British Gas owner says customers prefer chatbots as it cuts 1,300 call centre jobs
Centrica is axing 1,300 staff, with the boss claiming most people would rather deal with an AI chatbot than a human agent. Workers and unions see things differently.
Key points
- Centrica, the FTSE 100 company that owns British Gas, plans to cut 1,300 call centre jobs in total.
- 800 of those cuts come on top of 500 already confirmed last month, tied directly to an AI chatbot rollout.
- Chief executive Chris O'Shea claims most customers now prefer talking to an AI chatbot over a human agent.
- Centrica reported rising retail profits despite a falling number of customers.
The owner of British Gas says its customers would rather type into an AI chatbot, the kind of automated text-based assistant that answers questions without a human on the other end, than speak to one of its call centre staff. That claim came from Centrica chief executive Chris O'Shea as the company announced it will cut a total of 1,300 call centre jobs.
The figure breaks down into two waves. Centrica confirmed 500 job losses last month. Now O'Shea has added 800 more, which the company links directly to what it calls a "targeted deployment of AI tools." In plain terms: software that handles customer queries is replacing people who used to handle them.
Does the profit picture back this up?
Centrica reported rising retail profits even as its customer base shrank. More money from fewer customers is a pattern that tends to please shareholders and unsettle the workers left behind.
The company sits in the FTSE 100, the index of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, which gives some sense of scale. British Gas is the country's largest domestic energy supplier, so these decisions affect a lot of households.
Should customers be concerned?
For most people, the day-to-day change will be straightforward: when you contact British Gas, you are increasingly likely to start, and possibly finish, with an automated chatbot rather than a person.
That is fine for simple queries. It gets harder when your problem is unusual, your bill is disputed, or you are a vulnerable customer who needs patience and judgement, the things chatbots still handle badly. First reported by The Guardian, the story did not include any independent customer satisfaction data to support O'Shea's claim that people prefer the AI option.
If you are a British Gas customer and you hit a wall with the automated system, know that you have the right to ask for a human agent. Ofgem, the UK's energy regulator, requires suppliers to provide accessible customer service. Keep a note of any reference numbers the chatbot gives you before you escalate.
What should workers and the public watch for?
The framing here matters. Saying customers "prefer" the AI option is a very different claim from saying the AI option is cheaper to run. One justifies cuts on customer grounds; the other is an honest business decision. When companies make the first argument, it is worth asking where the evidence comes from and who gathered it.
The 1,300 people losing jobs are real, and so are the communities around those call centres. Job losses at this scale tend to concentrate in specific towns rather than spread evenly, which is worth watching as more details emerge.
Watch for these signs that an AI customer-service system is failing you:
- The chatbot loops back to the same options without resolving your issue.
- You cannot find a clear route to a human agent.
- You receive a reference number but no follow-up within the promised timeframe.
- Your complaint involves a billing error above a few pounds, any kind of debt, or a medical or safety need.
