Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Edition updated 6:00 AM ETTUE, OCT 27 editionNext edition in Next in --:--:--
Intelligence Verdict
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AI and your work

Customer service representative

What the US government's figures say about this job, the tasks it involves, and every study we found on what AI does to it. None of this is a forecast of your own job.

  • 2,666,000US jobs, 2025
  • $44,770median pay a year, 2025
  • −5%government outlook, 2025 to 35
What the government says

The official outlook.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects every job ten years ahead and says what it expects to drive the change.

In the government's words
“There is expected to be less demand for customer service representatives, especially in retail trade, as their tasks continue to be automated.”

BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Aug 27, 2026

US jobs, 2025
2,666,000
Median pay, 2025
$44,770 per year

$21.53 an hour

Outlook, 2025 to 35
-5% (Decline)

−141,800 jobs

The work itself

The job's main tasks.

As the government's O*NET database lists them. AI's effect on a job depends on which of these tasks it can do.

  1. 01Confer with customers by telephone or in person to provide information about products or services, take or enter orders, …
  2. 02Keep records of customer interactions or transactions, recording details of inquiries, complaints, or comments, as well as …
  3. 03Check to ensure that appropriate changes were made to resolve customers' problems.
  4. 04Contact customers to respond to inquiries or to notify them of claim investigation results or any planned adjustments.
  5. 05Determine charges for services requested, collect deposits or payments, or arrange for billing.

O*NET OnLine, Oct 6, 2026

The evidence on AI

What studies have found.

Studies, trials and surveys that name this job, oldest evidence labeled as such.

AI applicability scoreCompany-reported

0.41on a scale from 0 to 1

01

Microsoft AI applicability score for Customer Service Representatives (SOC 43-4051)

How much of the occupation's work activities overlap with what people successfully do with Microsoft's Bing Copilot; not a forecast of job loss.

Microsoft Research, Working with AI, Dec 22, 2025 · data licensed CC BY 4.0

Study at work

Customer-support agents given an AI assistant resolved more issues per hour.

“Access to the tool increases productivity, as measured by issues resolved per hour, by 14% on average”

Also: “including a 34% improvement for novice and low-skilled workers”

Data from 2020-21, older AI tool.

Brynjolfsson, Li & Raymond, Generative AI at Work (NBER w31161; QJE 2025), Nov 2023

Usage dataCompany-reported

Anthropic ranks customer service representatives second by its 'observed exposure' measure (no percentage given in text).

Anthropic, Labor market impacts of AI, Mar 5, 2026

Other jobs

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All of AI and your work

Checked Oct 19, 2026. How we check