‘Customers prefer AI chatbots,’ says British Gas owner as 1,300 call centre jobs axed
TL;DR
Centrica, the FTSE 100 owner of British Gas, is cutting 1,300 call centre jobs: 800 newly announced on top of 500 confirmed last month, as it carries out what it calls a targeted deployment of AI tools. CEO Chris O'Shea defends the move, claiming most households would rather speak to an AI chatbot than deal with company staff. The announcement lands alongside rising retail profits after a push for bigger margins.
Nauti's Take
There is a real kernel here: for routine tasks like meter readings or payment plans, a good chatbot genuinely beats a 20-minute hold queue. The risk sits with everything complex or existential — payment trouble, outages, hardship cases.
Nauti sees the opportunity in smarter routing rather than pure headcount cuts, and customers should check whether a real path to a human still exists.
Sources