the company that replaced 700 support staff with one ai is hiring people back.

you are being told the shift is simple: agents become staff, headcount comes down, the saving is yours. klarna ran that play in public. in february 2024 it said a single ai assistant was doing the work of 700 agents and had handled 2.3 million chats in its first month. then its own chief executive said the company went too far: complaints rose, satisfaction fell, and the saving had come straight out of the one thing support exists to protect, which is trust. the shift that matters is not whether a machine can answer. it is which answers you are willing to let it own. decide that in writing before you cut a single role: hand the agent the volume that is routine and reversible, and keep a human on anything a customer would leave you over.