AI introduces a third, far more scalable lever: augmenting the people you already have.
Recent figures from McKinsey suggest that modern technologies could automate roughly 57 % of U. S. work hours.
They also emphasize a critical point: automation replaces tasks, not the human skills that define service interactions. Emotional intelligence, complex task management, active listening, and contextual reasoning remain essential, and these skills are what contact center agents perform every day.
What AI really changes is which tasks humans spend their time on. Instead of toggling across systems or decoding policies mid-call, agents can now focus on the conversations and decisions that actually shape the customer experience( CX).
This shift increases the value of agents, both onshore and offshore, in handling:
• Multi-step reasoning.
• Complex scenarios.
• High-emotion interactions.
• Compliance-heavy requests.
• Fraud-sensitive workflows.
These scenarios require agents to track large amounts of information, follow nuanced workflows, and quickly interpret context.
Driving this shift is that customer journeys have become more fragmented, with interactions now spanning five or more channels, up from two or three just a few years ago.
That means agents must manage more complex scenarios, more exceptions, and more tools: thereby pushing cognitive loads beyond what humans can reliably maintain at scale.
This rising complexity is exactly what sets up the case for operationalizing AI in the call center, which I will discuss later in this article, both onshore and offshore.
AI REMOVES OFFSHORE FRICTION, NOT JOBS
At first glance, it’ s natural to assume that if AI makes agents faster and self-service more capable, offshore BPOs might lose ground.
Offshore centers often carry a reputation( fairly or not) for slower navigation, communication friction, and inconsistent outcomes tied to system or knowledge limitations.
Historically, their agents faced disadvantages unrelated to talent:
• Unfamiliar or fragmented systems.
• Heavy multitasking under pressure.
• Unclear workflows or exception paths.
• Inconsistent policy documentation.
• Linguistic phrasing or formatting differences that slowed clarity.
Offshore programs often scale rapidly, and training cannot keep pace with constant updates, policy nuances, or new exceptions. Fragmented systems introduce extra seconds( or minutes) into every step. Also, cultural or phrasing differences can slow comprehension even when English proficiency is strong.
All of this lands in a service environment where customer frustration is breaking records. According to The Wall Street Journal, 77 % of customers now report experiencing a service problem. And their biggest complaints mirror these very friction points:
• Long waits.
• Unclear processes.
• Interactions that feel harder than they should.
Over thousands of interactions, those frictions add up to longer handle times, higher variability, and greater cognitive strain.
This is exactly where AI shifts the equation. It reduces or eliminates many of these friction points. Modern agent-assist tools can:
BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
• Auto-retrieve information across systems.
• Guide next steps in real time.
• Summarize context instantly.
• Reduce cognitive load.
• Ensure consistent adherence to policy.
• Flag risk before it escalates.
In effect, AI levels the playing field by removing the operational barriers that once created gaps between onshore and offshore teams.
As interactions grow more complex and journeys become more fragmented, organizations increasingly need tools that help agents manage volume, variability, and multi-system complexity.
Companies using AI-assisted workflows see meaningful improvements in speed and accuracy: gains that are essential for global operations where consistency is paramount. Customers care less about where an agent sits and more about whether their issues are resolved quickly, clearly, and accurately.
ONSHORING POLITICS VS. SERVICE ECONOMICS
Political interest in reshoring contact center and IT support work has grown, especially as concerns about data security and AI-driven fraud increase.
• In 2025, Congress renewed calls for reshoring and limiting offshoring through the proposed“ Keep Call Centers in America Act,” which also signaled a desire for more oversight of AI-driven interactions.
• In March 2026, the FCC issued a notice seeking comments for proposed rules on reshoring contact centers, requiring standard American English by agents, and on combatting illegal calls from other countries.
But the practical underlying economics haven’ t changed.
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