Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, is eliminating 1,300 call centre positions because, according to CEO Chris O’Shea, most customers would rather talk to a chatbot than a human being.
The announcement, made on July 23, comes on top of 500 customer service roles already axed in June across various UK locations. That’s 1,800 jobs gone in roughly two months, all in the name of automation and efficiency. The company reported rising retail profits despite falling customer numbers.
The economics of replacing humans with bots
O’Shea’s defense of the cuts leans on consumer preference data suggesting households genuinely prefer AI interactions. The GMB union has publicly criticized Centrica for displacing workers with automated solutions, framing the cuts as a profit-driven decision dressed up in customer-experience language.
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