ace‘Customers prefer AI chatbots,’ says British Gas owner as 1,300 call centre jobs axed
The owner of British Gas has claimed that most households would rather speak with an AI chatbot than deal with the company’s staff as it prepares to cut 1,300 jobs from its call centres. Centrica, the supplier’s FTSE 100 owner, plans to cut 800 jobs as the company carries out a “targeted deployment of AI tools”, on top of the 500 cuts it confirmed last month. The plan to reduce the supplier’s customer service teams in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Leicester, Stockport and Leeds by 14% is expected to take place ov…
Centrica will eliminate 1,300 British Gas call centre jobs across six UK cities as it carries out targeted deployment of AI tools and chatbots.
CEO disputes that AI is the primary driver of cuts, attributing reductions mainly to changing customer behaviour, leaving causal link between AI deployment and job losses contested.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-07-23
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-0553, v1: “‘Customers prefer AI chatbots,’ says British Gas owner as 1,300 call centre jobs axed.” Truvace, 2026-07-24. /record/TRV-2026-0553 (accessed at citation time). sha256 19db26a006fbefcd…
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