May 12, 2026
Most Service Leaders Are Expanding Agent Responsibilities, Not Cutting Jobs, Gartner Finds
Sky cut 2,000 contact centre roles last year as part of an AI-led restructuring. Salesforce has tied workforce attrition directly to automation gains. However, a new Gartner survey suggests these high-profile cuts do not represent the majority response. Of 321 service and support leaders surveyed worldwide, 31% have implemented or are planning frontline layoffs through the first quarter of 2027. A far larger group, 85%, said they are actively expanding human agent responsibilities as AI absorbs routine contact volume.
The split suggests that most organisations are treating AI not as a reason to eliminate roles, but as an opportunity to rethink what their service teams actually do.
Just a couple of months ago, Gartner revealed that service leaders felt the pressure to act on AI, with 80% of respondents reporting that they face internal demands to make workforce changes in response to AI’s effect on contact volumes and agent efficiency.
Attrition Over Elimination
Rather than reaching for headcount cuts, most organisations are taking a more gradual path. Sixty-three percent of service leaders said they are reducing frontline headcount through natural attrition while reallocating remaining agent capacity toward higher-value work that supports growth, loyalty, and long-term efficiency.
“Service and support leaders need a plan for how they will redesign their workforce for AI’s impact, otherwise a plan will be handed to them,” said Kathy Ross, Vice President Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service and Support Practice.
Redesign, Not Replacement
The data suggests most organisations are choosing redeployment over cost-cutting. Over 70% of service leaders said they are moving agents into entirely new roles within the service and support organisation, not just adding tasks to existing ones. This goes well beyond superficial role adjustments and amounts to a fundamental rethink of what human agents are for in an AI-assisted operation.
Eric Keller, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner warned that treating AI purely as a cost-reduction tool carries real risks: “Organisations that only use AI to reduce costs risk missing a strategic opportunity. The real advantage comes from combining AI efficiency with human judgment, empathy, and experience to deliver outcomes that technology alone cannot.”
Customers Still Want Humans for the Hard Stuff
The business case for keeping humans in the loop is backed by consumer sentiment. In a separate Gartner survey of 5,801 U.S. customers conducted in early 2025, 54% said they trust human agents more than AI when it comes to product or service recommendations. Only 32% said they trust AI more in the same context.
A Five9 study published in late 2024 found that 75% of consumers still prefer speaking with a real person for customer support, with positive human interactions ranking as one of the top drivers of brand loyalty. Still, 32% of customers in Gartner’s survey said they already trust AI more than humans for product or service recommendations, which is likely to grow as AI-assisted interactions get better.
The implication is that organisations stripping out human involvement too aggressively may be undermining the very thing customers say they value. Complex interactions, advisory conversations, and emotionally sensitive moments remain areas where human agents consistently outperform AI in the eyes of the customer.
