Sky’s commercial business across TV content, broadband and mobile continues to pop out all sorts of exciting news. This week saw it start to dabble in the digital shorts market (a massive trend in Asia) that could change viewing habits here. However, there’s bad news from the operations side of the business.
Perhaps inevitably, with AI services wading into customer support in a massive way. Comcast-owned Sky stated that 2,000 jobs are at risk due to a comprehensive call centre restructuring. The company plans to close three centres in the north of England across Leeds, Sheffield, and Stockport, accounting for 7% of total staff.
The company will still have seven centres operating, where some roles will also be affected by the shuffle. Looking at Sky’s contact page, there are 11 different branches of the business offering support, and as AI takes over in call centres, many of those services will see a reduced need for human involvement.
AIs reaching for the Sky
With cutting-edge AI services offering greater knowledge, an empathetic service and adapting to callers’ needs, less human intervention is required. Support AIs are trained on millions of call examples. They have instant access to company data and support knowledge, setting up a slippery slope for agents as they become more niche. And the AI technology will continue to get massively better in months, not years.
With many major service providers making loud AI noises. Sky is likely to link any new AI with the company’s current Virtual Assistants and other forms of support.That will provide the AI with a single view of each customer, and the insight on how to best deal with them.
According to The Financial Times, “The company expects the number of calls taken by its customer services centres to drop from 25mn a year now to about 17mn by 2029.” Sky states, “We’re transforming our business to deliver quicker, simpler and more digital customer service. Our customers increasingly want choice, to speak to us on the phone when they need us most and the ease of managing everyday tasks digitally.
According to The Financial Times, “The company expects the number of calls taken by its customer services centres to drop from 25mn a year now to about 17mn by 2029.” Sky states, “We’re transforming our business to deliver quicker, simpler and more digital customer service. Our customers increasingly want choice, to speak to us on the phone when they need us most and the ease of managing everyday tasks digitally. The company’s spokesperson added. “We’re investing in a new centre of excellence for customer service, alongside cutting-edge digital technology to make our service seamless, reliable, and available 24/7.”
Expect a new AI CX announcement from Sky pretty soon, especially as UK telcos and other high-volume call centre operations are all about to undergo a huge shift.