Imagine a customer-service center that can communicate in any language, no matter what it is.

Alorica, a company based in Irvine, California, with customer-service centers globally, has introduced an AI translation tool enabling its representatives to interact with customers in 200 languages and 75 dialects.

For instance, a representative fluent only in Spanish can now handle inquiries from a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong without needing to hire a Cantonese-speaking employee.

This illustrates the power of AI—and the potential concern that it might reduce the need for workers if chatbots can manage the workload. However, Alorica isn’t reducing its workforce; it continues to hire actively.

Alorica’s approach—and that of other companies like IKEA—suggests AI may not be the job killer some fear. Historically, technological advancements like the steam engine, electricity, and the internet have both displaced and created jobs, enhancing overall worker productivity and benefiting the economy.

Nick Bunker, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, believes AI will impact many jobs, possibly every job indirectly, but doesn’t foresee mass unemployment. Past technological shifts haven’t led to significant rises in unemployment, as technology both destroys and creates jobs.

AI’s core function is to enable machines to perform tasks previously thought to require human intelligence. Early AI emerged with the Logic Theorist computer program from the 1950s, and more recent examples include voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, and IBM’s chess-playing computer Deep Blue. The breakthrough in AI’s public awareness came with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, a tool capable of generating text, coding, composing music, and more. Despite fears that AI will replace various professions, including freelance writing and customer service, such widespread job displacement hasn’t occurred yet.

According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, there’s little evidence AI will negatively affect overall employment. Historical trends show technology typically boosts productivity, fosters economic growth, and creates new job types. A study by MIT economist David Autor revealed that 60% of jobs Americans held in 2018 didn’t exist in 1940, having been created by subsequent technological innovations.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm that monitors job cuts, has not observed a significant impact on layoffs directly tied to AI advancements.

Andy Challenger, head of the firm’s sales team, noted, “We haven’t seen companies claiming they’ve cut costs or jobs due to AI yet. It might happen in the future, but it hasn’t materialized so far.”

Nevertheless, the concern about AI potentially threatening certain job categories is valid. For instance, Suumit Shah, an Indian entrepreneur, drew attention last year by replacing 90% of his customer support staff with an AI chatbot named Lina. This shift at Shah’s company, Dukaan, which assists with setting up e-commerce sites, dramatically reduced response times and problem resolution from over two hours to just three minutes, slashing support costs by 85%.

Shah described the improvement as “upgrading from a Corolla to a Tesla,” noting that tasks now take minutes instead of hours, with much higher accuracy.

A study from Harvard Business School, the German Institute for Economic Research, and Imperial College Business School found that job postings for writers, coders, and artists declined shortly after ChatGPT’s introduction. A 2023 study by Princeton, Penn, and NYU identified telemarketers and language teachers as most at risk from AI. However, exposure to AI doesn’t necessarily mean job loss; it can also automate routine tasks, allowing humans to focus on more creative work.

For example, IKEA’s 2021 introduction of a customer-service chatbot for basic inquiries did not lead to job cuts. Instead, the company retrained 8,500 workers to handle complex tasks like interior design advice. Similarly, a study by Stanford and MIT on 5,200 customer-support agents found that those using AI tools became 14% more productive, with the greatest gains seen among less experienced workers.

At an Alorica call center in Albuquerque, AI tools reduced average call handling time from over eight minutes to six minutes, allowing agents to handle more calls per hour. The company’s Real-time Voice Language Translation tool helps agents manage calls in various languages without needing to hire multilingual staff.

Despite these advancements, Alorica continues to expand its workforce, focusing on hiring individuals skilled in new technologies. As Rene Paiz, Alorica’s VP of customer service, explained, “We are still actively hiring. There’s a lot of work to be done.”