--- title: "Verizon's CEO Says AI Will Replace Most Customer Service…" canonical: "https://www.metaintro.com/blog/verizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed" language: "en" author: "drashtigarach" published: "2026-06-05T08:54:46.000Z" modified: "2026-10-02T19:34:08.649Z" --- [Back to Blog](/blog) [News](/blog/tag/news)[AI](/blog/tag/ai)[Jobs](/blog/tag/jobs)[Technology](/blog/tag/technology) # Verizon's CEO Says AI Will Replace Most Customer Service Jobs, Here's Who's Exposed Verizon's CEO says AI will replace a large share of customer service work, with half of jobs at risk by 2030. See who's exposed and how to protect your career. [![Drashti Garach](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:40:40/q:72/plain/images/5719d740-e510-42bc-8017-e040d145f35f_1766029465094.png)Drashti Garach @DrashtiGarach](/blog/author/drashtigarach) [June 5, 2026](/blog/archive/2026/06)Updated October 2, 202612 min read ![Verizon's CEO Says AI Will Replace Most Customer Service Jobs, Here's Who's Exposed](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:1200:675/q:78/plain/images/kai.494Ts5mM.png) [https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed](https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed)[http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed)[https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed&title=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed&title=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed)[mailto:?subject=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed](mailto:?subject=Verizon's%20CEO%20Says%20AI%20Will%20Replace%20Most%20Customer%20Service%20Jobs%2C%20Here's%20Who's%20Exposed&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fverizon-ceo-ai-replace-customer-service-jobs-whos-exposed) [Verizon](https://www.verizon.com/) now says out loud what many customer service workers have quietly feared. Speaking at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said he expects artificial intelligence to replace a large percentage of the work that customer service representatives do today, as the carrier chases lower costs and faster answers for callers. Reported first by [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-04/verizon-ceo-sees-ai-replacing-large-share-of-customer-service), the comments land less than a year after Verizon cut roughly 13,000 jobs, the largest single reduction in company history. At [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), we read this as a clear signal about where the customer service profession is heading, and which workers are most exposed. ## What Exactly Did Verizon's CEO Say? Schulman did not soften the message. He told the audience he is certain AI will cause disruption in certain job functions, and that a large share of routine support work will move to software. He has made the same point elsewhere, telling a separate [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/) interview that the honest approach is being authentic, being realistic, telling the truth, as best you can about what AI means for jobs. As covered by [PYMNTS](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/verizons-dan-schulman-tells-ceos-to-be-open-about-ai-job-cuts/), Schulman framed the moment bluntly, saying that like it or not, we live in the age of AI, and that leaders owe employees straight talk rather than spin. His candor has drawn attention precisely because so few executives talk this way. In a separate profile, [Inc.](https://www.inc.com/kevin-haynes/verizon-ceo-ai-is-coming-for-your-job-and-everyone-knows-it/91333101) summed up his stance as AI is coming for your job, and everyone knows it, a line that captures how directly he is willing to name the trade-off. The key word in his remarks is routine. Schulman is bullish on AI handling easy, high-volume queries such as recovering a lost password or pulling up a billing amount. For more complex or emotional requests, he expects human employees and AI agents to work side by side. That split, simple tasks to machines and hard tasks to people, is the dividing line every customer service worker should now be watching. Context matters here too. Schulman took over as Verizon CEO in October 2025, and within weeks the company announced it would cut roughly 13,000 jobs, about 13 percent of a workforce that stood near 99,600 at the end of 2024, as reported by [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/verizon-layoffs-13000-job-cuts-ceo-dan-schulman/). He told investors at the time that the company's current cost structure limited its ability to invest in its customer value proposition, and that Verizon needed to evolve as a company. The AI message at Bloomberg Tech is the same theme spoken in plainer language, with the technology now named directly as the reason routine roles will keep shrinking. ## How Many Customer Service Jobs Are Actually at Risk? Verizon is not an outlier. Research firm [Forrester](https://www.forrester.com/) forecasts that AI will reduce customer service employment by 50 percent by 2030. As reported by [HR Dive](https://www.hrdive.com/news/forrester-predicts-half-customer-service-jobs-cut-AI/821848/), Forrester principal analyst Max Ball put the logic plainly, saying there are humans today doing jobs that don't require the level of intelligence that a human has, and that work is going to go away. In one modeled example, a contact center staffed by 1,000 representatives could shrink to roughly 40 people within four years. That figure sounds brutal, but the mechanism matters. Ball notes that most contact centers already run with very high churn, often around 30 percent annual turnover and far higher at some large operators. Rather than mass layoffs, many companies will simply stop backfilling roles as people leave. In his words, somebody will leave their job, and they won't be able to get another one. The headcount falls quietly, through attrition, which is harder to see than a single dramatic cut. Verizon's own numbers hint at the pace. The company has told investors it expects to be substantially complete with its AI tech stack within months, and during an earnings call Schulman said AI had already reduced certain vendor support costs by as much as 70 percent. When savings of that scale are on the table, the pressure to automate routine support only grows. There is an important nuance in the Forrester forecast that workers should hold onto. The firm does not predict that every contact center will be gutted equally. Operations dominated by simple, repetitive inquiries face the deepest cuts, while centers handling higher-complexity cases will see smaller reductions, because AI automates only portions of those harder transactions rather than the whole role. In other words, the 50 percent figure is an average that hides a wide range, and where you sit on that range depends almost entirely on the difficulty of the work you do. The more your day looks like a script, the more exposed you are. Broader labor research from groups like the [World Economic Forum](https://www.weforum.org/) and consultancies tracking automation has reached a similar conclusion across industries, that the tasks most exposed to AI are the routine and rules-based ones, not the work that hinges on human judgment. It is also worth separating prediction from outcome. A forecast for 2030 is a trajectory, not a guarantee, and adoption could move faster or slower depending on how well the technology actually performs with frustrated customers and messy real-world problems. The early evidence is mixed, and some companies have already pulled back. We covered one striking example in our report on how [most enterprises rolled back their AI customer agents](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/74-percent-enterprises-rolled-back-ai-customer-agents-sinch-2026) after the bots fell short on real conversations. Many earlier waves of automation reshaped jobs more than they erased them, and customer expectations have a way of pulling humans back into the loop when an AI agent gets something wrong. The honest read is that the direction is clear even if the exact pace is not. ## Which Customer Service Workers Are Most Exposed? Not every support job is equally at risk. The clearest pattern is that volume and simplicity predict exposure. Operations fielding huge numbers of low-complexity questions, password resets, balance checks, order status, basic troubleshooting, face the steepest reductions because those interactions are the easiest for AI agents to handle end to end. Roles that survive and even grow tend to share three traits: - They handle complex, multi-step problems that AI can only partly automate. - They require judgment, empathy, or negotiation, such as retention, complaints, and high-value accounts. - They involve oversight of the AI itself, checking its answers and stepping in when it fails. Forrester expects new demand for relationship managers and subject matter experts, people who own the hardest cases and the most valuable customers. This mirrors a shift we have tracked across other fields, including how AI is reshaping work for paralegals and lawyers in our look at [AI in legal research](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-legal-research-paralegal-lawyer-jobs), where routine drafting gets automated while higher-judgment work stays human. The same logic is now arriving in the call center. Entry-level support is where the squeeze will be felt first, and that has knock-on effects worth naming. For years, a customer service job has been a common first rung into the corporate world, a place where people without a degree or prior experience could build communication skills, product knowledge, and a track record. If AI absorbs the simplest tickets, fewer of those starter roles exist, which raises the bar for breaking in. Workers early in their careers may need to target hybrid roles that pair some support work with sales, onboarding, or technical duties, rather than pure phone queues that are the easiest to automate away. ## Is This Part of a Bigger Shift in Tech Jobs? Verizon's move fits a broader 2026 pattern of large employers pairing AI investment with workforce cuts. We mapped the wider picture in our analysis of [where tech layoffs are falling in 2026](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/tech-layoffs-surged-2026-where-cuts-falling), and the customer service squeeze is one of its sharpest edges. Smaller firms are doing the same on a different scale, choosing software over headcount, a trend we examined in our piece on [small businesses using AI instead of hiring](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/small-businesses-ai-employees-instead-of-hiring). It is worth keeping the hype in check. Not every gap in the job market is the fault of AI, and the technology is restructuring work more than it is erasing it outright. [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com) CEO Lacey Kaelani told [People Managing People](https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/workforce-management/ai-layoffs/) that AI is not completely eliminating roles, but instead restructuring roles and therefore slowing hiring for some jobs. For customer service, that restructuring means fewer entry-level seats answering simple questions, and steadier demand for people who can handle what the machines cannot. That distinction between elimination and restructuring is not just semantics. A role that is restructured still exists, but it asks for different skills and rewards a different kind of worker. The customer service job of 2030 may involve less time reading from a script and more time handling escalations, coaching AI systems, and owning relationships with the customers a company most wants to keep. Workers who see that change coming and prepare for it will find the restructuring works in their favor, while those who wait for the old version of the job to return may find the seat gone when they look up. ## What Does This Mean for Your Career? If you work in or near customer service, the practical takeaway is to move up the complexity ladder before the ladder moves without you. The roles being automated are the most scripted ones. The roles being protected reward judgment, problem-solving, and the ability to manage both customers and the AI tools now sitting between them. A few concrete steps stand out: - Build expertise in the hardest 10 percent of cases, the escalations and edge situations that need a human. - Learn to supervise AI agents, including prompting them, auditing their answers, and knowing when to override. - Develop adjacent skills such as account management, retention, and technical support that are harder to script. - Document outcomes you drive, like saved accounts or resolved complaints, that prove value beyond call volume. Verizon has at least paired its cuts with support, establishing a 20 million dollar career-transition and retraining fund for affected staff. That will not be true everywhere, and as we have reported, many [companies are still failing workers on reskilling](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-reskilling-gap-companies-failing-workers-what-job-seekers-should-do-2026), so workers who reskill on their own timeline keep the most leverage. The same playbook applies across industries feeling the same pressure, from healthcare to law, as we explored in our reporting on whether [AI is deskilling healthcare workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/is-ai-deskilling-healthcare-workers-nurses-clinicians). ## How Should Job Seekers Read Signals Like This? When a major employer says the quiet part out loud, treat it as free market research. Schulman's candor, however uncomfortable, tells job seekers exactly where to aim and what to avoid. Routine, high-volume support roles are a shrinking foundation to build a career on, while complex service, AI oversight, and relationship-driven work are growing. The smartest response is not panic but positioning. Track which companies are investing in AI and what they say about their people, follow the data on hiring and layoffs, and steer toward roles that reward the human skills automation cannot easily copy. Staying close to credible labor-market reporting, including our regular [state of the workforce updates](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/state-of-the-workforce-may-2026), helps you read these shifts early enough to act on them rather than react to them. There is a sharper lesson buried in how Verizon is framing this. When a CEO publicly ties future support work to AI rather than to a vague downturn, it tells you the company sees the change as permanent, not cyclical. As reported by [People Matters](https://www.peoplematters.in/news/strategic-hr/verizon-cuts-several-hundred-jobs-months-after-13000-worker-reduction-49623), Verizon has kept trimming targeted roles while saying it is now running leaner, even as it adds staff in its growing divisions. Jobs lost to a slow quarter often come back when business improves. Jobs handed to software usually do not. For job seekers, that distinction should shape where you invest your time, your training budget, and your next application, because betting on roles built around tasks a machine now does well is a bet against the trend. Finally, remember that the same forces creating risk also create openings. Every company deploying AI agents needs people to train them, monitor their quality, write their knowledge bases, and rescue the conversations they cannot handle. Customer service experience is a strong foundation for those emerging roles, because you already understand the customer, the product, and the failure points better than most. The workers who thrive will be the ones who treat AI as a tool they manage rather than a rival they fear, and who keep building the judgment and people skills that no model has yet learned to fake. ## People Also Asked ### Q: Will AI completely replace customer service jobs? A: No, not completely. Verizon's CEO and Forrester both point to a large share of routine work moving to AI, especially simple, high-volume tasks. Complex cases, escalations, retention, and roles overseeing the AI itself are expected to stay human and even grow. The shift is toward fewer scripted seats and steadier demand for higher-judgment work. ### Q: Which customer service roles are safest from AI? A: Roles that handle complex, multi-step problems, require empathy or negotiation, and manage high-value customers are the most protected. So are jobs that supervise AI agents, audit their answers, and rescue conversations the bots cannot handle. The safest career move is shifting from scripted, repetitive tasks toward work that depends on human judgment. ### Q: How can customer service workers prepare for AI? A: Build expertise in the hardest cases, learn to supervise and correct AI tools, and develop adjacent skills like account management, retention, and technical support. Document the outcomes you drive, such as saved accounts, to prove value beyond raw call volume. Reskilling on your own timeline keeps the most leverage as employers automate. Future-proof your career with [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), AI-powered tools that help you adapt and thrive. 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