The AI boom hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from hiring cheap offshore labor, and overseas call center employment is still skyrocketing

A man with a headset sits at a desk in a call center. (Credit: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg—Getty Images)

In September 2025, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the company slashed 4,000 customer service roles:“I need less heads,” Benioff said at the time.

But as more companies adopt agentic AI in hopes of replacing or making human workers more efficient, one top economist has noted customer service roles—particularly those overseas—are only growing.