All Lloyds Call Centres could be closed in the next 5 years because of artificial intelligence (AI) according to Mr. Rohit Dhawan, Director of AI and Advanced Analytics, Lloyds Banking Group.
Speaking at a conference on AI in London a few weeks ago, Mr. Dhawan said:
“I can talk about what we are doing at Lloyds,’ Dhawan said. ‘There are a lot of changes in the back-office systems, [but] we have a view that in five years’ time 80% of customer interactions will be managed by AI.’
‘Now, that has an impact on [things like] call centres. Call centres might just cease to exist, right?’ he added.”
According to the report of the conference, he then went on to say:
“Asked later in the panel which area of development he was most excited by when it came to AI, Dhawan said unequivocally customer service ‘agents’.
He has previously said ‘AI agents’ will be able to provide ‘personalised guidance’ for clients wanting to access financial products.”.
Many of the commentators at the conference were less bullish. Mr. Kiran Bharucha, Chief Digital Officer at Aviva, said that he was less confident than Mr. Dhawan for fear of pushing ‘different customer segments’ into products or offerings that they simply did not want nor ‘trust’.
So, what are Lloyds doing to future proof telephony-based staff whose jobs are going to be lost to AI. What training and development opportunities is it putting in place to ensure that staff can access alternative roles in Lloyds? We have seen nothing so far. Assuming Mr Dhawan is right, a plan needs to be put in place now rather than waiting until staff are ready to be thrown on the scrap heap.
Interestingly, the Economist recently reported that AI was creating a ‘trough of disillusionment’ with many chief executives questioning the productivity benefits of their AI investments. According to S&P Global the share of companies abandoning most of their generative AI pilot projects has risen to 42% up from 7% last year. One of the main reasons is that many organisations are too scared that a bot will expose them to damaging mistakes or data breaches or both. You wouldn’t want to be the first financial service company that allows a bot to give mortgage or financial advice. If it goes wrong, a brand could be decimated overnight.
The Right To Be Protected
Members will be aware that one of the issues we deal with daily is abusive customers.
As part of our campaign to protect our members on the front-line, we recently wrote all MPs asking them to extend the new legal offence of assaulting a retail worker to include bank and building society staff.
In that letter we said:
“You will be aware that the standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker in England and Wales is being introduced as part of the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill. However, staff who work in bank and building society branches are not being given the same protections that are being created for other front-line retail workers. That is a major oversight in the legislation and needs to be changed.
We are the largest independent trade union representing staff in Lloyds Banking Group.
In a recent survey of our members working in branches, 77.82% said they had experienced abuse from customers in the last 12 months.
In respect of physical abuse, 45% of members reported being spat and 55% reported being attacked which could included being pulled, dragged, punched, hit, slapped and punched.
In terms of verbal abuse, which is usually a precursor to physical abuse, the results are just as bad.
Being shouted or screamed at: 90.52%
Being called names: 34.54%
Racial abuse: 11.06%
Sexual abuse/harassment: 3.16%
Being sworn at: 76.07%
Threatened with violence: 16.70%
All front-line staff deserve the protection of the law and that includes bank and building society branch staff. They have every right to feel safe at work. Many of your constituents are bank and building society workers and they deserve your support.”.
We also wrote to members of the Cabinet.
The Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson, DBE MP, Minister of State for Policing and Crime Prevention, said in a letter BTU that:
“To protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores, and to send a strong message to offenders and would-be offenders that violence against retail workers will not be tolerated, this Government has introduced a standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker.
This Government and the retail sector have long championed the new offence….
A tight definition of a ‘retail worker’ provides legal clarity and ensures there is less ambiguity for courts in identifying whether an individual is a retail worker and impacted during their job. The Government does not plan to include bank workers within the new offence.
We know the dedicated bank workers do, and the difficult situations in which they can find themselves, but there are no plans to include them as part of the standalone offence.”.
However, in her letter Dame Diana did say:
“We will use the parliamentary process to scrutinise the provisions in the Bill and will consider carefully amendments tabled as well as evidence put forward in support of such amendments.”.
The Union is working with several MPs to put together an amendment to Crime and Policing Bill to include bank and building society workers.
Members with any questions should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (Option 1).
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES IN HALIFAX & LLOYDS SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN LLOYDS BANKING GROUP.