Gartner predicts that across industries, 30% of employees laid off as part of AI-driven cuts will need to be rehired by 2029 — often at a higher cost.
Customer service is the bellwether of that broader trend, according to Emily Potosky, senior director analyst at Gartner.
Along with software engineering developers, contact center staff have been “hit first and maybe hardest by the AI hype,” Potosky told CX Dive.
There are a few factors that could lead to such rehiring: AI solutions may fail to deliver, leaders could miscalculate the cost dynamics of AI, and without purposeful change, workforce responsibilities will no longer align.
Gartner expects that whiplash to be especially pronounced in customer service. In February, the analyst firm predicted that half of companies that reduced customer service headcount due to AI will rehire staff by 2027 to perform similar functions.
There have already been select instances of companies needing to rehire customer service workers who they laid off. Klarna began hiring customer service representatives more than a year after claiming that its AI chatbot could do the work of 700 representatives.
“One thing that we talk to a lot of leaders about is how a lot of leaders are investing in AI hoping to cut costs through headcount reduction — again, just that flat out replacement,” Potosky said. “But to actually maximize ROI from your AI investment, you really need to think about workforce reshaping.”
While some companies may reduce their workforce with AI, people will never fully be replaced, Potosky said.
Companies instead need to rethink the responsibilities for those workers as well as net new roles to support and enable AI transformation.
Frontline reps could become “bot unblockers,” who will manage teams of AI agents, Max Ball, principal analyst at Forrester, told CX Dive in June. Higher-tiered representatives could become “judges” and “experts,” addressing issues that are too nuanced for AI to handle.
Companies will need to hire other roles, including business solutions architects and knowledge managers, to keep AI solutions running and successful.
Then there’s the pesky issue of economics: Many customer service leaders haven’t seen the return on their AI investments.
Service and support has spent a median of almost $6 million on AI investments in 2025, Potosky said.
Among the AI use cases Gartner has evaluated for customer service and support, about one-quarter delivered negative returns, and about one-quarter delivered positive returns. Another 42% of those AI use cases yielded unclear value.
In short, ROI remains elusive for most use cases.
“There's an outstanding question about whether AI prices are going to rise, and in the meantime, you still have to do all of this work from the people that you have replaced,” Potosky said. “I would say that paints a picture where you are going to have to rehire people to do the same work that you attempted to eliminate.”
