imagine a customer service center that communicates in any language. Alorica, a global customer-service company based in Irvine, California, has introduced an AI translation tool enabling representatives to interact with customers in 200 languages and 75 dialects. For example, a Spanish-speaking rep can handle complaints from a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong without knowing Cantonese. While this demonstrates AI’s power, it also raises concerns about job cuts due to AI-driven automation. However, Alorica continues hiring, showing AI’s potential to enhance, not replace, jobs.
This trend suggests that AI may not eliminate as many jobs as feared, similar to past technological breakthroughs like the steam engine, electricity, and the internet, which reshaped the job market without causing mass unemployment. Nick Bunker, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, believes AI will impact many jobs, possibly creating new roles and increasing productivity rather than leading to widespread job loss.
Artificial intelligence, which enables machines to perform tasks requiring human intelligence, has been evolving for decades, from early problem-solving programs to modern AI tools like ChatGPT, launched by OpenAI in 2022. Generative AI can perform complex tasks, raising fears that it will replace various roles such as freelance writers, editors, customer-service reps, and more. Despite these concerns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers found little evidence that AI will harm overall employment, noting that technology typically boosts productivity and creates new job opportunities.
Studies have shown that 60% of jobs held by Americans in 2018 didn’t exist in 1940, highlighting how new technologies create new job types. While AI can eliminate some jobs, like Suumit Shah’s decision to replace 90% of his customer support staff with a chatbot at Dukaan, many companies like IKEA are using AI to complement their workforce. Instead of cutting jobs, IKEA retrained 8,500 customer-service workers to handle more complex tasks.
AI chatbots can make workers more efficient. A study by researchers from Stanford University and MIT found that AI tools boosted productivity by 14% among customer-support agents at a Fortune 500 company. The most significant gains—34%—were seen among less experienced workers. At Alorica, AI tools have helped reduce call handle times and allowed reps to handle more calls daily, boosting efficiency without cutting jobs.
Alorica’s AI-powered tools also streamline processes. For example, reps can quickly access customer information to resolve issues faster. The company’s Real-time Voice Language Translation tool allows reps and customers to speak in their native languages, further enhancing efficiency without the need to hire language-specific employees.
Despite the potential for AI-driven job automation, companies like Alorica are still hiring, focusing on candidates comfortable with new technology. As AI continues to evolve, it is likely to reshape jobs by making workers more efficient rather than replacing them entirely.
